BRENDAN RODGERS will speak to the media today ahead of tomorrow evening’s trip to play at Tynecastle. The former Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner said on BBC Sportsound the other night that a win against Hearts will all but wrap up 8 in a Row for his fellow Irishman, managing his former club.
Craig Levein, despite the unseasonably warm weather we have been enjoying, has not been able to get any growth in his grass so that controversy is going to be avoided but there will be plenty of other things to talk about.
Leicester City for one.
The media are running with essentially the same story, which will have its origins south of the border. Leicester want Brendan to replace Claude Puel who they sacked after Saturday’s 4-1 home thrashing by Crystal Palace.
They want him now as each place in the English Premier League is worth around £2.5m in prize money.
Brendan, with the chance to win an unprecedented treble treble would have to tarnish his reputation among his own ‘people’, who he said he’d come to lead in May 2016 – 7 trophies ago. He could have earned much more money elsewhere but he had the chance of writing his name in the history books at Celtic – the club he supports – and walking away now would dramatically tarnish how he will be remembered as a Celtic manager.
It is doubtful that he’d want it to end this way.
Celtic are entitled to compensation – sums mentioned are the £5million which presumably will be paid if he leaves in the summer, or £6million which could apply if he were to up sticks and go this week.
Celtic, according to Richard McGinley, the E-Tims writer, granted Leicester permission to speak to Brendan yesterday.
As far as i know, and i may be wrong, permission was granted to.speak to him today.
— Richard McGinley (@Richiestoke) February 25, 2019
He later suggested that the players don’t think that Brendan will leave, and that is something that Scott Bain, the only Celt put in-front of the media yesterday, was suggesting.
There’s a reliable poster on one of the board controlled sites who has an excellent reputation for being accurate in his information. Yesterday afternoon at teatime he suggested that it was bad news that he’d been hearing. That’s fairly worrying.
The bookies responded to the English led story (which became stories as they all ran with it North and South of the border) and made Brendan 1/10 on which is basically them saying if there is inside information doing the rounds there will be no free money from us, while of course getting themselves mentioned in the story.
The Leicester sites mention Brendan among others, some German chap is also well quoted as an option.
Chris Sutton reckons that Brendan should reflect on Celtic – with the chance to play in the Champions League – being a bigger job than Leicester City and Brendan himself has talked about ‘6 week cycles’ in game down south. Lose enough of your games in this period and you are to toast.
Is there a better job than Leicester there for Brendan in the summer? It certainly looks like Chelsea, with their impeding transfer ban, might look to their former coach for his mana-management skills to work with the players that are already there. Other offers might come in too.
Dropping us in it and walking away after Tynecastle would be so unlike Brendan Rodgers that it’s hard to believe he’d do it. But the fact is that he’s been unhappy with the scenario at Celtic since last summer after securing the Double Treble.
Big John Hartson, in his newspaper column, has had his say.
“And I know I have said it before, but for me it is vital for Brendan to leave a legacy at Celtic. He can be the man not just to take them to ten-in-a-row but to 11, to 12, to 13, to 14…if the board go on and back him this summer then it could be anything.
“There could be no let up to just how dominant Celtic are in a domestic sense.
“I don’t agree that there is a natural shelf life for a manager at either Celtic or Rangers. Walter Smith didn’t feel the need to go after three seasons, did he? Martin O’Neill had five.
“I don’t see it because I just don’t think that winning ever gets tired. And the way that things are set up now, Brendan can be the man who puts himself right up there with the very best.
“He takes Celtic to ten and he is a legend in his own right. And it is so close now that you can almost taste it. It is within touching distance.”
Then this happens…which is a kick in the teeth to the Celtic support if true.
Brendan Rodgers, Chris Davies, Kolo Toure and Glenn Driscoll quitting Celtic to move to Leicester City.
Neil Lennon on the way back.
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) February 26, 2019
