Brendan Rodgers was somewhat confused to read this week that he had jetted off to Switzerland for crunch talks with Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond, given he was in an altogether less glamorous location – no offence intended – closer to home.

He laughed off those rumours yesterday that emerged off the back of a transfer window he nevertheless conceded had not unfolded how he would have wanted, and refuted suggestions that disagreements between himself and the board had pushed him to the point of considering resignation.

Instead, he is at pains to stress that mentally and emotionally - and physically, of course - he is firmly in Glasgow, and happy to be so. Even if he acknowledges that he is still battling to restore the harmony that existed between all factions of the club during his first stint at Celtic.

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“There were reports that I’m this really unhappy person and I flew out to Switzerland or somewhere after the game the other day, which I found strange when I was reading it in Finnieston!” Rodgers laughed.

“It might have [angered me] years ago but certainly not now. There was something else that came out that again wasn’t true.

“I have the greatest respect for the people here at the club. I always wanted to come back to Celtic and I knew it wasn’t going to feel straight away like the first time because people were hurt. And they probably still are.

“There’s probably still a wee bit of that of people thinking, ‘how long is he going to be here?’ and ‘can we trust him?’

“But I want to give everything, and I want to be here as long as I possibly can be. If I can have success here with the team and we can look forward and into Europe then brilliant.

“But I certainly wasn’t away having any crisis talks.”

The Swiss story may have been a miss, but it is not a wild assumption that his disagreement with the club’s board over their transfer outlay would at least make Rodgers bristle, given that a similar misalignment of views at least partly contributed to his departure from the club first time around.

“These were all the considerations I had to come back,” he said.

“I wasn’t going to be that person, and I said that when I first came back because I only wanted the best for here. I wasn’t going to be in that place again.

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“Sometimes because of how I am I might look unhappier than what I actually am, and that’s my da’s fault because I look like my da’, and he always looked not so happy even when he was.

“But I’m still here to give the best to the team, for that team to then be the very best they can be with the supporters.

“I have just sensed since I have come back that there is that feeling that hopefully in my time here I can negate.

“But you only do that by winning games, and hopefully then by having success, and having success in the way we want to.

“I’m determined to try and navigate my way through that, because I know what it felt like the first time I was here, it was amazing. So, I want to have that feeling back in the stands and with everyone again.

“But we’ll only do it together, that’s what is key. Whatever the frustrations are with whoever.

“I will always want the best, but for whatever reason if that’s not available and we can’t get it, then we still have to look to progress. That’s why we’re here.

“This is the great challenge of working our way through that. But I was definitely not in Switzerland!”