Brendan Rodgers’ resigns as Celtic manager having won 11 trophies from a possible 13 over a five year period. That is his legacy…Thank you Brendan.
Yet, last night, principal shareholder Dermot Desmond released a public evisceration of Rodgers on the official Celtic FC website, to place all the blame for what went wrong at the club this summer squarely on the now former Celtic boss. You couldn’t mark Desmond’s neck with a blowtorch.
It reads like a personal statement of the principal shareholder. It appears Dermot is extremely angry that Rodgers resigned and he didn’t get the chance to give him the bullet.
What Desmond is attempting is clear: to rewrite the story so that Rodgers shoulders all the blame – for recruitment failures, for being eight points behind Hearts, for crashing out of the Champions League to Kairat Almaty, and for the toxic atmosphere between supporters and the boardroom. Is Rodgers blameless? Of course not. But for Desmond to absolve himself entirely is an act of staggering audacity, but not overly surprising.
Don’t fall for it – Desmond and the executives are the ones responsible. They have displayed utter mismanagement and contempt for supporters after a shambolic window. They are the ones who have regressed the club and pushed it into perpetual decline. Rodgers was right to resign, but should have done it in the summer.
The issues at Celtic will keep resurfacing no matter how often they are brushed aside or blamed onto someone else; as long as Desmond holds majority influence, the board’s approach will stay the same, and the most supporters can hope for are managers capable of masking the board’s failings. Rodgers did this not only in his first spell, but he came back and done it again.
It was Rodgers who managed Celtic over the line in his first season back after being gifted wrapped nine Mark Lawwell duds. It was Rodgers who took Celtic to different levels in the Champions League last season despite the club taking a net profit of £3 million in the summer transfer window. Rodgers’ reward for nearly taking Bayern Munich to extra time in a CL knockout tie in February? The complete asset stripping of his squad. Sell his best player with the club failing to replace him. Sign five club signings. Spend £13 million. Hoard £77 million worth of cash reserves in the bank.
A reminder that on 6 October 2025, the board said: “The club do not accept that there is a disconnect between the board and the manager.”
How can anyone believe anything Desmond says? Last night’s farce has perfectly exposed just how unfit the Celtic board and its 34% principal shareholder are to lead the club. How on earth can anyone trust Desmond, Michael Nicholson or Chris McKay to recruit a new manager?
Also, why is it acceptable for a shareholder holding just 34.7% to freely sack and appoint managers, take control of the club’s communications on the official website, and use it to issue a vindictive and harmful statement? Where is the highly-paid CEO or Chairman in all of this? Was he sleeping when all this kicked off?
A pertinent point to finish – John Kennedy’s decision to walk alongside Rodgers speaks volumes on its own.
This is a guy who is a proper Celtic man. He missed out on two top jobs at Leicester and Spurs to stay at Celtic. I hope he goes onto have a long and successful career in coaching and management. Maybe one day we will see him back at Celtic Park.
Finally, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brendan regularly at media conferences representing The Celtic Star, and he was always thoughtful, open, and engaging. As mentioned from the outset of this piece, 11 domestic trophies from a possible 13 is an extraordinary record – one that cements his place among Celtic’s most successful managers. Whatever the noise and narrative that follows from inside the club, that will ALWAYS remain his legacy.
Conor Spence
