Q: Brendan, I don’t know if you’re aware, but the Celtic Fans Collective have put out another statement today, ‘Not Another Penny’ into the club. Is there a concern that the divide between the supporters and the club is getting deeper?
‘Not Another Penny’ campaign from Celtic Fans Collective
Brendan Rodgers: “Well, one, I haven’t seen that. Two, I would say, listen, the Celtic supporters are at the heart of this club. That is what Celtic is synonymous with, and hopefully going forward, we can find that balance that allows that great support to spill onto the field and obviously, we have that harmony throughout the club. But until then, I’m sure both parties will continue discussing. In the meantime, it’s really about affecting what we can, and that’s on the pitch.”
Q: Just on that, do you think it can have any impact on the team in any way?
Brendan Rodgers: “Well, we have to control that or try and influence that as much as we possibly can. I think on a day-to-day basis up here on the training field, of course, it doesn’t. Our focus is very much on training, developing, preparing the team and then obviously bringing that out onto the match-day. Then from that, we get the great support, and they can hopefully push the team and that’s all you can hope for.
Alistair Johnston. Dens Park, Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou
Q: Brendan, do you almost feel that yourself and the team can be caught between the two because you can see both sides of the debate almost? You see what the fans want, and you can also see what the board might be getting at and where they come from as well. Do you feel that sometimes you and the team can be stuck between the two?
Brendan Rodgers: “No, I just think that I can really only affect going forward and affect the future of the team and influence as best I can. You can’t control everything as a manager, but you can certainly influence. The biggest influence is for the players and the training and the team and that’s what we have to focus on.”
Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Q: In terms of the meeting, Brendan, that took place last week between some figures from the club’s board and fan representatives, as manager, were you given any feedback to what was discussed or do you try and separate yourself from that as much as you can?
Brendan Rodgers: “I get to understand and get to hear a little bit, but of course, that remains closed, what we’ll speak about.”
Q: How difficult has it been and how frustrating is it when you’ve still got all these things bubbling on in the background? Look at the moment you guys had in the last game where there was a real togetherness in that last minute, because then you might think that’s been put to the back burner and then it’s the international break and it starts to bubble up again?
Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Motherwell FC at Celtic Park, on 5th October 2025. Photo Mark Runnacles IMAGO/Shutterstock
Brendan Rodgers: “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.
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.