Brendan Rodgers returns to manage Celtic

Football

Published: 20 Jun. 2023, 15:39 Updated: 20 Jun. 2023, 17:35

Brendan Rodgers returns to manage Celtic

Brendan Rodgers looks on during a Europa League Group B match between FC Salzburg and Celtic at the Arena in Salzburg, Austria on Oct. 4, 2018. [AP/YONHAP]

Celtic have confirmed the return of Brendan Rodgers as the club’s manager on a three-year contract, replacing Ange Postecoglou who joined Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month.

Rodgers formerly managed Celtic from 2016 to 2019, joining the club after a three-year stint with Liverpool. He led Celtic to an undefeated season in 2016 and won consecutive domestic trebles before moving to Leicester City in February 2019.

“I am really delighted to return to Celtic and I am hugely excited by this great opportunity,” Rodgers said. “When I was given the privilege of being asked to join the club again, it was a very simple decision for me and my family.

“We have enjoyed some great times at Celtic before and this will be my goal again, to deliver good football, ensure we have a team we all love to watch and ultimately bring more success to our fans.”

Rodgers inherits a very different team from Postecoglou, who had spent nearly all of his coaching career in Japan and Australia, to the one he left behind four years ago, with a large increase in players from the Asia-Pacific region.

By the end of the 2022-23 season, Celtic had seven players in the first team from the Asia-Pacific region — Kyogo Furuhashi, Yuki Kobayashi, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Tomoki Iwati from Japan, Oh Hyeon-gyu from Korea and Aaron Mooy from Australia — as well as Japanese midfielder Yosuki Ideguchi currently out on loan.

All eight of those players joined Celtic during Postecoglou’s two years in charge, with Oh added during the January transfer window this year.

Celtic's Oh Hyeon-gyu celebrates scoring his side's second goal during a Scottish Premiership match against Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh on May 7. [AP/YONHAP]

Rodgers will be assisted at Celtic by John Kennedy, a former player for the club who has worked as a coach for the first team since 2014. He was promoted to assistant manager in 2019 and had a brief spell as caretaker manager in 2021 before Postecoglou joined the club.

Postecoglou is understood to have wanted to take Kennedy with him to Tottenham, but the return of Rodgers seems to have persuaded the Scottish coach to stay put. Postecoglou will have to look elsewhere as he puts together his own coaching staff at Tottenham this summer.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]