The Celtic Boss Was Calm And Measured Today. His Opposite Number Was A Mess.

Today, the press conferences. The calm before the storm. The two leaders, in front of the hacks, with one last chance to speak over their heads to the fans. A chance to raise spirits and morale, a chance to inspire calm. A chance to project strength one last time before tomorrow. The Celtic boss sat and gave a coherent, measured display, a man relaxed. A man in total control. The same could not be said across the city. I’ll open by saying this; wow.

Rodgers followed the captain to the interview table, and before I get to Rodgers, I want to pay tribute to McGregor, who was tremendous.

He batted back against a journalist who claimed, erroneously, that he had admitted to getting too emotional following the game in April. “I don’t think I did,” McGregor said.

When the reporter corrected the record, he told McGregor that this comment had actually come from Todd Cantwell, who had suggested that he wanted to win that day more than McGregor had. If you’ve not seen the clip, seek it out. Watch the look that spreads across the captain’s face. It’s priceless. It says the many words he didn’t waste his breath on.

McGregor oozed confidence and looked absolutely unflappable. He handled every question with poise. When asked if he thought the supremacy we’ve enjoyed in recent years might have an adverse effect on the Ibrox club he waived aside the question. “You’d have to ask them,” he said. It was a perfect reply. He handled himself superbly.

Rodgers held court though.

He has most of the hacks eating out of his hand again, although not quite enough for them to vote him onto the manager of the year list. He knows how close he is now to making them cover another victory party; that will bring him immense satisfaction.

Early on, he echoed the sentiments of this morning’s article about his record against the Ibrox club. He knows it’s unimportant, and places no store in it having an influence. Deep down, he knows that it’s got to be intimidating, like a boxer’s record of wins by knockout. But as I wrote this morning, the best thing to do with that record is forget it, and thus add to it.

“I’ve got to be honest,” he said. “I go into every game and people will reference the record. But the mindset is to forget about what happened before. You can’t rely on that, it’s the preparation, the calmness of the team, the build-up to the games are relaxed but focused – and of course you have to perform.” Absolutely wonderful, that answer.

He refused to talk up Maeda at Tavernier’s expense; that was interesting because it shows that Rodgers is always thinking two or three moves ahead. He knew that any comment to the contrary would have been spun as further evidence of “disrespect.”

He brilliantly handled a question about Forrest and Maeda, praised Kyogo and professed that this game is no different than any other potential title decider he’s managed at our club. It was a master class in how to take care of an important press conference without giving the media a single thing to work with, and at the same time giving the fans an insight into what might happen tomorrow; the debate over whether Forrest and Maeda might both start was intriguing.

But he found time, too, to shoot back at Clement, and his barmy response to Rodgers’ comments last weekend after the Hearts game. Whatever else they might accuse Rodgers of, disrespect is impossible for them to substantiate, particularly as he had not even mentioned Clement or his team. He slapped back at those who suggested that his “have fun” comments meant he wasn’t taking the game seriously; Keith Jackson, anybody?

“I have seen some of the headlines around the ‘disrespect’ and whatever else but it is totally without merit,” he said. “It was never in that context being said, and I never would be that person to disrespect another manager or another team.”

Beautiful. Casually dismissive, but also revealing a controlled anger. Everything about Rodgers right now demonstrates his quality. The media has spent many months talking about the man across the city as having class and sophistication; they have somehow managed to ignore the genuine man of those talents who works at Celtic Park.

And what of his rival? Good God, you want to talk about a polar opposite?

First, he offered a pathetic dismissal of his own comments from last weekend, as though he woke up and realised that he had embarrassed himself. Not only was his response to the questions on that absurd, but it was also barely coherent.

“To have a comment on every comment that’s happening in this town, I don’t have many hours to finish with sleep!” he said. “I don’t have many so it’s of no use. So no, it’s just what I thought at the moment about that. Finished.”

And then he got quite ratty with a journalist who asked a follow up question, making it clear that he considers the matter closed.

Yet, he did comment on Rodgers remarks. He’s already taken the bait. He might want the issue parked, but he opened the debate up in the first place and so his efforts to dismiss it as if someone else came up with this sound wretched. This was not the media or anyone at Celtic who kicked this story off … that was him, the words that started it came out of his own mouth.

And you know what else came out of his mouth today?

“The more people boo or shout at you, the more they are afraid their team doesn’t get a result, it works that way,” he said. Did you know it worked that way? “In a way the more they boo tomorrow, the stronger my team are gonna get.” If that’s true, how come they melt like ice cream left on a radiator when it’s their own fans booing?

And he wasn’t done with the epic strangeness yet.

“I think football is maybe a bit like gladiators in the modern age,” he said. Except for the sand, the animals, the slaves, the soldiers, the blood and the death he means? “In the old times you had the gladiators and the stadium full of people shouting and booing or with their thumb up or thumb down. We’re now in that situation.” But are we?

“The good thing is that people don’t kill us. We’re not dead. Maybe verbally, yes, but not in real life.” Wow. And I bet you guys thought my Roman analogies were a bit much. That is fantastic, isn’t it? And this isn’t a guy starting to come apart?

“We get another go in the stadium again. That’s how society works now and players need to be ready for that.” Which sounds so disjointed from its own point that it’s like listening to Donald Trump going off on a bizarre tangent, like a mouth opening and random words pouring out. It’s like something Keith Jackson would have written in one of his columns.

“It’s also exciting because the more passion people have, the more support you have also. It works both ways. They need to grab this moment to be really good gladiators tomorrow in the Colosseum.”

So Celtic Park is the Colosseum now, eah? I guess that makes us the Roman Empire. Who does that make him? Oliver Reed? He definitely sounds like he’s had a good drink. And who’s Cantwell supposed to be? Russell Crowe? I think not. The guy who first dies in the arena, maybe, the one who pisses himself before the gates even open.

Which of those two managers sounds like a man grounded and prepared? Which one of them sounds rattled and wired to the moon? Rodgers wants the win. Clement talks like a man who would take a draw if you offered it to him right now.

The more I listen to the two of them the clearer the gulf is between these men. I cannot wait for tomorrow to come. I cannot wait for the whistle to blow.