SO, IT SEEMS Brendan Rodgers is heading for Saudi. Or is it Swansea? Maybe Wolves or Leeds United?
Frankly, who cares?
Following his resignation sixteen days ago – his second sudden walk-out on the club – I think it would be reasonable to presume there will not be a third incarnation of the Irishman in the east end of Glasgow.
Rodgers is now part of Celtic’s past. Football management is a results-driven business and no-one survives on past glories alone.
It was just a pity he left in such bitter and acrimonious circumstances following Dermot Desmond’s vehement character assassination. We may never discover what provoked the emphatic address of the club’s principial shareholder, but he certainly didn’t miss the target and hit the wall.
Rodgers deserved the accolades that came his way in his first stint – only the churlish would deny him that – and his Invincibles debut campaign rightly earned a special place in the club’s hall of fame.
Winning eleven of the thirteen domestic honours over two stints is a laudable achievement and no-one can take that away from him. And why would they?
But 2025 didn’t quite go quite according to plan, did it? Alarm bells drowned out the chimes of a New Year being ushered in when the champions were all too easily dismissed 3-0 by Philippe Clement’s Ibrox side in Govan just 48 hours into 2025.
No team has the God-given right to success and the odd reversal will come along to give everyone a wake-up call. But the trick is to react to the red flags.
Ignore them at your peril.
Throughout 2024, Celtic had been defeated just once in a domestic encounter. That loss occurred in a highly contentious encounter against Hearts at Tynecastle in March when Yang Hyun-jun was dismissed early on and the hosts were awarded a ‘phantom’ penalty-kick for the opening goal in a 2-0 win.
The spotlight shone on the match officials – on and off the pitch – after some bizarre decision-making. Rodgers’ reputation remained intact.
The 52-year-old gaffer didn’t cop too much flak, either, when the side were taken apart in the derby debacle at the beginning of a year that began with a loss and concluded with the team relinquishing their two-year hold on the Scottish Cup.
For a man who thrives on the reputation of being a serial winner, there wasn’t much singing and dancing between a new year dawning in Govan and the curtain coming down on a puzzling crusade against Aberdeen at Hampden on May 24.
There were four Premiership losses – two against Rangers, one in dodgy circumstances at Hibs and another against Championship-bound St Johnstone while a stoppage-time penalty-kick by Arne Engels prevented an embarrassing reverse against struggling Dundee at Dens Park.
And it took another late, late strike from James Forrest to prevent defeat against St Mirren on Trophy Day in the last league outing of the campaign.
There was another 1-1 deadlock in the derby confrontation at Ibrox where Rodgers contrived to fail to overcome rookie Barry Ferguson for a second time, shedding five points in the process.
Sad to say, but the Irishman could not match the achievement of second-tier Queen’s Park, then managed by Callum Davidson, who won at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup. St Mirren did likewise for the first time at the venue in 1991 and a P45 winged its way to Big Phil.
For the record, Motherwell and Hibs both recorded league wins in Govan after the turn of the year, surprisingly something outwith the capabilities of the champions.
It certainly made life easier for Celtic in their quest for a fourth successive championship that failure so enthusiastically embraced the incumbents in Govan.
If there is such a thing as a heroic elimination, Celtic achieved it when they were dismissed from Europe’s elite tournament in the 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena. The exit had been set in motion with the 2-1 collapse in the first leg in Glasgow.
The hosts stepped onto thin ice when the dithering defence allowed Harry Kane time and space to volley past Kasper Schmeichel for what turned out to be the winner in a 2-1 success for the Bundesliga club.
Earlier in the League format, there had been a 4-2 feeble capitulation to Aston Villa in the Midlands when too many players failed to turn up. That, sadly, became a bewildering feature as the season rolled on.
In the first half of 2025, the Hoops lost seven – if you include negligence during two hours of football and in a penalty-kick decider in the soccer showpiece at Hampden – of their 21 outings.
Since this season’s kick-off, Celtic fired six blanks in Rodgers’ 16 games in charge, two scoreless stalemates against the Kazakhstan minnows Kairat Almaty – compounded by three inept attempts from the penalty spot – to see the team eliminated from the Champions League at the first qualifying hurdle.
There were timid goalless confrontations against an Ibrox side managed by Russell Martin (who?) in Govan and Hibs at Parkhead. Sporting Braga managed to put up the shutters at the venue in their 2-0 Europa League success.
You had to hope Rodgers would rise above all the hoo-ha surrounding the club off the field and take notice of the fairly obvious distress signals and react to the task.
A mindbogglingly awful performance in a 2-0 loss to Dundee at Dens Park and an equally uninspiring show in the 3-1 defeat against Hearts at Tynecastle followed in consecutive weekends as valuable ground in the title race was surrendered.
I have to be honest and admit I did not shed a tear when it was made public that Rodgers had once again cleared his desk.
In itself, that is quite a sad admission. I met the manager during his first stint when he agreed to a rare one-on-one interview for a book I was writing. He was charming and courteous and it was impossible not to be impressed by his entire demeanour.
A few months later, I was astounded to receive a phone call to inform me Rodgers had vamoosed to Leicester City. I had departed Lennoxtown that afternoon after a lengthy sitdown with an individual I was certain was the future of our football club.
I got that wrong. Equally, as this year progressed, I had become convinced the same individual would not be at Celtic to see out this season. Mistakes were made – the Honda Civic reference being one of them – and a heavy price was paid.
It’s time to let him go. I won’t be charting his progress elsewhere with any great interest.
ALEX GORDON
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