Rodgers and the Celtic Boardroom Crisis Explained

The rumbles of concern about disharmony between Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic boardroom was upgraded to full on red flags following the 5-1 defeat to Ajax in Como.

You don’t need to be a Celtic Da to see the parallels with the summer 2018 when the fault lines surfaced first time around, they were barely patched over with the main surprise being that the manager hung around until February before escaping to Leicester City.

If one word summed up the breakdown in the relationship between the dug-out and boardroom it was Terminado which translates in Spanish into finished.

Ironically Michael Nicholson headed to Mallorca to lure Rodgers back to Celtic IN 2023 after Dermot Desmond started the process off, sadly Celtic’s biggest shareholder has again opted for a backseat as those inside the club set about undermining the return of Rodgers. Anyone doubting that should check out the transfer activity from the summer 2023 foisted on the manager.

After losing to Ajax in the Como Cup Rodgers twice used the word if in connection to Celtic’s ambitions.

When that question has to be raised by the manager it is clear that he is on a different page from the decision makers inside the club.

It is natural for a manager to push it for more signings, more investment that his CEO and Directors are comfortable with, it is part of the game.

This summer things run deeper at Celtic. There is previous in the relationship, Rodgers is out of contract in less than a year and the driving force to bring him back as manager has bigger fish to fry than the internal politics at a business where turnover nudges just above £100m. Hitting the £150m mark for the 24/25 season means little to him.

Meanwhile Celtic supporters are fretting over every match, every media conference and every passing day with Rodgers looking increasingly isolated. Most fans identify more with the ambitions of the football manager than the accountants and lawyers trying boost the Balance Sheet.

The pre-season work finishes on Saturday night, the SPFL season is barely a week away, the Champions League Play Off will be on the club quicker than anyone outside of Rodgers appreciates.

Last time around the Irishman left in the dark of night making him an easy target, older and wiser Rodgers II has no intention of doing that with events likely to be far more public and damaging for Celtic’s silent decision makers.

🇮🇪 / 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙣 𝙍𝙤𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙨
🎙️ – “It depends what your ambition is. If your ambition is to really progress & push forward, then we need to improve the squad.” pic.twitter.com/ZqMq30yCRi
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) July 25, 2025

After the defeat to Ajax Rodgers said:

it depends what your ambition is. If your ambition is to really progress and push forward, then we need to improve the squad.

But I can’t fault the players. The players that are here, they’ve been working so well, so hard and you see some of the play and how they work has been very, very good.

However, if you want to progress, then, as I said, you need to bring in quality and that’s something that we hopefully can do.

Those comments carried echoes of the infamous Terminado comment from August 2018 (John McGinn time)

Yeah. My job is done then. Terminado. Gone but that’s the challenge. You have to test yourself to the limit. You have to be courageous as a club.

It’s a joy to work here. I love my life here and enjoy being the manager here but it’s no good if I just sit back and get comfortable. Being comfortable is the enemy of progress. I never allow it in my own life or professional life. You see it in sports and in industry.

The “if” is very telling in this quote.
Bit of a concern.
— Johnny Martian (@JRMartin1988) July 25, 2025

Tiresome that with every manager we get to the point in a transfer window and they are just short of begging the board to get serious and back the club.
Our European ambition is a marketing tagline with no intent behind it.
— FPL Regret 🍋 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@FplRegret) July 25, 2025

Rodgers on keeping Yang ‘hostage’:

I see Yang as an important member of our squad. He’s a player that showed that domestically he can play well for us, and really well. He scored goals. He created goals. You see tonight that the goal he scored is very, very good.

It’s always a challenge, I think, at a club like Celtic, whenever players have maybe been for a couple of seasons and they’re not quite established.

Because then they want to go and play more but certainly at this stage, where we’re at within the squad, it’s not something I can even entertain. You see he’s starting the games.

And I see him as an important player for us in our squad. And once we can get the quality around him, then he’ll be a good player for us.

Celtic’s biggest threat to our continued success, …is Celtic
That in itself is quite damning
Even if we sign 2 quality first team starters in this next couple weeks. Part of me feels even that will be insufficient.
Attack, midfield, Defence, & G.K .There’s issues throughout
— @RabCorbett (@RabCorbett2) July 25, 2025

It’s embarrassing he even needs to emphasise that what football club doesn’t want too progress and push forward board are a joke
— Kieran Douglas (@KieranDouglas10) July 25, 2025