Brendan Rodgers won't lose any sleep before the Champions League play-off because his Celtic are ready to make the step-up

Ronny Deila looked at times as if he never got a wink of shut-eye over his entire two years at the club, so stressed was he with the pressures of the job.

And Martin O’Neill, or so the story goes, was so upset after his team lost a particular Champions League group game, which ended their involvement in the tournament, that he failed to keep down his dinner. Sick with frustration.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: The Champions League needs Celtic - so why are they trying to keep us out?

Brendan Rodgers? Well, he predicted a wonderful night's kip so confident is he in his Celtic side. That surely has got to be a good sign.

The man currently in the manager’s chair at Parkhead was the epitome of calm and confidence as he addressed the media yesterday.

Read more: Leigh Griffiths: We won't repeat the stupid mistakes which kept Celtic out of the Champions League

It was if he had not a worry in the world.

Indeed, why concern yourself with previous failures when the players you have now are more than good enough to beat Hapoel Be’er Sheva over two legs and reach the promised land?

A relaxed and smiling Rodgers said: “I had a meal with Neil just the other week. I think he enjoyed the Champions League qualifiers.

“I’m sure, if he said it, that he didn’t sleep too well the night before these games and, of course, these are huge matches.

“You can sense it when you drive up to the stadium. When that music comes on and the flag is fluttering in the middle of the pitch on Wednesday night, everyone will sense the size of the occasion.

“However, you have to stay calm. You try and prepare your team the best you possibly can. The work has gone in with the players and the staff to try and make sure we arrive at a good moment. It has been very thorough and we can do no more than that.

“If you get a bit of luck along the way, then you hope you can qualify. The players are ready. I’m calm and confident we have done the work. I will sleep fine and we will be ready for the game.”

Deila said last year, and the one before, that Celtic were a Champions League club with a Europa League team - although his side failed to record a single win the group stages of Europe’s second competition.

Celtic look better, sharper, more organised than a year ago. It is early days, but the supporters sense that something good could be brewing. We will soon find out if that’s the case.

Rodgers said: “The club is definitely of that European elite standard. When you are talking about big clubs, they are now measured in a different way. A big club used to be about support, history, fan-base, all of that. Celtic has all that.

“Big clubs are now deemed by money. Of course, it is a different situation up here.

"What I can say about the team is that I’m much happier now in terms of where we are. When I came in I assessed the players, I knew we needed more, but I had to be fair to the ones who where here.

“What I have seen by their progress, added to the quality we’ve brought in, is that it puts us in a really good position. I think this team here are ready to make that step into the Champions League.

“I will be very disappointed for us all if we don’t make it but I think we are in the best possible place we can be with the quality we have, and with the spirit we have.

"We are ready to make that step."

Rodgers spoke well in the Jock Stein lounge where pictures of the great man hang everywhere.

Nobody will ever come close to matching what Stein achieved; however, what the fans want is for the new manager to surpass what came before him for two seasons when the club was allowed to drift.

Rodgers said: “I think everyone knows the importance of what is about to happen. The players who have been here over the past couple of seasons have felt the pain within that.

“The message I’ve looked to send to the players is that we don’t really want to go back into that. They will have learned lessons from it, but this is a new team with a new idea and one which is progressing very well.

“It will be tough, it’s the last qualifying stage, but it is important to stay calm. We want passion, intensity and pressure - but you have to stay calm in order to make the process work.

“You have to do get rid of the negativity because modern day football moves on so quickly. Over the course of the two games, there are going to be high pressure situations. You need to have various checkpoints along the way to help them deal with that.

“Our focus is on ourselves, to play the game we want to play, to have the intensity in the game we want.

“If we can keep a clean sheet and get a win, then it gives us a great stepping stone going into the second leg.

“But whatever has happened in the past is irrelevant, really. This is a different team with a different mentality and a different manager. That’s how we have been approaching it.”

And then he added: “I know what it means to the supporters. They want to be at the top table, we all do. I know what it means to the nation to have a representative in there, doing the country proud.

“So I am pretty clear on what it means and the importance of it. But you cannot get too emotionally hooked in or you won’t sleep.”

If the players are this positive come kick-off then every Celtic fan, from the manager down will have some sweet dreams on Wednesday night.