Brendan Rodgers was close to joining City staff in 2009
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was close to joining Roberto Mancini’s coaching staff at Manchester City.
Rodgers is set to face Mancini’s Zenit St Petersburg in the last 32 of the Europa League.
There was the potential of Rogers becoming a first-team coach at The Etihad before he took the manager’s job at Swansea.
I was in talks with Manchester City about maybe going back there as a first-team coach,
I was rejected as a manager at Reading and was in between jobs and I didn’t think I was going to get a manager’s job.
I spoke to the club, all went well and I flew out to Milan to meet Roberto.
We had a nice chat and it ended up that not long after that I got the job at Swansea as a manager.
Rodgers encountered success at Swansea when they were promoted to the Premier League in 2011 while Mancini won two Premier League titles at City before being sacked in 2013.