Brendan Rodgers yet again proved what a class act he is by giving a straightforward and effective media conference yesterday afternoon, professing he wants what’s best for the club, and I for one believe that he is completely genuine. If only we could say the same about his bosses!
As much as I’d love him to stay, I’ve sadly resigned myself to Brendan Rodgers ending his second spell with the club this coming summer. I’m sorry to say it but I think it’s now inevitable, and deep down every Celtic supporter probably knows it’s the most likely outcome come the end of this season.
Brendan Rodgers as always has been linked with a few jobs down south, and just yesterday he stated how coaching in the EPL was a holiday compared to the intense pressure of the Glasgow goldfish bowl, so a return to England could well appeal to the Irishman after he makes good his commitment to remain at Celtic for the three years he signed up for in June 2022.
It’s clear that Brendan, despite his regular defence of his bosses, is as frustrated as the rest of us with their constant interfering, severe lack of ambition, and increasing obvious signs of incompetence, which can only point towards Brendan packing his bags when his contract expires.
Brendan, speaking yesterday at his media conference had this to say about how he feels about Celtic and the current turmoil caused by the failing inside the Celtic Boardroom.
“Like I said, I think that with my experience, you tend to try to focus on what you actually can do. I think if you go too deep into it, and of course, we want the synergy throughout the whole club. That’s what we all want, we all want what’s best for Celtic.
“Control what you can, which is the football element and look to do that on the pitch and on the training pitch every single day. That’s really where my focus is.
“I try not to get too involved, of course I’m involved. I love Celtic, I love managing Celtic, I want Celtic to be the very best every single season. Of course, there’s a focus there on the general health of the club, but like I said, it’s for me to focus on the performance level of the team and that won’t be clouded at all. I need to make sure that we perform and we make results.”
He was very clear ahead of the flag-day opener against St Mirren when he flagged up his 200% commitment to see out his contract and also his wish to remain at Celtic IF the club could only match his ambition, saying that he would NOT stay of that wasn’t the case as he was not a maintenance manager.
Has there been any signs of that ambition since the eve of the current season kick-off?
That’s why Brendan will not stay at Celtic, in my view at least. Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong come the end of this season.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
And why wouldn’t he leave with a penny pinching board and a section of biased supporters who can’t count the trophies won to date under his management.
Hail Hail.
Well it’s easy to see that this backstabbing manager had managed to get into your head and convince you that “it wisnae me” “a big boy did it and ran away”!
You are so gullible!
Rodgers is no more a Celtic man than Barry Ferguson is!
Okay, maybe 5% more! But not as much. He’d like you to believe! He has somehow sucked many fans in, including you by the looks of things, into believing that the board aren’t giving him the money to buy players he wants!
REALLY? Ask yourself, if you told your kid he could go buy a Mini and pulled up in a BMW sports car that cost twice as much but was an old banger, would you trust him again?
Think Engels! Idah! Trusty! £26M wasted! All Rodgers buys!
I wouldn’t send him for a fish supper!
Joe, this argument against Brendan Rodgers – who is not without his faults – is tiresome. Let’s look at that claim in closer detail relating to Adam Idah who was initially valued at no more than £3m by Norwich and had the board backed the manager’s judgement at that stage in late January 2024 then Norwich would have gladly accepted that sum for their out of favour, third pick striker. Idah scored crucial goals in a tight title race and also won us the Scottish Cup in the final against theRangers. Had the board – who do the negotiations – added a purchase clause in the deal with a set price then it would have been reasonably set at £3m.
Due to Idah’s success playing on loan from Norwich they were able to exploit his success from his time at Celtic to get three times their money. Fair play to them. So £3m of the fee was down to Rodgers and the rest down to the failings of our board who at that stage we didn’t quite appreciate just how bad they are in this transfer business.
Incidentally Idah scored 20 goals last season too including three on the Champions League and forced the goal that got us through against Young Boys coming off the bench. In the end his confidence was entirely shot because of folk like you and many other keyboard warriors constantly attacking him.
So Brendan signed a £3m player, who helped with the league and Scottish Cup while on loan then scored 20 goals after signing a permanent deal and was subsequently sold for £7m – a £4m profit from the Rodgers side of things. The extra £6m paid was due to the Celtic Board not the Celtic manager.
Trusty played really well in the Champions League last season – MOTM in Atalanta game – but has been injured this season. He’s fit at moment but is being kept out the team by Scales, a player Rodgers has improved considerably. If Trusty was to be sold Celtic would easily get their money back so nothing wasted there as far as I see.
Engels, like Idah has been targeted because of the fee Celtic paid. He celebrated his 21st birthday after signing for the club. His first season showed promise, less so this time around but who in that midfield is functioning at their best and with so many of last season’s top forwards gone – Kyogo, Idah, Kuhn etc – then that’s maybe understandable in the short term. Engels is more a 6 in my view and he is highly enough regarded for Celtic’s money to be safe.
Brendan Rodgers left Celtic the first time around due to the very same Celtic board NOT backing him – think John McGinn and I’ll happily tell that story again if required. He is not one of their puppets (like Lennon) and like Dom McKay he was forced out. Rodgers though had delivered a volume of success in his first time as Celtic manager to rival the glory years of Stein domestically. He remains the Celtic manager with most trebles and as a Celtic manager he has the best record at Hampden.
In Europe he didn’t do so well in his first spell and wanted to change that coming back. He saw progress last season did we not, then the board failed badly in the summer. They also failed back in January trying to replace Kyogo and they knew since the previous summer that he’d be leaving.
Brendan will I believe leave in the summer. What will come next will be a Lennon-like yes man. Someone schooled in the Celtic Board way and because of that he’ll get their backing right to the bitter end when it all blows up in their faces, like it did in the season 50k season ticket holders paid their money knowing we’d get into the zero games. That’s what £30m ‘invested’ into the club that no boardroom in the English Premiership got that year.