If the fates and stars had aligned then the apprentice could have been going head-to-head with the managerial master in Perth tomorrow evening.

Former Celtic skipper Scott Brown may well have been stood in the technical area presiding over a team trying to get one over on one-time football mentor Brendan Rodgers for the first time in a competitive match.

The champions go head-to-head with St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park in the Scottish Premiership and the backdrop was made all the more interesting this week when Brown entered the race for the Saints managerial hotseat only to withdraw from it before signing a new extension to his contract with Championship outfit Ayr United.

Broony and Rodgers have been pitted against each other already this season when Celtic drew 1-1 at Somerset Park in their first pre-season friendly of the campaign. However, Rodgers reckons that the managerial trajectory of the ex-Fleetwood boss is heading in one direction and that's up because he is as ambitious as the rest.

However, Rodgers is adamant that Brown shouldn't be in a hurry to jump football ship just yet. The 51-year-old believes that serving his managerial apprenticeship will stand Brown in good stead when the big club and right offer finally comes calling. Rodgers revealed that Brown sought his advice over the phone before deciding to reject Saints offer.

The Irishman said: "Scott's doing a fantastic job at Ayr. Both he and Stephen as well as his staff are doing well there. They've obviously lifted Ayr into a really good place having joined them last season. I think for Scott there's no rush.

"I've got no doubt he'll be a really successful manager. He went into Ayr and he kept them up last year and had a really good pre-season. I could see that in pre-season they were a few weeks ahead of us but I could see the ideas of what they were trying to implement and how they've played. They've started the season very, very well.

"For Scott, it's not about a club for his next step, it's about the right club. I always think that especially when you're a young manager, getting to the right club is important but not if you're already at a good club. He's at a good club and he's happy.

"I wasn't surprised that he didn't take the St Johnstone job. I'm not surprised that his name was linked with it. I guess when you're a young manager it's all about balancing your ambition. You may feel like you might want to make a move but you have to make sure it is the right move. I was guilty of that in my younger days. You're in a rush. When I was a young manager I was in a rush to get to the Premier League because it's the most competitive league in the world and it's a challenge.

"It is only when you can sit back and have more information and more knowledge and experience that you can probably look at things a lot clearer. I think ambition is important. I think you have to have that. However, the ambition can be for the club you're in and the people you work with as well as yourself.

"I just see him in a really good place. I don't think there's any doubt he'll manage at the highest level. It's all about timing and at the right time. I'm very, very confident that he will get there. However, being a manager and a coach at the highest level is totally different to being a captain. Those leadership qualities will really help you of course but there are no shortcuts. Being a top coach or a top manager, you have to take your time and you have to learn and you have to find those experiences. I see him doing that very, very well at the moment.

"It was an open conversation with Scott and all I ever do is recommend. I would never tell anyone what to do when they ask for advice. It's just recommendations and understanding where he's at. "He knows his own mind. He knows that he's got a few people he can reach out to just to get a different perspective.

"I am coming up against Nuri Sahin on Tuesday and I had Nuri at Liverpool as a young player on loan from Real Madrid. It happens and it all happens so quickly. That's the game. What I know about Scott is that he's doing really well both him and his staff. He's at a really good club having been there in the summer when we played them. I met the owner and saw for myself what it is they're trying to do. I think he knows he's in a really good place. I think for him to manage at the top level here in Scotland it's only a matter of time.

"Whether that's with Ayr or someone else it's a matter of time. He's on that trajectory."

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(Image: SNS Group) Whilst Rodgers didn't have Brown pegged as manager material right away when the two initially hooked up at Celtic, he admits that his former snarling skipper on the field is now beginning to cut his teeth in the managerial chair. Rodgers said: "When I first arrived I didn't know him. I only saw this snarling guy on the telly that I used to see and watch. Then when I first met him I found out he was different.

"We had a really strong relationship in our time here. You need your captain and your manager to be tight. At Celtic this year there are many challenges so being together is very important. I had no doubt his leadership qualities were immense. I just felt that if he wanted to go into management it was something he could do.

He had that first little taste of it at Fleetwood. He was really brave coming out of Scotland and going down into the Lower Leagues in England. He took on that challenge to understand and find that apprenticeship as a manager because that is important as well. You have to learn the trade. He has come back up here and done a very good job at Ayr United so far. He feels and sounds like he's in a happy place.

