What Brendan Rodgers did after Celtic title party at Parkhead as he names one thing that surprised him most

Brendan Rodgers was back in his house in the early hours of Thursday morning watching a rerun of his side’s sensational surge across the Premiership finishing line at Rugby Park.

But his mind wandered back to a day etched in his mind. Saturday, August 26, 2023. Celtic had just been held at home to a St Johnstone side on the verge of punting Steven MacLean having been dumped out of the Viaplay Cup just six days earlier. There was anger pouring down from the Celtic Park stands, savage headlines in the newspapers and radio phone-ins were ringing off the hook.

Rodgers may have remained a calm figure in public but he knew he was in the eye of a storm. He admits now some of the criticism stung – but he refused to buckle and always kept the faith that others were losing at a rate of knots. And that is what will make this Saturday lunchtime even sweeter when he raises the silverware yet again. Rodgers said: “Listen, I’m not made of wood. We all have feelings, and we are all obviously built in different ways. I feel that I can deal with pressure and those situations, but it still doesn’t make you immune to everything.

“But I think what experience has given me is not to become too emotional with words, and there’s been lots of that. I can trace back to August, whenever the headlines were around that I’m under massive pressure – and this is on August 26.

“That has continued right the way through with various people having their say, and that’s the modern world and this game. But for me, I had to show a mental strength, like the team has had to do. “And eventually, the work that we do, the processes that we have in place, have come through in the end. It has been a challenging season in ways I didn’t think it would be.”

Rodgers is