Brendan Rodgers relishing challenge as he targets another Celtic trophy haul

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is relishing the expectation of following up on the club’s latest treble-winning season as he declared he had “unfinished business” in Scottish football.

Rodgers started an incredible run of Celtic winning five trebles in seven seasons when he first arrived in Glasgow in the summer of 2016.

He returns on the back of Ange Postecoglou becoming the third manager to achieve the clean sweep during that run and he did not shy away from the lofty ambitions during his first pre-match media conference of the season.

Ahead of Saturday’s cinch Premiership opener against Ross County, Rodgers addressed the challenge of following up on an impressive campaign which saw Celtic lose only one domestic game before clinching the title.

“I sit here with the knowledge of doing it twice, so I understand what the pitfalls of success are,” said Rodgers, who won all seven trophies he competed for in Scotland first time round.

“In order to have long-term success there are certain elements you need to make sure you guard against. That’s something we have spoken about over pre-season.

“For a club like Celtic it’s always about winning, but winning in the best way that you possibly can.

“That is sometimes harder. When we did the treble the second time, we didn’t amass the same amount of points. Our game wasn’t maybe quite at the same level, but we turned up in the big games and did what we needed to do.

“That will be the idea this season again, to win three trophies, it’s an incredible achievement. But it’s a new season, new motivation and new desires. I am looking forward to challenging for every trophy again.”

Rodgers stressed the need to impose themselves again on the title race rather than hold on to what they had.

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“The mentality is, rather then defend it, we want to win it,” he said. “That’s key, we start everything afresh. It was a great achievement last year and years leading up to that but everyone starts with no points at the beginning of the season.

“That’s the excitement for me of coming back here. I always felt I had unfinished business here when I left. But I am so happy to be here and really happy to take on that pressure and expectation that comes from managing Celtic.”

Celtic have added five new signings after losing only one key player, Jota, since Rodgers took over, but the manager is keen to make sure they do not stand still.

“There are clear positions that are priorities that we would like to improve on but the team and the squad was in a really good position,” the former Leicester manager said. “I was fresh in so I needed to assess that over a period of time.

“Over time we will look to improve the squad further because it’s the best time to do it, whenever you have had success, because success is that moving target.

“It keeps moving and the challenges this year will be even greater, so we have to ensure we have a squad that can match that.”

Both Cameron Carter-Vickers and Anthony Ralston could feature against County after getting their first 45 minutes of pre-season action against Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday following injury.

“Both those players came through really well during the week which is great news for us,” Rodgers said.

“They are back with the squad. They probably aren’t as up to speed as some of the other boys but they still look in very good condition, so we will take a look at them on Friday.”