Brendan Rodgers has hinted that he will look to build his team around Hoops skipper Scott Brown.

The midfielder is currently recuperating after playing for the latter months of the season with tendonitis but Rodgers has intimated that he will have a significant role to play against nest season.

“We have to assess the squad,” he said.

“I’m really looking to meeting the captain, Scott Brown.

“He’s someone I’ve admired from a distance for a number of years.

“Until I get to work with them on a daily basis, I won’t know better.”

The likes of Kieran Tierney, the Young Player of the Year this season, and Ryan Christie who netted his first goal for the club in the 7-0 rout of Motherwell on the final day of the season will have been delighted to hear that Rodgers will look to the young players he has available to him before he casts his net into the transfer window.

“It always brings you great joy to develop young players,” said Rodgers. “At Liverpool, Raheem Sterling was 17 when he broke into the first-team and he left as a £49 million player.

“When Luis Suarez went to Liverpool, not many had heard of him, yet he left a world-class player. That always brings joy as a coach to get that type developed and improved.

“It’s about good players and we just want someone to fit into the culture and fight for the shirt.”

With the UEFA Champions League qualifiers coming so quickly after the summer break – Celtic’s first game will be on the 12th or 13th July – ensures a degree of intensity to Rodgers’ early months in charge of the club.

With the outcome of the qualifiers effectively setting the tone for the remainder of the season, there is little time to ease into the role. In that respect, Rodgers will look to assess and sort the squad quickly, hinting that he wishes to trim what is currently a top-heavy squad of players.

“We have to get to work quickly on the squad with the qualifiers coming quickly,” he said.

“Some managers will say they want 22, a couple for each position.

“I prefer a smaller and tighter squad as that also gives young players a chance and an opportunity.

“That’ll come later. We’ll look at it and make a decision from there. But as a squad, I prefer a tight group.”

And Rogers has also maintained that he turned down offers to return to management in the English Premiership before taking the Celtic job.

“Swansea contacted me in January when Garry Monk left,” he said. “But I was always clear I wanted to break out. When I left Liverpool, I could have been in a Premier League job the next day. On the Monday, I got a call from a club.

“But I wanted to have time out from the intensity of managing big clubs and the pressures that come with it.

“It was always clear that I wanted to go back in the summer. With Swansea, it was a case of me telling Huw Jenkins in January that I wouldn’t be able to go back to work, but in the summer I would be.

“I could have waited and maybe got another job in the Premier League, but I hope to be managing for another 20-odd years.

“The chance to manage Celtic might not come again, which is why I felt I wanted to talk and then be here today.”

And Rodgers is well aware what is required from him this season.

“For me the objective is pretty clear, to continue with domination of Scottish football and also to make an impact on European football,” he said.

“The traditions of Celtic becoming the British team to win the European Cup is very important and there have been many great nights here in Europe here at Parkhead.

“There is an opportunity to revive those fortunes and get into the Champions League.

“The Premier League is the most competitive in the world, but this is Celtic.”