A YEAR ago today the Celtic support was left stunned as news broke that Brendan Rodgers had left Scotland to drive to the East Midlands to sign on as the new manager at Leicester City. Insult was added to injury when it became clear that he had taken most of the backroom staff with him, Assistant Manager, Chris Davies, first team coaches Kolo Toure and Glen Driscoll, Analyst Jack Lyon and he also tried to take coach John Kennedy and goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods.
Kennedy and Woods stayed and with Celtic facing two season defining games away to Hearts and Hibs in the Premiership and Scottish Cup that same week, timing could not have been worse. The Celtic support – rightly – was enraged at the betrayal, especially given all that Rodgers had said about his love for the club.
Yet this BR-exit was not a surprise to many among the support, probably a large minority expected that to be his last season in charge. Everyone knew about the tensions that had been papered over as the season progressed but the manager’s relationship with Peter Lawwell was fractured and it was beyond repair.
Rodgers knew he was leaving – it was just a question of when.
Lawwell knew this too and put the appropriate counter-measures in place, despite the denials that where made at the time and were repeated recently by Neil Lennon.
Do not think for one second think that the Leicester City decision to appoint Rodgers all came about over a few days after a bad result or two for the East Midlands side. That appointment was many months in the planning.
And the remarkable coincidence that Neil Lennon was, over the exact same period having his own issues at Easter Road that ended up with him being mutually consented by a suckered Hibs Board, remains hard to believe. Sometimes, revenge is a dish best served cold, and the dark arts of the football business certainly worked in Celtic favour with those convenient events in Leith in December 2018 and January 2019.
And while John McGinn was by this time enjoying his football at Aston Villa, the big East coast grins resulting from winning that stand-off against Celtic were about to be wiped off the Hibernian bosses’ faces when they realised that Lawwell had got his own back, or so the conspiracy goes. You can believe it if you like.
Lawwell had quite understandably lost confidence in Lawwell and his head of recruitment Lee Congerton. The McGinn saga was not part of that concern but was more to do with pig-headedness at boardroom level but his other signings – with one or two honourable exceptions in Scotty Sinclair and Moussa Dembele (already on Celtic’s radar) left plenty to be desired.
Lawwell thought he’d eventually get McGinn at a lower price than Hibs were demanding but a late change in circumstances at Aston Villa allowed Steve Bruce to nip in and cut the deal from under Celtic’s feet. You win some, you lose some but Lawwell’s revenge would be sweet.
So Neil Lennon was willing, able and crucially available to come back to Celtic. John Kennedy had been fully briefed any the Celtic CEO and was always staying on at Celtic. Rodgers made his move and Lawwell was ready.
Hearts and Hibs were both beaten – Rodgers had latterly developed a terrible habit of losing in Edinburgh – and the Premiership and Scottish Cup were won, with the League Cup being retained for 4IAR in that competition last December with a 1-0 win over the Rangers.
Seeded Celtic go into tomorrow night’s Europa League second leg at the round of 32 stage at home, having a 12 point advantage in the Scottish Premiership. Over the past two years Rodgers reached this stage but as a result of finishing runners up in the Group stages of the Europa League, was unseeded, and lost to both Zenith and Valencia.
Neil Lennon got there as Group winners – beating Italian giants Lazio home and away in the process.
European nights under Rodgers were frankly far from being enjoyable, perhaps with the two draws against Manchester City, and the hope win over RB Leipzig being the exceptions.
Rodgers did do plenty for Celtic – he was the right man at the right time – and it worked out well for both the club and Rodgers himself. But by the summer of 2018 through until his departure day, it was clear to both parties that he was now the wrong man to lead Celtic forward and that his time was up.
So he walked, he didn’t do it with any grace or with a second thought for the support who had loved the man. That betrayal caused the anger and incidentally got Lawwell a free-pass for his part in the whole saga. Had Rodgers stuck around until the end of the season, then resigned with a third treble to his name, the heat would have very much been on the CEO rather than the departing manager.
But Leicester had a relatively easy run-in at the end of last season and Rodgers couldn’t wait. Anyone who actually read his (awful) book – probably the biggest selling hardback book in Scotland in a decade incidentally – will perhaps be a little less surprised at these events than the rest of the support. Rodgers had a determination, selfishness, focus on his career than few people have. It could be admired, but it’s strange, almost frightening. That book had very little in it about CELTIC. For Rodgers it always has been and always will be all about Brendan.
Lawwell’s Plan B worked well there is no doubt about that but his pig headedness was to cause Celtic problems. Leicester City duly paid the £9million in compensation for the manager and coaches – cancelling out the lost revenue for the Lawwell v Rodgers dispute the previous summer that prevented the club selling Dedryck Boyata to Fulham for roughly the same sum – and Lennon was a huge success.
But Lawwell’s mistake was in holding onto the useless Congerton and effectively leaving Celtic’s recruitment department closed for business for three months or so, a crucial time with the Champions League qualifiers just around the corner, as he awaited a further compo-pay-out from the Premier League club.
By the time Celtic took a 1-1 away result back from Romanian to play Cluj in the second leg of the third qualifying round in August, the new arrivals that did come in – Christopher Jullien and Boli Bolingoli – weren’t ready to play and weren’t trusted to start and Celtic crashed out of that competition with Callum McGregor playing at left back.
Leicester City had come back to get Congerton that summer and some compensation was paid to Celtic but that gap in not having a functioning recruitment department was very costly. You just have to read back on The Celtic Star to August 2019 to see the angst that this caused.
With Rodgers away a year, we should thank him for the professional job that he did, undoubtedly a success domestically, hopeless in Europe. The support politely accepted his tip-tap-pass-back brand of football but it was found out big-time on the continent and was also approaching its sell-by date domestically. No-one needs to like the guy.
Neil Lennon’s brand of football is infinitely more entertaining and is producing even better results and he is a better fit as Celtic manager operating within the financial realities that Celtic operate in within Scottish football.
How best to sum up the two managers up? Look to their records in the transfer market. When he arrived Brendan Rodgers signed Dorus de Vries, whose last appearance was two tears ago selling the jerseys in away leg against Zenit. When Neil Lennon came back he signed Fraser Forster who last week saved a penalty in Copenhagen to ensure that Celtic didn’t lose that game.
BR-Exit has actually worked out very well for Celtic.
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