Brendan Rodgers must be Celtic contract priority as Hoops hero Marc Rieper warns of disruption he'll never forget

Daily Record

2 days ago

The Hoops manager is set to sit down with Dermot Desmond in the coming weeks with his own situation among the items on the agenda.
Marc Rieper knows only too well the dressing room disruption that can be caused by a manager leaving amid a period of success.
The big Dane has been both a beneficiary and a victim of much-loved gaffers cutting ties with their clubs suddenly and with drastic consequences.
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That's why the former Celtic defender reckons the best bit of business the Hoops could do this summer would be to tie Brendan Rodgers down beyond the end of his deal in 12 months' time.
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Rodgers will sit down with Parkhead supremo Dermot Desmond in the coming weeks and pour over a wide range of topics ahead of the new season.
And chief among them is his own situation as he enters the third and final year of his deal.
It may be a while off but uncertainty over what happens beyond next May is already reverberating through the fanbase. The longer the issue drags on the more it threatens to become an unwelcome sideshow.
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Rieper knows that can never be allowed to filter into the dressing room. He felt both sides of it not long after being signed for Celtic from West Ham by Wim Jansen in 1997.
Midway through that first season and with Rangers chasing 10-in-a-row, the Ibrox club announced Walter Smith would be leaving at the end of the season.
Not only did the Ibrox juggernaught hit the skids as Rangers blew their chance of history, they ended the season empty handed as Jansen's Celts stormed to one of the most important titles in Parkhead history.
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Yet just 48 hours after securing the championship Jansen dropped the bombshell that he too was off, due to a breakdown in relationship with the club hierarchy.
Rieper will never forget the disruption that caused to the squad who would finish the next season empty handed. And it's why he hopes there's an extended deal agreed for Rodgers when the Northern Irishman sits down to chew the fat with Desmond.
Rieper said: 'It's always important when you've had a good run and the manager is liked by everyone that you try to stick with him.
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'Obviously, that's for them to find out. I'm sure Brendan Rodgers is a popular guy at other clubs as well.
'But it'll be important for Celtic to try and keep the consistency.
'You could see what happened when I played at Celtic in 1997-98. Back then we had Wim and Murdo MacLeod as assistant and suddenly one day after we won the league they decided to quit.
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'It just disrupted the whole of the next season.
'We had a togetherness with the team and with the management and in that case there seemed no real reason for him to stop.
'Obviously he had his reasons, but it was something that was really difficult to understand.
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'Although we had some good people coming in and Josef Venglos as manager it was really difficult for them to create that togetherness so quickly.
'Even though you try to get a manager that's got the same philosophy and style of play, it's always different.
'So it's very important that you have the consistency and you keep the uncertainty away from the players and fans.'
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Smith's departure from Rangers that same summer was nowhere near as sudden having been announced in the October. But the effect it had at Ibrox during those eight months was every bit as devastating. Paul Gascoigne left before the end of the season followed by Brian Laudrup.
Rieper said: 'Again, that was uncertainty. It wasn't just the manager who left. Some of the players, they sort of thought 'maybe it's time for us to move on as well'.
'That's bound to create uncertainty in the dressing room and with the fans, you don't get as much credit if you perform badly for a game or two. You feel it straight away from the crowd.
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'So it's really important that you've got a settled dressing room and a settled management.'
Rodgers won't be around forever, of course. But he has given '200 per cent' assurances he won't leave midway through his third term just as he did in his first spell in charge.
But with speculation over what could come at the end of the season already in overdrive, the concern is his own situation could become a weekly soap opera.
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Rieper said: 'Yeah, that can happen. It would have been good to have it sorted by now. But they've both got their reasons why not to do that.
'Hopefully they'll figure something out.'
No matter what, Rodgers will be in the hotseat next season and has already set out his targets - primarily to dominate domestically again and be competitive in the Champions League.
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Rieper was impressed with what he saw of his old club last season.
But he reckons the hurt of the Scottish Cup Final defeat to Aberdeen and missing out on the Treble will be fuel to their desire to do even better next year.
He said: 'I think they are players who've got that hunger anyway.
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'It's difficult but they will definitely try and win everything on a domestic level. Then obviously do well in the Champions League as well.
'That's probably the most important thing for players who've won as much as they have - to do well in Europe. That's massive.
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'They've had a really good season. I know they slipped up in the cup final, but still it's a good season.
'When you've won two things and you're a massive favourite to win the third, it's obviously disappointing.
'But it's still a fantastic season, well above par.'
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Meanwhile, Rieper insists Celtic are in safe hands with Kasper Schmeichel - even if the veteran keeper's best years are in the past.
The 38-year-old dropped a clanger in the Scottish Cup Final defeat to Aberdeen. But it was a rare blot on an otherwise impressive season that saw Schmeichel keep 24 clean sheets including six-in-a-row to begin the Premiership season.
The 113-times capped Denmark legend's form for the national team saw him harshly criticised in his homeland.
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But fellow Dane Rieper - who won 61 caps and the majority of them alongside Schmeichel's dad Peter - reckons the former Leicester keeper will prove he's still far from finished next season.
He said: 'The best games of his career are probably behind him now. But he's still a top class keeper and he'll be great for Celtic next season as well.
'Kasper has had an unbelievable career, from obviously being in the shadow of his dad to then just making a name for himself.
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'He's not played in as big clubs as Peter has. But the way he's performed for the clubs he has and winning the league with Leicester, which is probably one of the biggest achievements in British football history, I think he's had an amazing career.
'You can only just take your hat off for him and be proud of what he's achieved, both in the clubs he's played for and with the Danish national team. He's been tremendous.
'We've got some young talent coming through in Denmark who's eventually going to take over Kasper's spot.
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'Is that going to be now or is that going to be in a year's time? I don't know, I think they're all good keepers.
'We've got Filip Jørgensen at Chelsea who's just won the Conference League and who's performed really well.
'We've got a few keepers in Germany who are playing regularly too. But I'm sure there's a few caps left for Kasper.'
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Denmark and Scotland are vying for a World Cup spot when the qualifiers kick off in September. Steve Clarke takes his side to Copenhagen for the opening match on September 5 before the Danes head to Glasgow for what could be a do-or-die concluding fixture on November 18.
Rieper will be at Hampden for that one. But there's no split loyalties when it comes to the outcome. He said: 'Oh it'll be red and white for me!
'It should be a good game, both sides have a lot of quality. It really is hard to tell who will come out on top.
'I'm coming over with a group of people and we're going to have a tour of Celtic Park. So that's going to be good. It's been a couple of years since I last visited.'