BRENDAN RODGERS has reserved very special praise for one of his former Celtic players as the Irishman sits from afar.
History will shape the former Celtic manager’s time at the club as the years go by. However, right now, what we can say for certain is his time won’t be known for the amount of great business Celtic did in the transfer market. It will be much more associated with Brendan Rodgers building up players who were already at the club.
The prime example would be James Forrest and that’s why Rodgers has reserved special praise for him when he spoke to RecordSport. Forrest was heading for the door at Parkhead with his contract running down and he was a source of frustration among a lot of the support. It seems a long time ago now but if you got one great James Forrest performance it would be followed by seven bad performances.
The former Celtic manager has given fans an insight on how James managed to turn things around.
“When I got to Celtic, James had only six months left on his contract and the feeling was he’d leave.
“He’d been inconsistent for a couple of years, in terms of his form and his training between games.
“He didn’t have the consistency but always had the quality. He’s a remarkable player and I’ve always watched him from the outside.
“It was just about trying to maximise that and bring more efficiency to his game.
“James had the talent but the season before I arrived he’d only scored two goals. The year before that it was four.
“But we got him right physically then helped him mentally.
“He trained every day and enjoyed the work we did with him.
