Dawn breaks over a clear Emirates sky, slowly bringing light into the nooks and crannies across this sleepy desert metropolis that Celtic called home for over a week. 

As the sun slowly rises on the horizon, the monster frame of the Burj Khalifa emerges from the darkness amid the humid morning air, stretching 828 metres above the dusty ground. 

This colossal creature provided a permanent backdrop in the hazy distance for the Ladbrokes Premiership leader. 

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: We need grafters not shirkers to take Celtic to the next level

Towering in the distance while Celtic were put through their paces in the mornings out here in Dubai at Zabeel Stadium, it was perhaps more significantly the perfect symbol to define the Scottish champions. 

Built on the solid foundations of hard work, a mantra instilled by Brendan Rodgers from those early days in Slovenia, has seen Celtic surge above the rest in the last few months, arms aloft, reaching and striving to break towards new heights.

Now back in Scotland, Celtic can reflect with fondness on a trip Rodgers has already said he would be keen on returning to next year.  The now sunburnt and skint Scottish press pack greeted this news with reluctant acceptance, as one would expect of this subdued brethren.

Leaving the mammoth Burj behind now back beneath the Campsie Hills of Lennoxtown, the lasting impression of Dubai has only heightened the drive from the Celtic manager to raise the bar again from those players within his lot.

“This has been a chance to press the reset button and the message has been very, very simple: we need more and we need to be better,” said Rodgers.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: We need grafters not shirkers to take Celtic to the next level

“I felt that if I went back and reflected on the last six months of 2016 that we had, everything has gone really, really well, mapping out from June when I first came in and seeing the fixture list when it came out I felt this was going to be an important period for us especially if we could progress how I hoped we would progress. 

“We’ve had a good period but we want more.  “If we are going to be better that means improving our game, improving the levels of our game and to keep pushing.

“That’s been our clear message since we’ve been here. The players have been fantastic.”

The prospect of this Celtic team not just returning in similar form but even better than what was seen in the first half of the season is the stuff of horror movies for defences who have been terrorised by Celtic’s frontline over the past few months. 

Rodgers was clear in his message that what has gone before will not act as a marker for the forthcoming chapter in the story of his Parkhead dynasty.  With already five league titles on the bounce  in the bag, a malaise sweeping over the steeply-banked stands of Celtic Park has been commonplace in recent years, the novelty of a one-horse race wearing off as the foot is inevitably eased off the gas.

It is a notion that will simply not compute for Rodgers.  “A man and a leader who handed a guidebook to the staff players and board of the club after his appointment detailing what he expects of them and what he will offer in return, the Northern Irishman is unwilling to deviate from the plan.

“No. We will have strategies to guard against that complacency. I don’t think it’s in the mentality of the group now.  “That was something we nailed from the very first day.”

“They are absolutely giving everything. The attitude and mental fitness is now strong.

“Pre-season, I talked about reclaiming that working mentality, to work and to have this mindset that allows you to win games and win in the style that we want to win them in.  “But there are still areas. We need to create more chances.”  For a team that has already rattled in 54 goals in 20 Premiership games, that’s quite a statement.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers: We need grafters not shirkers to take Celtic to the next level

“My philosophy is non-negotiable: we attack,” explained Rodgers.  “But we can defend better to allow us to attack more. So here this week we are talking about creating more pressure with speed, power and aggression in our game we can create more chances through defending better in better moments, as a collective.  “Those are areas we have to work on tactically. Technically there is a level we can be better in but the players are ready, they are soaking it up in order to be the best they can be. That’s what you want.”

Rodgers is of course not pushing the boundaries and limits of his group for domestic dominance, an achievement his players look more than capable of doing reaching even in second gear. Not that they will  be allowed to drop down to that level, of course.

Celtic’s entire season hinged on making it into the Champions League and as such Rodgers’ era was defined by those early trips to Gibraltar, Kazakhstan and Israel. No league lead could have made up for another near miss.

Now the appetite has been whetted once again at that level, it is clear that Rodgers’ is already striving to return there.

While they tower over their rivals in Scotland, the yearn to rise high elsewhere shimmers strongly.

“That’s the ambition. That’s where I want Celtic to be,” he said.  “We want to be qualifying for Champions League group stages and there is a certain demand, it doesn’t happen just by accident.  “You have to have talent but it has to be working talent. The ambition of course is beyond that.   “You have to work to that level every day, your standard has to match that.”