Brendan Rodgers stands up in front of Celtic dressing room to throw down a major challenge

The Hoops manager dropped several bombshells and made something clear to his players

Callum McGregor insists Brendan Rodgers is as fired up as ever to keep Celtic on the trophy trail.

The Hoops manager dropped several bombshells in his pre-match press conference ahead of Kilmarnock tomorrow.

Rodgers let rip after a dramatic fortnight, branding a back-stabbing club insider a coward who should resign, admitting the transfer window was a failure and revealing he’d love to stay at Celtic but still had not been offered a new deal.

The Irishman had been accused of working his ticket but McGregor is convinced his gaffer is as committed as ever.

He said: “When I see him, he loves the club, he loves being here, I think he loves the intensity of it as well.

“I think he gets certain people who come alive in the intensity and the pressure of it, and he’s certainly one of them.

"And like I said, he stood up here this morning and he threw the challenge to the players.

“I can see that he’s hungry, I can see that he wants the team back on track, pressing, running hard, playing fast football, so for me, all the signs are there that he’s still really, really motivated to do a good job here.

“I think he’s good, he’s come back in this week, he’s just trying to reinforce what’s good about the team, how the team functions, when we’re at our best, and he’s demanding that from the players.

“So there’s a real hunger there, I think, to really start well at the weekend and then go on a run of performances and wins. He’s throwing the challenge to the players in that sense.

“Everybody’s really excited about this next four or five weeks especially. Can we start really strong, can we go on a nice little run? And then I’m pretty sure the thing will come to life at that point.”

Raging Celtic supporters are set to protest at Kilmarnock tomorrow afternoon with a section of fans planning to hold off entering Rugby Park until the 12th minute.

McGregor admitted he gets the unrest following the failed window but is hoping the rift can be healed.

He said: “Obviously I can understand the supporters’ frustration and everybody’s got their own opinion. Everybody’s got the right to voice their opinion. I’ve got absolutely no problem with that.

“But this club is far stronger when everyone’s on the same page, everybody’s pushing in the right direction.

“And that’s what makes this club special, is the supporters and how they back the team.

“Over a long period of time, we’ve had success because of that as well. So I don’t want us to lose track of all the success that we’ve had and why we’ve been successful.

“We have to continue that because I think ultimately a club divided is not a good thing for the team and the club.”

The captain will make sure the outside noise doesn’t damage the dressing room.

New recruits Kelechi Iheanacho and Seb Tounekti are in line for debuts while full backs Kieran Tierney and Tony Ralston are expected to miss out through injury.

McGregor said: “I think that is one of the biggest jobs, is just trying to remain focused on the team, the performance, how the team structure looks.

“And ultimately, if we can get that bit right, we’ll then go on and have really good performances and really good results, which will then start to bring the thing back to life again and hopefully move everybody in the right direction.

”Everybody’s obviously on social media, they’re on their phones constantly, so I’m pretty sure everybody will have seen it. We’ll probably talk briefly about it on Saturday.

“But the thing that me and my senior players have to do is set the tone, set the standards, set the level for the group and try and let them not think about it too much.

“They have to think about performance – obviously we have to as well – but us being senior players we can control a little bit more than that.

“So we have to control the energy in the group, keep everybody calm, everybody understands the role that they’re asked to do in the team and as long as everybody does that, then hopefully we’ll be successful, we’ll win games of football and then everybody will start to feel better about themselves.

“The job of the players is to bring the new guys together.”

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