WHEN the quiet man shouts, you’d be well advised to listen.
Celtic’s major (but not majority) shareholder Dermot Desmond rarely pops his head above the parapet, so that made his public evisceration of departed manager Brendan Rodgers all the more shocking.
Corkman Desmond labelled what Rodgers had said and done recently as “divisive, misleading and self-serving”, saying they led to “a toxic atmosphere around the club”.
Celtic had just lost to their title rivals – surprisingly Hearts, not Rangers – after exiting the Champions League in August after a poor summer transfer window.
However, Desmond rejected Rodgers’s claims that ‘the board’ was at fault:
“What has failed recently was not due to our structure or model, but to one individual’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others…
“Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan’s full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false.”
DD also insisted that BR had been offered a contract extension – contrary to what the Carnlough man had claimed, adding that during a three-hour meeting of the two men Rodgers “despite ample opportunity… was unable to identify a single instance where the club had obstructed or failed to support him. The facts did not match his public narrative.”
Still, Rodgers definitely had some cause for complaint.
The much-derided ‘biscuit tin’ in the Celtic Park boardroom is positively bulging with cash, at least relative to Scottish football.
The excellent ‘Swiss Ramble’ football finances analysis points out that Celtic have large cash reserves of £77m – more than the rest of the Scottish Premiership put together and larger than any English club except Tottenham Hotspur – and yet they took in more than they spent during the summer.
So who’s wrong and who’s right?
The reality, as so often in life, lies somewhere in between. Notably, though, Rodgers has not (so far) made any effort to refute Desmond’s remarks…
Two seemingly contradictory statements can, actually, both be true.
Celtic should have spent more in the summer transfer window – but Brendan Rodgers is not the manager to be trusted to make those transfer calls.
Rodgers is a very good coach but his player judgment is highly questionable.
Liverpool FC’s former Director of Research Ian Graham makes that clear in his fascinating book How To Win The Premier League.
Rodgers tried to force Jordan Henderson out of Liverpool; worse than that, he wanted to use him IN PART-EXCHANGE for Clint Dempsey.
‘Hendo’ refused to go, fought for his place, and became one of the best LFC captains in recent decades.
Henderson was certainly a better leader than Steven Gerrard.
Rodgers insisted on bringing in Joe Allen, whom he laughably labelled ‘the Welsh Xavi’. A good player, but Graham had the data showing that Allen was not as effective a midfielder as Gerrard (obviously) or Lucas Leiva.
Rodgers also wanted to buy Gylfi Sigurdsson, but it was pointed out that Liverpool already had a right-footed set piece specialist called – checks notes – Steven Gerrard.
Rodgers did not want Daniel Sturridge, preferring Fabio Borini.
Rodgers wanted Tom Ince. The club instead acquired Philippe Coutinho.
Rodgers insisted on signing Christian Benteke, and wasn’t keen on acquiring Roberto Firmino.
The list goes on, and the pattern repeats itself at other clubs.
Only the (in)famous ‘transfer committee’ at Anfield reined in Rodgers’s worst instincts about players and instead brought in tremendous talent.
Rodgers always has a significant say in player signings, but when results start going badly he always blames ‘the club’ for failings in the transfer market.
He did the same before he left Leicester City.
If Liverpool had won the league under him it should have been remembered as the ‘Luis Suarez season’. The Uruguayan almost single-handedly – and two-footedly – dragged the Reds to a very unexpected title.
Notably, Liverpool fell short in the end when they lost to Chelsea and drew at Crystal Palace, both games for which a certain Jordan Henderson was missing due to suspension.
In Europe under Rodgers, Liverpool then failed to get out of a Champions League group containing Basel and Ludogorets Razgrad, before being knocked out of the Europa League round of 32 by Besiktas.
Rodgers became the first Liverpool manager since the 1950s not to win a trophy after three seasons in charge. In the league, his teams finished seventh, second, and sixth.
He did very well at Leicester – at first. The Foxes finished fifth twice, won the FA Cup, and then placed eighth. Yet Rodgers left them in April 2023 because they were en route to eventual relegation – and they had spent plenty.
The acid test for clubs such as Celtic, dominant domestically, is always in Europe.
Bear in mind that Rodgers went to Scotland to face a Rangers/Sevco team that had only just returned to the top flight after four seasons out of it.
Rangers have had 21 permanent managers in the club’s entire 153-year history.
Eight of those have been over the past decade, with a further five different caretaker bosses during that turbulent last 10 years. In other words, almost complete chaos.
Put plainly, Rodgers has been the captain of calm, steady ship up against a leaky craft constantly changing the man at the steering wheel.
The two-horse race of Scottish football has been a canter for Celtic in many recent campaigns.
Celtic’s wage bill is now at its highest ever level, around £75m.
On the face of it, they performed creditably in the Champions League last year, with three wins and three draws in eight group games – but those victories came against three of the worst five teams overall.
They were then unfortunate not to shock Bayern Munich in the play-off round, losing only 3-2 on aggregate, with the Germans hanging on for a home draw.
Overall, though, Celtic’s record in Europe has been largely poor under Rodgers. They did better in Neil Lennon’s time in charge.
Losing out to Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan in the play-offs this summer was inexcusable.
Rangers, who have been – to use a technical term – a shambles for quite some time, reached the Europa League Final in 2022, and its quarter-finals last season.
Despite all their recent romps to titles, Celtic are only 59th in the European club coefficients, whereas the Gers are rated 35th. That is rather embarrassing for the Bhoys.
Celtic erred on the side of caution this summer. The club is right to be cautious, to an extent, given the ample evidence from the blue half of Glasgow about the dangers of over-spending.
Yet they did err.
However, even with the players he has, Rodgers’s Celtic should not have been trailing behind Hearts, whose 2024 wage bill was only £16.5m and their squad cost less than £5m.
Celtic’s choice as a permanent successor to Rodgers will be important – crucially, they require someone whom they can trust to spend their money well.
