Rodgers reveals first day of pre-season and his plans

Brendan Rodgers has revealed the first day the players will be in for pre-season and beginning their preparations for the Champions League qualifiers.

The only player who won’t be expected to return to Celtic Park by June 20th will be Mikael Lustig, who will still be on international duty for Sweden.

Rodgers has already begun the work of trimming a bloated squad with a number of departures expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks – including Colin-Kazim Richards, Carlton Cole and Stefan Scepovic.

Speaking exclusively to Celtic TV, he said:

I spoke to a number players on the phone also, so it’s been good. I’m really looking forward to the 20th, the first day back in and getting to meet all the players and talk through how we are going to forward.

We’ll (the staff) be in on and off up until that point and the staff will continually work in preparation. Then the hard work begins and it’ll be a long and tough season but I think it’s going to be a really exciting one.

Chris Davies left his role at Reading to join the 43-year-old as Celtic as his assistant – having previously worked under Rodgers at Reading, Swansea and Liverpool.

The former Reading first-team boss was in charge of analysing opposing teams at Liverpool and could hold a similar role with the Hoops.

Celtic’s new Head of Performance, Glen Driscoll, held the same role under Rodgers at Swansea and Liverpool and oversaw the sports science and physiotherapy side of the game whilst Rodgers was at Reading.

Driscoll also has previous experience at Chelsea under managers such as Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Carlo Ancelotti, dealing with performance, fitness and conditioning, physiotherapy and injury prevention.

This trio’s familiarity and experience in working with one another is in stark contrast to Ronny Deila’s backroom staff, who were seemingly hand picked for him.