It’s understood that there has been no approach to Celtic from Aston Villa to speak to Brendan Rodgers as the Sky Bet Championship club look to replace Steve Bruce.
There had been a suggestion that Villa would make a move to the Parkhead side to request formal permission to speak to Rodgers, although it is believed that there had been no such request made yesterday.
Thierry Henry and John Terry remain the favourites to take over from the post vacated by the sacking of Bruce last week, with former Celtic and Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov also throwing his hat into the ring for consideration. Roberto Martinez, the current Belgium manager, has also been quoted for the job should the initial approach for Terry fall through.
Rodgers confirmed that he had been approached by an unnamed Chinese club during the summer with eye-watering figures mentioned in conjunction with the deal that was alleged to have been put on the table.
The Celtic manager also revealed that there have been approaches from other clubs during his tenure as Celtic manager.
It is unlikely, though, that he would fancy swapping Celtic for Aston Villa. The risks involved if Villa do not win promotion could make the subsequent move after that a difficult one, despite the fact that the Championship club are in a position of offering a relatively lucrative financial deal.
Rodgers appeared to leave the door open for interest in the aftermath of Sunday’s emphatic 6-0 win over St Johnstone in Perth.
Having originally dismissed the story via a broadcast interview, Rodgers was a little more cryptic with the written press as he insisted that he “could not be ruled out because he had never been asked”.
Rodgers was effusive in his praise of the Championship club and there appears to be a feeling this summer that he has become disenchanted with his lot at Celtic.
Rodgers dismissed that at the weekend as he reiterated that he is still enthused with the job he has to do at the Parkhead club.
There were peace talks held in the aftermath of a summer in which Rodgers repeatedly voiced his frustrations publicly about the lack of signings arriving at the club and the 45-year-old spoke of his desire to continue in his role at Celtic when he spoke at the weekend.
“I’ve got a great job here, a very exciting challenge,” he maintained.
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