"He'll get linked with a number of jobs in the future, I'm pretty sure. There's no rush. Just take your time and work well."

The $64,000 question now is does Rodgers see anybody in the current set-up who could follow in the footsteps of Brown by leaping from being a player to the technical area? No prizes for guessing which member of the Celtic team he thinks will be a future manager. Rodgers said: "I look at the likes of Callum McGregor. I think Callum can be a manager if he wants to be later on. It's the big what if. I think playing, coaching and management are three different things.

"When you're coaching you're giving opinions and you're working with the players. When you're managing you're making decisions. It's a different set-up. I look at the guys that I have. I've got some fantastic players here who in their own right may want to go down the managerial route. It's not always the ones that stand out that become a manager. I'm sure there are plenty of players who will tell you that they would have thought someone was going to be a manager and they've gone on and done ever so well.

"I would look at Callum as a starting point and think that when the time comes for him if he wants to go down that route then he certainly shows a lot of the facets that you would need to manage and coach."

Rodgers revealed that such are the pitfalls of a results-driven industry that he was sad to see both Craig Levein and Steven Naismith lose their jobs with the Saints and Hearts respectively after poor starts to the campaign. He said: "I think it's a shame.

"Craig is an experienced manager and he dips in and out of the media and has done other roles. For him, it won't be a surprise. Sometimes no matter how well you can be doing if an owner wakes up one morning and you're not to be the manager then you're out. It's as simple as that. All you can do is do your best.

"For Steven in his first job, there's always empathy there for a coach and a manager. It's one of those ones where he'll go away and learn from that experience. He was a fantastic player. Steven had a really good career in the game, moved into coaching and then into the lead role. He'll go away and look at it and find the areas in which he can be better and develop and improve and then for sure he'll come back in his next job and be a better manager.

"Sometimes it takes that. It's not nice when it comes but the strength is then going again and learning from. That's the guys who succeed in the game. When you can pick yourself up, identify where you could have been better alongside all the good things that worked well.

"I looked at Hearts last year and I thought they were very good, very well coached, had a good idea of the game and finished third in the league and did well. Sometimes the momentum at the beginning of a season just didn't quite go with them and then all of a sudden you're on the back end of what he had lost. I never felt they were as bad as that but sometimes people feel the need to change and they did do."

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Meanwhile, Rodgers refuses to allow his team to let their minds drift and be distracted by Tuesday night's mouthwatering clash against last season's Champions League runners-up in their own backyard.

That's why it is very much business as usual in Perth for the men in green and white against managerless St Johnstone. He certainly doesn't expect to be ranting like he did after Celtic turned in one of the worst first-half displays back in December 2023 that made Rodgers as angry as he has ever been in his long managerial career despite the fact his team rallied to win 3-1 after going behind. Rodgers said: "It's not a challenge. I always think these are games of perspective and it's how you look at them.

"For me and the other players, it's pretty straightforward. It's the next game, so we want to win the next game. That is always the challenge of being a Celtic player and being a manager. We understand the Champions League and it's fantastic, but ultimately this is the bread and butter that gets you there. So this is an important game for us, really important, and it's our only real focus at this moment.

"I think professional players will always look to do their very best. Andy Kirk and the guys that are there now are holding the fort and they'll have the team prepared and ready for the game. If there's a manager in place, then you know the philosophy, and the football ideas and that allows you to understand it better. I still think looking at how they play and how they've been, we get an idea of how they work. For us, it's really about ourselves and bringing our rhythm to the game and making it difficult for St Johnstone.

"My outlook on it is that we need to win the game. We'll put out the very best team that we possibly can to win the game. I say in the best possible way, it is a team. I see all the players as my team. We'll pick a starting XI to go into the game. It certainly won't be the XI that will finish it. We need to win the game and win it well and win it in the way we want to and then we can get ready, recover and get ready for Tuesday.

"When we arrived there last year we weren't on the same page but that's my job as the manager to ensure that we were and that our standard was better than that. I look at the second-half response and then I look to where we're at now a year later. We're in a much different place. The team's gone in the direction I wanted it to go in. We are playing with the intent and the technicality and the physicality and the coordination and the hunger in the team.

"It's night and day from that first-half performance last season."