Brendan Rodgers this week, after a professional if uninspired 2-0 against Motherwell, stated his desire to see Parkhead endowed with a new, state of the art, hybrid football pitch. This type of field is deployed by some of the biggest clubs on the planet, most notably Arsenal.
Having been exposed to life in the money rich lands to the south, Rodgers has grown accustomed to a more advanced style of footballing life. Diet, nutrition, tactical concepts, training methods and yes, even the type of grass used on the pitch, have all been highlighted for an evolution. Day by day Rodgers will improve the club, from playing staff to infrastructure, nothing is too minute to be overlooked. Rodgers will drag the club forward until it sits in alignment with the game’s upper echelons.
The Gaffer recently said, “It’s an old pitch here, so we need to modernise the field. We actually go away to some grounds and play better because the pitch is better.”
When referencing the, apparently baffling, need for a new surface, many radio personalities and pundits have assumed it is little more than a power-play from Rodgers. In reality, however, it is quite different.
Brendan Rodgers has many qualities, clairvoyance, sadly, is not one of them. What he can predict however, is the nature of fandom. The oohs and aahs are abundantly clear now, ringing around the stadium in a cacophony of unbridled joy, but after a season or two of this complete and utter domination will the excitement diminish? Time will inevitably make the marvellous mundane. Rodgers knows that results, however miraculous, need to be accompanied with a style of play that will continue to draw in capacity crowds. This proposed hybrid pitch, allied with more shrewd investment into the playing staff, will ensure that aesthetically pleasing football will continue to be deployed.
Scottish football has been in dire need of an injection of fresh, innovative ideas, and in the Gaffer, these are provided with eye-opening regularity. So, let’s forget the derision and mock scorn of the media and embrace the next era of Celtic.
BEN DELANEY
