Brendan Rodgers has had to explain that he wasn’t promised a war chest of £30 million upwards when he decided to rejoin the club. But why should he explain? No one ever said he was promised that sum, it was just presumed by the Scottish media who clutched that figure out of thin air and it was swallowed by the the majority of our support.
We should know by now not to listen to the SMSM. Their gullibility is how the press still cling on to oxygen in this country. The mass majority of theRangers supporters swallow their feel good gushing propaganda on a daily basis and it’s painful to watch our own fall for the same spiel.
I’ve no doubt Brendan was promised money amount to spend because Celtic were going to spend regardless of whether he took the job or not. That is the business model that is currently working so well at Paradise, so why change it? But the sum promised will be nowhere near the amount suggested. Ange spent upwards of £40 million but this was mostly covered by outgoings and in Brendan’s time it will be the same.
The £27m Jota money will help, but we are not a club who spend silly money chasing success. We have a business model which also brings success. It works perfectly fine as results on the park have proven the past decade.
Celtic v Aberdeen – Tomoki Iwata and Jota celebrate after the cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park, Saturday May 27, 2023. Photo Andrew Milligan
I’ve no doubt we will bring in the required quality, but only if it’s within our reach. That strategy will remain the same and Brendan knows this or he wouldn’t have agreed to return. We will spend big but only strategically and on the right players.
And we will also sell players, as Ange used to warn us against getting too attached to the stars in the team because players will always be sold. Again that will be the case this time around for Brendan and he’s perfectly happy with that.
Speaking in Japan, Brendan explained as reported by Scottish Sun: “The club will reach out and spend what they possibly can within the model. But I think there has been a narrative based around me coming back which seems to be, ‘He’s only back here because he can spend a load of money’. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“I’m back here because I want to be the Celtic manager and I’m very privileged to be that. It’s absolutely nothing to do with money.
“I know where the club is at. Coming back, I’m much more aware of the model, that’s why I needed the time to make the decision to come back, because I needed to know everything about the club and where it’s at. So the club has a model it works to and I’ll within that. But there seemed to be a different narrative about me coming back.
“It felt like people who don’t know me creating a story around, ‘Why would he come back?’. It was like, ‘He must be doing it because of the war chest he’s being given’. It does make me laugh when I read it.
“But I will work within the model which has been really successful. We will look for players who are first-team ready. But we’ll also look at players who we can bring in and develop and move on. That’s the of it.
Brendan Rodgers. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“Look, there are levels to it all. You could bring in a player at any cost because if he’s a good player he’ll have value. But I’m not in any way at all demanding that we need to sign three players at £10m or £15m. That’s not the case.
“Celtic is one of the biggest clubs in world football. Sadly we don’t have the resources of some of the others. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. And I think there is a greater understanding of that model and what it is. It’s about identifying talent and clearly the club is very good at that. Then it’s about coaching that talent and developing it.”
Just an Ordinary Bhoy