‘Gaslighting politician’ ‘deflecting responsibility’ ‘corporate shrill’ is Rodgers complicit in the failed Celtic Recruitment Strategy?

It is an uncomfortable conclusion that is becoming harder and harder to avoid- Brendan Rodgers is complicit in Celtic’s horrific transfer strategy.

For over a month in his media conferences he has been stressing the need for quality signings, setting high standards, avoiding the project market and painting a picture of Celtic as a progressive club, at ease with the company that they will be keeping in the Champions League which starts in less than four weeks.

A few days before the League Cup tie at home to Falkirk next month Rodgers could be leading his side into battle away to Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City or Paris Saint Germain. With the exception of the EPL champions all of those clubs hammered Celtic during Rodgers’ first time in charge.

Yesterday Rodgers spoke for 26 minutes to the media with almost every question a variation on Celtic’s so called transfer strategy- the one that has failed to deliver a single outfield player to the squad of 14 that lifted the SPFL title and Scottish Cup in May, edging out a basket case that is now conducting a fire sale to keep the lights on.

Every media conference from Rodgers has been interpreted as a message to ‘the suits’, the Balance Sheet Bhoys that lurk in the shadows, show face to the #celticfamily at the AGM then return to their VIP lifestyles of corporate hospitality, first class travel and accommodation surrounded by self congratulations for not doing a Rangers. The lowest benchmark imaginable.

With less than a week to go in the transfer window Rodgers has been completely rubber-eared, there are no signs of imminent arrivals not even a reaction to the possibility of Kyogo Furuhashi joining Matt O’Riley in the EPL.

Celtic have no difficulty selling players with Sead Haksabanovic, Oh Hyeon-gyu, Bosun Lawal, Daniel Kelly moved on, after the January window closed Liel Abada was also sold. Those buying clubs found no difficulty getting business completed well away from the madness of the final days and hours of the window closing.

The claims made above by Yogi Junior, son of Lisbon Lion John Hughes and a regular ACSOM contributor are extreme but not without merit, it isn’t an outrageous conclusion. He leaves the door open to look incredibly premature.

On the back of the John McGinn incident in the summer of 2018 corporate Celtic broke the ambitions of Rodgers first time around. There were a few quotes hinting at discontent but he soldiered on, January recruitment was even worse than the summer, within a month of the Marian Shved deal Rodgers was managing Leicester City.

In June of 2023 the Celtic support was shocked that Rodgers was considered as a replacement for Ange Postecoglou. There was a drip feed of information from the Dermot Desmond phone call through to the Likely Lads of Michael Nicholson and Chros McKay arriving in Santa Ponsa to convince the former Leicester boss that Celtic were unrecognisable from the club he had left four and a half years earlier.

Rodgers bought into it, which convinced most of the Celtic support. After all he knew the failings better than anyone, if he was back in charge things were bound to be different- weren’t they?

The summer 2023 transfer window was just as painful, underwhelming and frustrating as the failed Champions League campaign that followed despite as favourable a draw as you could get.

Celtic were completely out on Europe after five matches, falling miles short in Madrid and Rome. Speaking after losing to Lazio in Rome the BBC reported Rodgers saying:

I felt, when I came in here in the summer, with the squad that was already in place from last season, that we probably needed four players,” he said.

By that, I meant four quality players to add to the squad. Now, how the game works, you lose players and there were players that were earmarked to come here prior to me coming here.

That’s absolutely fine, there’s no problem, we have got young talents here that will develop and grow and that’s the model of the club, but of course, to continue to improve and grow you need to also have players who are established because they help bring those players up.

And I am very, very confident that we can do that over the coming windows.

That confidence seems to have been completely misplaced, Abada has joined Jota, Aaron Mooy and Carl Starfelt in leaving the club, only Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah have been added.

Asked about the concerns, worries and fears of supporters about the transfer window, yesterday Rodgers claimed:

I totally understand. I totally get it. Their idea is the same as mine, we want to improve. This is a football club with an incredible potential and for some players we won’t be the end game, and we get that but it doesn’t mean that our benchmark is domestically.

We’ve got to have a high bar and our high bar, this club has set having won the European Cup, so we’re not just a team. I don’t want us to be a club and a team who just participates, takes the money and comes back out and is just happy with domestic success.

The benchmark for me is much higher than that. We don’t have the resources of a lot of them, but we certainly want to compete. But for that, you need to have improvements and that’s what we want to do every single season – we want to improve.

That sounds like a watered down version of the post Lazio message, of someone resigned to another week of disappointment but wanting to align with supporters.

Despite having a vastly superior squad Celtic won four of last season’s five Glasgow Derbies by a single goal, going into next Sunday’s match with a weaker side than last season is an unnecessary risk. Celtic could well come out on top, maybe by more than a goal but that would say more about the nosedive across the city.

The new look Champions League won’t offer that safeguard, 95% of the teams taking part will be stronger than last season, after every batch of matches a lengthy league table will be published with Celtic certain to be down among the bottom five or six hoping to snatch a point here or there or a shock win to add to the two they’ve managed since 2014.

Rodgers can’t claim innocence, he can’t detach himself from Nicholson and the suits who’ll be celebrating a bank balance of over £100m by the end of this year. He knows the workings of the club better than anyone but has a fantasric salary, a high likelihood of domestic success and can square himself up with his actions in February 2019.

Yogi Junior’s views are extreme but a growing number of Celtic fans will view Rodgers as part of the problem if the transfer window concludes as expected followed by eight painful nights being reminded of why every club in the Champions League wants one of their four away matches to be in Glasgow.