You may have heard it mentioned among the superlatives thrown around about Brendan Rodgers as his team close in on a historic treble and an undefeated domestic season, that one of the reasons he has been such a hit since arriving in the East End of Glasgow is that he ‘gets’ Celtic.

Of course, Rodgers is a self-confessed, dyed-in-the-wool, lifelong fan of the club. But despite never playing for his beloved team in his own short professional career, he seems to understand what it means to be a Celtic player.

The expectation, and indeed, the responsibility that comes with pulling on that famous hooped jersey. And what’s more, he has been able to transmit that message to the current crop of Celtic players.

It is little wonder though when you consider that his coaching apprenticeship took place at Reading, who at the time were managed by one of the greatest Celts of them all, Tommy Burns.

Another club legend, goalkeeper Pat Bonner, was part of the backroom staff at the time as a little corner of Berkshire was briefly turned green and white, and he says that you can see the influence of Burns not only in Rodgers the man, with the way he carries himself and the standards he sets, but in the free-flowing football his teams produce.

Truly, Bonner feels, Burns schooled Rodgers in the Celtic way.

“My first memory of Brendan was when he was a young boy, he used to come and pick my son Andrew up in his Waitrose van,” Bonner said.

“He worked there when he was starting out as a coach and he would take my son up to Woodley Hammers Boys Club. That was the local team and Brendan did a little bit of coaching there. That was the first time I ever met him. Andrew would have been 13 and just starting out.

“After that, I met him through Tommy. I didn’t know Brendan as well as he did but he was always very interested in the way Tommy approached football. He would ask questions, he was very inquisitive and that really rubbed off on him.

“Tommy set up the academy down there and Brendan was working there during that time. Tommy did influence Brendan and I do see that in his team.

“There is a lot of talk about the Celtic Way. At the Lisbon Lions event on Thursday, I listened to Martin, Neil Lennon, Gordon Strachan and Kenny Dalglish do that.

“They all have different methods of approaching that but ultimately it’s about winning games for the fans. If you can do it with a bit of style, great.

“Brendan has learnt very quickly how to bring the Celtic Way of playing to his team – on and off the ball.

“There is a responsibility on all Celtic players that you have to perform, win but also handle yourself well. That’s what they do under Brendan.”

With the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions’ famous European Cup triumph taking place this week, it seems written in the stars that Celtic will end a dream season unbeaten and with a treble in the trophy cabinet by seeing off Aberdeen in this afternoon’s Scottish Cup final.

But Bonner knows first-hand that what may seem like fate, in fact has to be earned, and he sounded a note of caution to the Celtic players not to take their own fairytale ending for granted.

“For us it was the centenary back in 1987-88,” he said. “It was like a storybook – and we were the actors that had to perform.

“You can’t sit there and say they talk about it, they don’t, but it’s there at the back of the players’ and Brendan’s minds.

“They’re going out and watching the fans celebrating that way almost every week now. That rubs off on the players, no doubt.

“The momentum he’s been able to keep with the team, normally you would switch off after you win the league, there’s no question. But he’s kept that going. The unbeaten record has probably helped him but he set out those targets himself. He’s been very clever that way.

“There’s always a danger in a cup final, that you don’t perform and nerves take over."

Bonner was at Hampden yesterday to preview today’s showpiece end to the season, and he was alongside a man who was rather happier to recall the memory of the last time Aberdeen and Celtic faced off in the Scottish Cup final in 1990, the Dons’ victorious goalkeeper Theo Snelders.

Famously, Aberdeen prevailed 9-8 on penalties, with the Dutch goalkeeper making the crucial save from Anton Rogan’s spot-kick. Bonner grimaced as he recalled that he only dived the correct way for one of Aberdeen’s penalties, with Jim Bett still finding the net with his effort, but he revealed that the experience inspired him ahead of his subsequent penalty save heroics for the Republic of Ireland in the Wold Cup later that summer.

“Out of every negative comes a positive, if you think about it that way,” Bonner said.

“I learnt so much. I sat down afterwards with Gerry Peyton, my great colleague who was at Bournemouth at the time.

“We sat down and we analysed it. He’d watched the shoot-out, he maybe didn’t watch the full cup final as it wasn’t a great game.

“The penalty shoot-out was dramatic though. We came up with a plan, and I learned so much from that. So that was the positive from it.

“I won a few, lost a few, but you learn and that helped me a month later. So, thanks to Theo for that.”

*Packie Bonner was speaking at a William Hill Media event. William Hill are proud sponsors of the Scottish Cup