'We Are Starting A New Book This Year. It's A New Chapter For Us'

'We Are Starting A New Book This Year. It's A New Chapter For Us'

- Mark Henderson

LAST season was one of the greatest in Celtic’s history and it will live long in the memory of the club’s supporters. In Brendan Rodgers’ first 12 months at the helm he made history as the Bhoys went through the entire domestic campaign unbeaten and secured a first treble in 16 years.

The pre-season trip to Austria provided time for pause and reflection on these remarkable achievements, but for the manager and his players, the book has now been shut on the past 12 months. The focus at Celtic is firmly on the future and striving for fresh targets as a new season dawns in Paradise.

“When you have such a great season, what’s important is that you can reflect upon on that,” explained the manager in his first exclusive interview with the Celtic View of the 2017/18 season. “At the end of the season we couldn’t do that as everyone had split up and gone, so once we were away in Austria it was important we talked through it.

“The players went in and had a workshop, which was absolutely brilliant, and they came back with some great feedback. They talked about what makes it special to be here and what were the key elements to our success last season – it’s important you understand your strengths – and we looked at what the challenges can be for us this season, and then we pulled it all together in terms of our goals and what we want to achieve.

“It was important in order to reflect for the players who went through that last season, but it was also good for players who had come in, like Jonny Hayes, to see and also to get his input as well, having faced us six times last year – what were his feelings when they were playing against us.

“We focused on that but we are starting a new book this year, it’s a new chapter for us and we want to ensure we can be the very best we possibly can be.”