“IT’S an Old Firm game. Nobody starts as favourites as the form book goes out the window. There’s no doubt Rangers will be our closest challengers for the title this season but Mark Warburton is one of my closest friends and I look forward to catching up with him afterwards for a pint.” In an engaging and revealing 30-minute address ahead of his first match against Rangers as Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers notably said none of the above.

How devoted he was to the Celtic cause as a boy growing up in Northern Ireland is a matter of conjecture, but Rodgers undoubtedly knows his history. Whether schooled by relatives or having picked up the more pertinent points later in life, he is shrewd enough to appreciate both the past significance of the Rangers fixture and how, in the eyes of many Celtic fans, it has evolved in the modern era. Intentionally or otherwise, not once in conversation did Rodgers use the phrase “Old Firm”. He did not dally long on the perennially thorny matter on whether Rangers are/aren’t a new club following their financial traumas of 2012 but, instructively, he revealed he would not take issue with any Celtic fan taking the stance that Saturday’s game is the first league meeting between the two clubs.

“I can respect that there will be different views in terms of how they [Rangers] are held and how they created the club, but for me it’s a Celtic versus Rangers game and it’s a big game,” he said. “It always has been. Celtic and Rangers games are always big games. I’ll be told [all about it] during the week by uncles, brothers and relatives. I know what it means to the supporters and I know what it means to us in terms of our objectives this season.

“I’ve never been to one. But obviously I’ve watched them over the course of many years. At the time I was growing up you had the Troubles in Northern Ireland, so my parents would never have allowed me to travel over on the boat for clear reasons. But I watched them on the telly and I listened to them on the radio. So, yes, they’re very emotional games.”

Not that Rodgers expects to succumb to the madness that regularly descends whenever Celtic and Rangers go toe to toe. He has stood on the touchline during Swansea versus Cardiff derbies and experienced Liverpool’s local rivalries with both Everton and Manchester United, and insists he has remained a figure of stoic pragmatism despite the mayhem unfolding in front of him. He will not know for certain just how he will react come high noon on Saturday but, from a week’s distance, he hopes not to lose that sense of dead-eyed detachment lest his managerial judgment become clouded.

“No, I’m not that way,” he insisted. “I try to control that on a human level. Of course you jump about and get a bit excited at times. But I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in that way. There have been games like Liverpool versus Everton where Moyesie [David Moyes] and I came in and went 'what happened there?' It’s a whirlwind, it just goes so fast.”

Celtic will start the game as favourites and, refreshingly, Rodgers did not try to wave that claim away or tone it down with false modesty. The gap between the two clubs has stretched since his appointment in May and, combined with Rangers’ sluggish start to the season, most signs are pointing to a Celtic victory. Rangers’ triumph in last season’s William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final will serve as a warning but Rodgers was happy to acknowledge his team’s superiority ahead of this meeting.

“Are we wary of the favourites tag? Not really. I’d say going into this game there’s probably a wee bit of justification in it. The proof is there for that. But they are always dangerous games. It doesn't matter how well one team is doing and how badly the other team is doing. I remember a Liverpool- Everton game when Roberto Martinez was in charge. They were on a real high, hadn’t won at Anfield for so long and it was deemed that this was going to be the game. And we won 4-0. But I think with justification people can look at the [Celtic] team at the moment and see a real vibrancy, an energy, and an aggression in the team. I'm happy with it.”

The outcome of the four Old Firm league games used to regularly decide the destiny of the championship. Now Rodgers isn’t certain that will be the case. In fact, he was unsure whether Rangers would be the team most likely to run Celtic closest for the title.

“I don’t know - we haven’t played all the teams yet,” he said. “I can give you a better idea later. The teams we have played were all in the top four last year. Rangers are coming up as champions of the Championship so they are coming in to a league where Aberdeen are well-organised and strong, where Hearts are committed and have good players, and where St Johnstone are not an easy team to play. I’ll have a better idea over the course of the first half of the season.”

Another part of the narrative this season has been the reunion of Warburton and Rodgers, the pair having previously worked together at Watford when Rodgers was the manager and Warburton was the head of the club’s youth academy. The Celtic manager, though, played down the significance of their relationship, instead pointing out that the peripatetic nature of the professional game meant bumping into former colleagues is an increasingly common occurrence.

“We worked together for seven months but before that I never knew him,” he said of Warburton, while also confirming the Rangers manager’s revelation that Rodgers used to write his training drills in Spanish. “He’s a friend and a colleague and in the same profession so I respect that like I do all managers. We’ve had little bits of contact since we worked together, but there are probably closer friendships in the game. He’s a good guy, a good man and he’s done well since he came up here.

“I spoke to him early on when I came up here and then you get into the season. I also worked with Frank McParland [Rangers’ head of recruitment] for a period of time and probably know Frank better than Mark because we worked together at Liverpool. Davie Weir [Rangers’ assistant manager] came to see me when I was coaching at Liverpool and he was out of the game.

“I gave Jordan Rossiter his debut, he’s a good kid, Danny Wilson I had, Rob Kiernan I gave a debut to at Watford. Graeme Murty [Rangers’ new under-20 coach] was my right back at Reading. So it’s funny, the older you get the more people you realise you know from working at various teams.”

Just three days after facing Rangers, Rodgers takes his team to Barcelona for their opening Champions League group game. The notion that the Nou Camp may also be in his mind was quickly dismissed. “I only look at the next game. That’s always been the mantra for me. I never look too far ahead.” It was the only cliché of an otherwise enlightening conversation.