THE big boss of everyone. That is what a deferential Brendan Rodgers calls Sir Alex Ferguson, the managerial legend from whom he spent a few hours soaking up some precious knowledge from at a swish function at Glasgow’s Hilton Hotel on Thursday night. “It is always good when you win 5-0 in Europe,” the former Manchester United manager told him about Celtic’s Champions League qualifying dismissal of Astana the previous night, typically throwing in the tacit reminder that it is the kind of feat his teams have achieved on several occasions.

There is upwards of 30 years between the two men, but Ferguson has been a formidable background inspiration to the Northern Irishman since he first alighted at Old Trafford as 14-year-old from Carnlough for youth team trials, in the company of Dunfermline boss Allan Johnston amongst others. No contract was forthcoming, but that formidable work ethic and holistic approach to running a football club impressed him even then, as did the personal touch the Scot extended to him when he was sacked from Reading, a letter arriving out of the blue to console him and offer any assistance.

As the years drew on, Ferguson was welcomed to the Liberty Stadium in Swansea with two bottles of Patagonian red wine and trivia questions about Welshmen scoring at the old Wembley when he brought Manchester United to his corner of South Wales for the first time, and this respect between the two men remained intact even for the one season where they were enemy combatants in the fearsome Manchester United-Liverpool rivalry. Now Rodgers too tries to incorporate time for other managers into his modus operandi, such as the time Paul Hartley spent at Lennoxtown following his departure from Dundee.

While the Celtic manager admits that his trophy-laden stay at Old Trafford is the kind of feat which is impossible in the modern era, what he would really love his Celtic team to emulate is the hunger which drove him on relentlessly during that 27-year period. On Thursday night, the two men agreed that complacency was a contagion which can affect a football club, so rest assured that Rodgers wants Celtic to display none of the symptoms as they look to carry their form against Astana into today’s lunchtime visit to Ayrshire. They have gone 50 matches unbeaten in domestic play since his arrival, but presumably a slip will arrive at some point.

“It was gold dust, really,” said Rodgers. “He is the big boss of everyone, up there as a beacon for every manager. He was incredible with what he formed, developed and cultivated and the way he also stayed modern all the way through. His enthusiasm, the drive and the hunger you have to always keep the complacency away. He mentioned the other night that complacency is like a disease. And we speak about it here every day.

“He probably has been a perennial figure in my development, if you look really closely at it,” the Northern Irishman added. “He is someone I have always had a huge admiration for. He is an inspiration, that is for sure.

“It’s a natural thing. when you see someone in need or in any walk of life, then I’m always someone to hold my hand out and support,” he added. “But he did that when I got the sack from Reading and I got a letter from him. That meant a lot to me at that time.

“I hadn’t really come across him at that point other than when I came over from Northern Ireland as a boy,” said Rodgers. “He had only been there a year or so at that time and I was a typically talented Irish lad who was brought over from time to time. But even back then what was apparent to me was the fact that every time I went there I saw Alex Ferguson every single day. It was incredible. That was the work he put in to everything, including the youth.

“He was always great when I was at Liverpool. We spoke about it the other night, and he loves the rivalry. I was a rival in that last year of his but he was always very open. In that dead moment for a manager, when the players were out warming up, he would invite me in for a cup of tea.”

“Something else I always admired about him was that I always felt he makes a really attacking changes. I am a very aggressive attacking coach and he is an aggressive attacking coach too.”

Could the Rodgers dynasty similarly last 27 years at Parkhead? “Football doesn’t work like that now,” he said. “Modern football is great, nice, but when Arsene Wenger goes you will see the very last of that profile of manager, that longevity. Football is so emotional now. I am lucky to have a really brilliant board who are really clever. But sometimes modern players get fed up with you at some point.”