Chris Sutton has articulated many of the concerns of Celtic supporters over what has been an underwhelming start to the season, as the halfway point and winter break approaches.
Initially the majority of fans seemed opposed to the return of Brendan Rodgers but much of the hostility made way for reality with no other credible candidates emerging.
Many of the issues that contributed to Rodgers leaving in February 2019 remained with little outward signs of change within the club but the man himself seemed convinced that he had the platform to pick up where he left off and make a dent in Europe.
Domestic success will never be taken for granted but over the piece the biggest club with the highest turnover really should prevail but this season’s Celtic side has been far from convincing.
Taking over a Treble winning squad should have been a better handover than the broken squad left behind by Ronny Deila but most fans would be hard pushed to point out a single impressive performance this season.
Back-to-back defeats in the SPFL haven’t come as a surprise, the reaction from Rodgers has been a concern with the manager appearing far from happy with the circumstances that he finds himself in.
With four matches to go until the winter break, three before the transfer window opens Celtic fans are concerned by the direction the season is moving in with Sutton highlighting them in a podcast aimed at the mainly English audience from the EPL.
🗣 ‘He should be getting 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 out of this team!’@chris_sutton73‘s gives his frank assessment of Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic on ‘It’s All Kicking Off!’ 🎙
Tap to listen to the full podcast 👇
— Mail Sport (@MailSport) December 21, 2023
At the moment this Celtic team are disjointed and going through the motions. And there’s a fair argument to suggest Brendan Rodgers has been going through the motions this season. I also think the words which he used after the Hearts game in his interview about players lacking passion and desire – is that not his responsibility as manager to put out a motivated team? I think it is and he has to take a far greater share of the blame and far greater responsibility than he has done.
There’s a lot of mud flying around at the board and a certain section of the support haven’t been allowed into the stadium. People can use those as excuses but the fact of the matter is that the team hasn’t performed on the pitch this season as well as they should have done. He’s taken over a different situation because Ange Postecoglou’s team were fast and furious and this season under Brendan Rodgers it has been flat.
Celtic weren’t prepared for the Champions League and should have been. Rangers have won the first trophy of the season. Brendan can live on his past record at Celtic but only for so long. There’s a bulk of the support who haven’t been fooled by the nature of the performances this season but there’s a chance they can put things right.
But the excuses about not having enough quality players – there’s only a couple players different from Ange Postecolgou’s team. He’s brought in eight new signings and only one played against Hearts, Luis Palma, so Brendan can’t use that as an excuse. He should be getting more out of this team at this moment in time. That is the bottom line.
Failing in Scotland would do incredible harm to Rodgers’ legacy, despite Leicester’s relegation it is fair to assume that he could have been offered an EPL job at some point this season although relegation will have scared off the big hitters.
Celtic fans only have eyes for the richest ever SPFL prize with a place in the expanded and lucrative Champions League on offer. How that money is spent is another issue.
Whether he likes it or not Rodgers has gone on record to approving seven underwhelming summer signings, equally he has made it clear that January is a time for time-served first picks to arrive rather than stocking up on more projects.
Whatever is going on off the park and around the club the team manager has a responsibility to deliver results, anything less than a convincing display and resounding win over Livingston tomorrow will give fuel to the doubts expressed by Sutton over how committed Rodgers is to his Celtic return.
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