It was a grey Monday in the world of Celtic, still reeling and debating a Tynecastle defeat, that is until the club has set itself on fire again…
Brendan Rodgers has left Celtic. He’s vanished into the mist with a resignation letter, as yet unpublished, and a knowing smirk. And if you still thought you were dreaming all this. Here’s the official evidence. With another plot twist attached, straight from the heart of the bureaucratic abyss.
27 October 2025.
CELTIC PLC
(“Celtic” or the “Club”)
Brendan Rodgers to leave Celtic
Celtic PLC confirms that first-team manager Brendan Rodgers will leave the Club immediately. He has today tendered his resignation which the Club has accepted. The Club would like to thank Brendan for his contribution to the Club during both of his periods at Celtic and wishes him success in the future.
Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill and former Celtic player Shaun Maloney have agreed to lead the first team on an interim basis. The process of appointing Celtic’s next permanent Football Manager is already underway, and an update will be communicated in due course.
Enquiries:
Celtic PLC
Chris McKay, Chief Financial Officer
Read it again. Just in case you missed it. That’s right — the Chief Financial Officer is now the voice of Celtic Football Club. Not the CEO, not even the omnipresent Peter Lawwell hologram. The accountant. The man who checks the printer leases and the VAT returns. When the finance guy is making the football announcements, you know the structure’s gone full dystopian.
And there now will be questions asked about where the Chairman and the CEO are at the moment and about their own futures at Celtic PLC.
David Low, who knows his way around the financial side of the business world, picked up on their names being notably absent from the official notification to the markets of the manager’s resignation. He was asked this question on X: ‘David with your background and experience can you tell me does Dermot have the authority to issue a statement on behalf of Celtic. Should statements not be issued solely by Celtic board?’
David Low’s response:
‘The chair or CEO normally makes these announcements and the fact a supposed NED issued the statement is notable. Also, notable is that neithers’ name was on the Stock exchange announcement.’
Anyway that aside what a replacement act we get for Rodgers. An underscoring of what decade our custodians operate in. Seventy-three-year-old Martin O’Neill, fresh from retirement and still raging about the modern plague of “throw-in coaches,” parachutes in to steady the ship. His lieutenant? Shaun Maloney, O’Neill’s Seville sub, freshly promoted from youth pathway coordinator to assistant manager overnight.
You couldn’t script this. One day he’s fine-tuning PowerPoints about player development, the next he’s drawing up set-pieces for Falkirk at home. From pathways to panic stations. This isn’t football management, it’s time travel with a dash of gallows humour. Nostalgia does crisis management.
That stock-exchange notice should’ve been a formality, a polite line to keep the markets calm. Instead, we got more instability. It’s what happens when a club’s internal organs start eating each other.
Does the CFO step forward because the CEO, Michael Nicholson, is rumoured to be halfway out the door, and the Chairman, Peter Lawwell, might not be far behind? There’s even talk of Willie Haughey waiting in the wings because nothing says “fresh start” like another millionaire with a club connection.
And then there’s Dermot Desmond, the man who usually prefers the shadows, now suddenly raging in public. His statement wasn’t reassurance, it read like revenge. Pages of corporate fury, aimed squarely at Rodgers. He accused, contradicted, and moralised, like a billionaire priest doing penance by blaming everyone else.
If Desmond’s goal was calm, he missed the target by miles. He’s poured petrol on the pitch and lit it with his cigar.
Rodgers didn’t go alone. The backroom staff, one in particular, who has been part of the club for more than a decade, sided with him. Walked. Packed his things and left the lights on for loyal Stevie and Gordon Strachan’s boy. The rest followed their man out the door.
So, the board, in a panic, dragged O’Neill from his fireside chair and Maloney from the youth system and told them to steady the ship. It’s football by defibrillator.
It’s surreal. The club is in freefall, the leadership is in hiding, and the one person fronting it all now, it seems, is the financial controller. If this were any other organisation, the shareholders would be demanding resignations. But at Celtic, crisis has become routine of late, part of the operating model.
So, here’s where we are, Rodgers gone. Desmond raging. The CFO informing the Stock Exchange. Rumours swirling of CEO and chairman exits. And in the dugout, a septuagenarian who thinks throw-in coaches are a moral failing, and his Seville sub, who just closed a youth-pathway corporate education video, on his laptop is to take training.
This isn’t a football club anymore, it’s a corporate hallucination. A place where nostalgia has replaced leadership, and now appears outsourced to accountants.
Niall J
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Loved your post, you’ve put into words what I was thinking but not as articulate, hope your right about the CEO & Chairman, not becouse I dislike any of them, but Celtic need change and that has to start from the top, something still sticks in my throat, why was Dominic Mc’ Kay let go hail hail .
Welcome back both Martin and Shawn
Hi William.
Dominic McKay was forced to go by these cretins as he was so professional and successful at his previous posts. He would have has us where we wanted to be now if he was not removed. This did not line well with these charlatans and incompetents on the board, as they would have been shown up for what they are. The board and major shareholder is a cancer at our club and the club now needs major surgery to get its health back.
I would have Dominic back in a heartbeat, but I would like that clown Dermot (Trump) Desmond gone. He is a major part of this disease and his statement today was awful.
Like you, I loved Niall’s post.
Dermot Desmond 100% correct, why is there always a problem getting transfers done when BR is in charge? Why does so many of his signings not get regular game time? we had more money sitting on bench at tynecastle than hearts had on pitch. Trusty played against Atalanta in champions league in right hand side of defence but BR preferred an untested centre back who if he had a left foot would have cleared ball on Sunday and probably not given away penalty, the issue with most Celtic fans was the confusion of who was responsible for transfer business, Dermot has certainly cleared that up
Oh that will be Desmond the one that can’t be bothered to turn up to any AGM any games takes nothing to do with driving our club forward just take your money and get to f .k we don’t need you
Niall J I guess he dosent know what the pathway managers role is at this time,as it’s changed very much since O Dee was there it’s not about presentation it’s about trying to get the young players a team that they can lay in and getting them that’s been bought in that don’t have a chance of making it at Celtic but could enjoy a career someday else .The daily star Jesus
Sorry I could not read anymore of this drivel, don’t worry you and the other groups who are obviously way bigger and more important than the club will continue your program of disruption to get what you want regardless of the affect on the team and club
Really Eddie Hart you accuse the collective of being bigger than the club GO READ WHAT DERMOT DESMOND SAID at the very end….
Celtic is greater than any one person. Our focus now is on restoring harmony, strengthening the squad, and continuing to build a club worthy of its values, traditions, and supporters.
with that statement he has made himself bigger than the club…..he is an utter disgrace he doesn’t give to flying four irons for us
Steady on Bhoys.
The board messed up with the transfers. Rodgers messed up with his politicking and his refusal to pick the best side due to pettiness and his trying to prove a point.
Rodgers treated the two new Japanese bhoys disgracefully.
Remember OH? Not a Rodgers signing. He alluded to his not understanding how he wanted him to play. Sold him for peanuts and he is now worth upward of 30 million. That was Rodgers’ arrogance and stupidity and pettiness rolled into one.
Dermot Desmond is Celtic’s biggest shareholder and therefore has a big say in the club. He is a huge supporter of Irish football and Celtic. He has put money into the game and not asked for it back. He cares passionately about the club, as do the rest of the board. Will some members go? Probably, it’s just a shame that it has to be this way.
The atmosphere was clearly TOXIC and it now needs to change. A good start is to stop the protests and get behind the team and temporary management and then get behind the new manager, whoever he is and win the bloody league and anything else we are in. Hail