Brendan Rodgers is clearly considered to be an elite in the coaching world, with his stellar work in English football helping to earning him that title alongside his body of work at Celtic…
Numerous honours in two spells at Celtic have also risen his stock, including an Invincible treble and a remarkable winning record at Hampden that started in 2016 and only ended back in May when Celtic lost the Scottish Cup final to Aberdeen.
However every now and again, Celtic supporters have questioned his status as a so called ‘elite’ manager in the footballing world, especially as it’s a term many of the writers on The Celtic Star are happy to use. Right now is one of those such occasions, and as much as I admire Brendan, his status as a so called elite manager is hanging in the balance.
Brendan is reckoned to be on around £2 million a year, and for me he’s got to start doing more to justify and fully earn that massive salary. Yes, he’s won many honours in his Celtic career in two different spells. The first of which was simply outstanding, but this time around he’s left himself very much open to being questioned.
Let’s take this calendar year for example. Nigh on every big game we’ve played we’ve failed to win. The treble was blown, as we fell to a disappointing spot kick defeat to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final back in May. We haven’t beaten theRangers this year and on two of those occasions, Brendan failed to get the better of Barry Ferguson.
This campaign has been worrying. We’ve needed last minute goals to beat St Mirren and Motherwell at home. We failed to beat a poor theRangers side at Ibrox, and were eliminated from the Champions League by a bang average side in Kairat Almaty.
Our recent defeat at the hands of Dundee compounded those woes even further, as our elite manager was outsmarted by Steven Pressley who knew exactly how Celtic were going to play. A system that is now a busted flush and has to go in the bin.
Yes, the Celtic board are more than culpable by failing miserably in providing him with the quality he craves, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we should canter the league with the squad we currently have in place. Dundee were more than content to allow Celtic to pass the ball sideways and backwards and despite the best efforts of the travelling support Celtic never really looked like scoring.
Tomorrow night’s against SK Sturm Graz and Sunday’s clash with Hearts are both chances for Brendan to prove his worth, but if he fails yet again, then questions will rightly be asked over his status as not only an elite manager but the Celtic manager.
Watch this…
The Brendan debate.
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— 20 Minute Tims (@20MinuteTims) October 22, 2025
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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Yeah, the manager carries the can, but this is down to the players. It doesn’t matter what tactics and formations the manager plays, this group of players have chucked it, and nothing the manager does will make the slightest bit of difference, they’ll still produce the same dross they have been for months. They are the ‘professionals’ who are far from elite, and need to take a long hard look at themselves, they have been truly woeful, irrespective of what the manager has instructed them to do. The more experienced players especially, McGregor, Shmiecal, Tierney should hang their heads in shame, they have looked amateur, clueless, and lacking in skill and effort.
Not one has looked fit to wear the jersey, except for a couple of the new guys and perhaps Scales, the rest an insult to the colours they wear.
Obviously you got a completely different take on what an elite manager status is, compared to myself?
Fail to see how any manager earns an elite status, without any European football record worthy of talking about.
Just how many embarrassing European results, have we had now under Rodgers, in this his 6th European campaign with ourselves?
Wasn’t that his, along with ours, thinking of finally getting a decent return in European football results was on the cards?
Even upon his return, after 10 attempts away form home, we are still waiting for that victory?
Glorious failure and gaining draws, doesn’t warrant elite manager status in my book anyway.
Always felt Rodgers wanted to improve his European record, especially with ourselves.
Would say that there is very little chance of that happening now.
Even that elite manager status in Scottish football terms is currently under threat at present.
Enough earned in the past, to maybe allow more leeway within this current free fall, but still wouldn’t be enough to save his job, especially as elite status was never in place in the first instance imo.
Two words, last campaign.