When Brendan Rodgers did his midnight flit to the English city of Leicester back in February 2019, for a while it became the Winter if Discontent as it had left the supporters and the Parkhead powerbrokers visibly aggravated and shaken. The Northern Irishman gave no notice as he upped sticks at the drop of a hat and decided that the allure of the Premier League was just too much to turn down – even if it did leave Celtic high and dry at the time.
The subsequent onslaught and tirade of abuse the ex-Celtic boss received from various quarters was acute as it was unforgiving. Many claimed that Rodgers had been working his ticket for some time and that is why then CEO Peter Lawwell declined to release funds during the summer of 2018. The club’s fabled pursuit of John McGinn, untimely exit in Champions League qualifying to AEK Athens and then sale of star striker Moussa Dembele ensured the heat was turned up on everyone associated with portions of power within the club.
It was a strained period of time during Rodgers’ tenure as he had one eye on the departure lounge at Glasgow Airport. The former Liverpool boss has spoken out again about his decision to quit the club he supported as a boy on Kammy and Ben’s Proper Football Podcast: “Challenge. I think we had qualified for the Champions League two seasons running. We’d won the Double Treble, we’d brought great investment into the club”, as reported by Football Scotland.
“But I felt to make the next steps in Europe, we needed investment. It was a little bit of…I don’t think the club had that investment to put in, to compete at that level. It was also the challenge. It was such a difficult thing to leave because of the friends, the club and everything.
“But the number one thing for me in my life is to take on a challenge. And I felt that it wasn’t the ideal time to leave, but where I’d left the club from when I came in, the club had won seven trophies on the spin with the records and everything that we’d done. We filled the stadium again. We gave the team back hope because when we first came in we’d just lost to (the)Rangers and (the)Rangers were coming into the league. I felt we’d built up a great togetherness there.
“When I left, we were eight points clear and in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup. We’d already won the League Cup and we were in a really good position in the league. Neil (Lennon) came in, he did really well and won the league and Scottish Cup. The team finishes nine points clear and has a good foundation for the following season. Me coming into here (Leicester City), the challenge was could I disrupt the market? Could I bring a team into the top-six. The top-six had been very set here in the Premier League for a number of years. I think the only team who did beat that when they won the league was Leicester.
“So the challenge coming to here was, I felt it was a good squad and a fantastic owner. They had the plans for the training facility. Could we go into somewhere that gives us the chance to break into the top-six, even though it was going to be a huge challenge? That was the reason I left. It was such a hard one, such a difficult one. But I only look at the great memories, the great people, the great friends I’ve made there, the happy moments that I had. And then it was the next step in the journey.”
There is always two sides to every story and I firmly believe that it is somewhere in the middle. Rodgers would always have wanted to take that huge ego of his back into the riches and exposure of the English Premier League. However, at the same time, there is no excuse for Peter Lawwell failing to sign John McGinn as he would have been a long-term solution to Celtic’s midfield problem and would have definitely made us a profit somewhere down the line.
Sometimes for the greater good of the club, people who are in positions of responsibility should let there narcissism and internal politics rest. That was not the case in this situation. Two men with ideas above their station deficated on the beautiful crest of our club and history will never forgive them for it. In many ways, it was the chain reaction of events from this seminal point that cost us an unprecedented Ten-in-a-row.
Paul Gillespie
