Brendan Rodgers has delivered a clear message to the Celtic board – show ambition to drive the club forward or he will not extend his contract.
Rodgers is entering the final season of his three-year deal and told principal shareholder Dermot Desmond and chief executive Michael Nicholson that he is not interested in performing a maintenance job.
The Celtic manager reiterated he would be going nowhere of his own volition before his contract expires but his long-term future remains unclear.
Asked about his contract situation ahead of Celtic’s Premiership opener against St Mirren on Sunday, Rodgers said: “Dermot and Michael and I had a conversation over the summer on where we were at.
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“I said: ‘I’m very happy here’. There’s conditions we want to be able to improve and be better because I’m not the type of manager that’s good at maintaining anything. If it’s just something to maintain, I’m not the manager of Celtic. It’ll be someone else.
“But to build and grow and develop and push, then of course I love being at Celtic. I’m not the one that’s going to sit here and just maintain levels. My commitment here to Celtic is this is a really fast-moving club and you have to keep moving, move quickly.
“It’s one of the biggest clubs in world football. It has a demand and an expectation on it and the only way you get better within that is by improving and developing.”
Rodgers stressed he was not saying the club had to match his own ambition.
“I don’t want to be really arrogant to say that,” he said. “Celtic clearly has an expectation and should have an expectation because of the size of the club we are, and what the demands are here.
“What I’m saying, for clarity, I love being here. And, yes, there’s been some challenges on and off the pitch since I’ve arrived, but that’s management, that’s coaching. But in the main, I’ve absolutely loved it here and I will continue to do so however long that is. But like I said, there has to be that ambition from everyone.
“In terms of my situation, I’m relaxed on it only because I know what I give every single day. And if the club choose to offer (a contract) and see that as the way forward, great. If not, it doesn’t really matter to me in relation to what I give to the job.
“My ambition is for Celtic. It’s not for me. My ambition is for Celtic to be the best that it can be.
“I’ve been in the game quite a long time now. So I think I understand what we need to succeed. We did that last year. We brought in certain players that helped our profile when we moved into the Champions League. And those players really helped us in the Champions League.
“So my ambition now is to keep us going in that direction. And that’s what our conversations are about.”
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Rodgers has stressed the need to bolster their attacking options in recent weeks. Shin Yamada arrived as a belated replacement for Kyogo Furuhashi but the sale of Nicolas Kuhn to Como has compounded a lack of wide players following the long-term knee injury Jota suffered in May.
Rodgers said: “There’s no doubt I would have liked to have had players in now, but it’s not the case. I’m not going to kill my own joy and overthink. I focus on what’s here. We know the work that we need to do and it’s my responsibility to convince the club that we really need them.
“Clearly, I’m not doing that job as well as maybe what I can, but I will continue to pursue that because it’s something that’s really important for us.”
