SNS GroupBrendan Rodgers is back in the Celtic hot seat and aiming to continue the team’s domination of domestic competition.
He has been confirmed as Ange Postecoglou’s successor as Celtic boss and tasked with following the Australian’s success as the team won the Premiership title and both cups last season.
It is no easy job for any manager but Rodgers showed he had the golden touch at Parkhead before, winning all seven domestic competitions available in his time in Glasgow.
We have taken a look at how he won each trophy in an unprecedented spell of success.
2016 League Cup
There’s nothing like instant success and six months after walking in the door at Celtic Park, Rodgers lifted silverware.
Celtic had begun their run in the competition with a 5-0 demolition of Motherwell at Parkhead. Moussa Dembele and Tom Rogic helped themselves to two goals each, with Scott Sinclair also on the scoresheet.
That set up a home quarter-final against Alloa but the Championship side gave a good account of themselves and it took late goals from James Forrest and Dembele to ensure progress to the semi-finals.
Dembele was the man who made the difference in a hard-fought derby against Rangers in the last four, scoring in the 87th minute to break the deadlock.
Aberdeen were the opposition in the final but they were no match for a Celtic side who had already hit their stride under Rodgers. Rogic opened the scoring after 16 minutes and Forrest doubled their lead after the half hour mark. Dembele wrapped up the scoring with a second half penalty and Celtic enjoyed their first trophy celebrations with the Northern Irishman at the helm and the 100th major trophy in their history.
2016-17 Premiership title
Rodgers guided Celtic to the title in his first season but the style with which it was achieved made it a particularly special achievement.
The trophy was secured with a 5-0 win over Hearts at Tynecastle on April 2, the score underlining how Celtic were more than a cut above the rest and leaving them uncatchable with eight games left to play.
At that point, Rodgers’ side had only dropped points in two games, drawing with Inverness and Rangers, and the team would go on to win six and draw two of their remaining matches, going an entire league season undefeated to earn the ‘Invincibles’ tag.
Celtic won the league by thirty points over nearest rivals Aberdeen, scored 106 and conceded only 25 and racked up 106 points in the 38-game season.
2017 Scottish Cup
With the Premiership and the League Cup in the bag, only the Scottish Cup remained for a history-making season.
Rodgers had guided Celtic through early rounds with comfortable wins over Albion Rovers, Inverness and St Mirren and into the last four.
Rivals Rangers lay in wait but goals from Callum McGregor and Scott Sinclair settled the contest at Hampden and lined up another meeting with Aberdeen in the final.
The Dons took the lead through Jonny Hayes after just nine minutes but Celtic equalised with a Stuart Armstrong goal two minutes later.
Rodgers’ debut season ended with drama and celebration when Tom Rogic fired a low shot past Joe Lewis in stoppage time to win the cup, the Treble and complete a season without defeat in Scottish competition.
2017 League Cup
Having won the Treble, the next job was to defend it, and a strong start to the season saw Celtic cruise to the final.
Kilmarnock were thumped 5-0 in Glasgow, Celtic travelled to Dens Park to beat Dundee 4-0 in the quarter-final and Hibs were defeated 4-2 in the semi-final at Hampden.
Motherwell gave their all to try and wrest the trophy away from the holders but James Forrest and Moussa Dembele scored in the second half to spark now familiar celebrations for Rodgers, his players and staff at the national stadium.
2017/18 Premiership title
Repeating the ‘Invincibles’ unbeaten league season was a tall order but Celtic gave it their best shot and lasted until mid-December before suffering defeat, crashing to a 4-0 loss at Hearts.
That didn’t put Rodgers’ side off their stride and they powered through the defence of the title.
The team sealed their league triumph in style, defeating Rangers 5-0 at Celtic Park with Odsonne Edouard scoring twice and Forrest, Rogic and McGregor all finding the net as Celtic clinched the title in a derby for the first time in 39 years.
The numbers couldn’t match the record of the previous year, with Celtic delivering 82 points, nine ahead of Aberdeen, but their dominance of domestic football was underlined with more silverware.
2018 Scottish Cup
With five trophies already to his name, Rodgers made history in the Scottish Cup final, becoming the first manager to guide a team to back-to-back Trebles in Scotland.
The campaign began with a 5-0 win over Brechin City, and the team saw off a dogged Partick Thistle side with a 3-2 win in the fifth round. Morton were defeated 3-0 in the quarter-final to set up another Old Firm encounter at Hampden in the final four.
Celtic delivered an emphatic 4-0 win over their rivals, with Rogic, McGregor, Dembele and Olivier Ntcham all netting as the team cruised into another final.
Once again Motherwell were the opposition, and again the Fir Park side couldn’t live with Celtic’s strength. McGregor and Ntcham scored early goals and Rodgers saw his side complete a second successive clean sweep of domestic trophies.
2019 League Cup
Celtic began the 2018-19 season the same way they had started the previous two under Rodgers: making a run to the final of the League Cup.
Away wins at Partick Thistle and St Johnstone had taken the holders to the semi-finals, where a convincing 3-0 win over Hearts meant they would get a chance to complete a hat-trick of Betfred Cup victories.
The final was hard-fought and only one goal separated Celtic and Aberdeen, Ryan Christie’s strike at the end of the first half ensuring that the holders kept the trophy.
It was to be the last time Rodgers lifted silverware in his time as manager, the former Liverpool boss collecting seven winners’ medals from seven competitions before leaving in February 2019.
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
