Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has backed chief executive Peter Lawwell’s assertion that the Hoops could be the biggest club in the English Premier League.

Rodgers takes his side to face the might of Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium tonight in their final outing in this season’s Champions League.

The financial gulf between the clubs is stark, but Rodgers believes that wealth is all that separates them, and that Celtic could bridge that gap if ever granted access to the riches on offer south of the border.

“It’s a huge club,” Rodgers said. “What Celtic doesn’t have is the finances.

“Just look at the numbers. Celtic are the third highest average attendance in Britain this season behind Manchester United and Arsenal. That says everything about the power and the size of Celtic.

“The support base is worldwide and every player that comes to play at Celtic Park - the Lionel Messis, everybody, talk about the cauldron and the atmosphere.

“If you bring that and have that base at the club and instead of getting £2m in TV money, you get £100m, plus the other revenues that you will generate, you are in a different ball game altogether because of the players you could attract, the worldwide viewing figures, everything.

“That’s probably what Peter was talking about. He wasn’t talking about right now but what could happen potentially if Celtic was ever in the Premier League.”

In regards to his current squad of players, Rodgers would be intrigued to see how they would compete in the English Premier League even now.

‘It’s hard to say [how they would get on],” he said. “The players would improve playing better players. The players go in and face challenges every week playing against top class players.

“I have absolutely no doubt we would be in the Premier League and competing well.

“Celtic Park would be a huge advantage for us. I think about the first season in the Premier League with Swansea, with a stadium of 22,000 people, and we finished eleventh.

“The team was talked about all over Europe in terms of the style of football.

“Put Celtic into that competition with 60,000 people every other week and the attraction to players and other things that come with it would make us competitive.

“Where we would finish I don’t know, but the potential of Celtic in the Premier League would be incredible.”

Unfortunately for Rodgers and Celtic, tonight’s game will be the last time they play a competitive game in England until next season’s Champions League at least.

He is holding out hope though that if the club is indeed never accepted into the English league set-up, that they can at least branch out from their own borders in some shape or form.

“It would be great because it would sell the Scottish game,” he added.

“Whether or not it will ever happen in my lifetime I don’t know. There might be another way between that in terms of an Atlantic league or something in between.

“But it’s something a club like Celtic would certainly thrive on.”

The prospect of Rodgers returning to the English Premier League at some stage seems an altogether more realistic possibility than Celtic being allowed to join in the near future.

The question was raised to him again in Manchester ahead of tonight’s game, but he said: “I have obviously spent most of my career in England in the last number of years, in the Premier League, but it’s fine. I’m happy and that’s what’s most important.

“That’s what I strive for and I think happy people win. For me, I’ve very fortunate that I’m at a club I love to be at. I thoroughly enjoy working here.

“But when you’ve worked in the Premier League there is always that speculation ‘when will you come back?’

“For me my only focus is on Celtic, and myself and my staff are absolutely loving it.”