Come Dine With Me as Hoops bring dressing room camaraderie to the table

As Brendan Rodgers seeks to implement a camaraderie within the Parkhead dressing room, Hoops skipper Scott Brown has revealed that the players will be invited to take their turn at playing host as they rustle up a bit of dinner for their team-mates.

Brown has already been the recipient of Rodgers’ hospitality – “the best meal I’ve ever had,” he joked – but as the former Liverpool boss looks to create a spirit of togetherness and desire within the sqaud he has urged his players to get together round the table.

Read more: Scott Brown: I thought there was no chance Brendan Rodgers would come to Celtic

Former Rangers captain Richard Gough infamously proclaimed of the Ibrox 9-in-a-row side that the “team that drinks together stays together wins together” but Rodgers’ version of that is a little more civilised.

Rodgers spoke of wanting Celtic to be stronger off the pitch and Brown was expanisve on just what that will entail.

“Team morale, socialising together, doing things with families and as friends, getting around more,” he said. “Pretty much the exact same to what Leicester did last season. We haven’t really done that. “We are good in the dressing room together, but as soon as we leave the dressing room the lads don’t socialise together as much as teams that I have played in in the past. The gaffer is going to bring that back. He says he is going to sort stuff. He wants us to be close together and to enjoy each other’s company on and off the park. I think that is a great start.

“Just dinners, sitting down with families, going around to other people’s houses and just enjoying each other’s company.”

The thinking behind the team building evenings around the barbecue is that that it ought to create a sense of unity on the the pitch but ultimately Celtic will be judged not on whose souffle rises the highest but on what they achieve this season.

And with an ongoing absence from the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, it is in that environment where Celtic as a team need to rise to the occasions.

Speaking ahead of this summer’s International Champions Cup tournament where Celtic will play English Premiership champions Leicester as well as Barclona and Inter Milan, games which ought to prepare them for the rigourous examination which will come in Europe, Brown was candid about the demads that lie ahead.

“The reason I signed for Celtic was to play in the Champions League against the likes of Barcelona and now we are going to play Leicester who have just won the Premier League,” said the Celtic captain.

“It’s going to be good for us to see where we are especially as we go into a new league season.

“I’ve been able to play against guys like Iniesta and Xavi in the past and that has been exciting as I relish those challenges.”

Brown was described as a “warrior” by Rodgers, with the new Celtic manager keen to stick his neck out to talk up the current captain. It hasn’t been lost on Brown who believes that being properly fit this season should see him get back to producing a level of football on which he made his reputation.

Tendonitis in both hamstrings restricted the movement of the player last season, although it is to his credit that he persevered until Celtic effecively clinched the title at Tynecastle at the end of April.

The full weight of what he endured however was eye-opening.

“I couldn’t really twist and turn and that is a huge part of my game,” he explained. “Passing the ball isn’t really my game, eh? It was sore just getting out of bed, sitting in the car. It was just achy and painy all the time. The more I did in training, it would loosen off for a bit, then it would come back and then go.

“It is what it is. Everyone gets injuries, everyone plays through them, it is just what happens in football and what happens when you have got to play as many games as possible and keep your jersey. I got rest, I got PRP and that was it. I had a few injections so that it settled down and then I chilled over the summer.”

“It is the longest break I have had in ages. It is good to get rest and recover. It is probably longer than 10 years since I had such a long break. Even at Hibs we were in that Inter-Toto Cup. It was brilliant. We would finish – and then start back a week later.”

And Brown has also bought into the excitement that has surrounded the club since Rodgers’ was formally unveiled as the Celtic manager.

“It’s phenomenal to be perfectly honest,” he said. “Every Celtic fan you speak to comes up with a smile on their face. I think: ‘Oh no....are they coming to give me a bit? But they are just delighted that the gaffer is here and he has taken the opportunity to come to the club.

“The way he speaks about the club that he has always supported and his plans to transform it have impressed people. If you look at his teams in the past and the way they play and press, we are going to try and do that as well.”