After at least eight months of being undermined Brendan Rodgers landed his first retaliation blow when he named the Celtic squad for the eight match Europa League campaign.
After being arm twisted into welcoming signings on a bar with the Mark Lawwell job lot of 2023 the Celtic boss has sat down and named his best 24 players.
That list doesn’t include Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Hayato Inamura, Shin Yamada or Callum Osmand.
On the back of the huge steps forward in last season’s Champions League the clear remit for the summer transfer window was to bring in quality, first team ready players. Instead the majority of Celtic’s summer recruitment involved adding more punts and projects to the wage bill.
Two years down the line Odin Thiago Holm, Maik Nawrocki, Yang Hun-jun and Luis Palma are still at the club with the security of contracts running through until June 2028 with their career ambitions torpedoed.
Since the turn of the year Rodgers has seen his hopes of building Celtic into a credible European force, on a par with sides like Club Brugge undermined from within Celtic Park.
At the start of January the whispering campaign to question and trash Adam Idah, Auston Trusty and Arne Engels got underway through the network of messengers. Apparently Rodgers negotiated the transfer fees and contracts, the players all flopped despite making 30 Champions League appearances between them!
That was followed up by the sale of Kyogo Furuhashi during a notoriously difficult window to do business, no attempt was made to replace Kyogo.
Despite that Rodgers sent out a side that came within 60 seconds of taking Bayern Munich to extra time for a place in the last 16 of the Champions League. Rodgers had only two useable substitutes in the Allianz Arena, Idah and Yang. Other managers at that stage of the competition could send on five from nine off the bench without a drop in quality.
While Rodgers looked to kick on from Munich Nicholson’s target was very different, he decided to cash in as the vendetta between the decision makers and the manager kicked in, a relic from the 2018/19 season.
The 2025 summer transfer window has turned out to be a watershed.
Rodgers reluctantly accepted the new arrivals after the priority sale of Nicolas Kuhn to Como, with seven pre-season matches lined up he had every right to expect a good quality replacement right-winger to work with. Nicholson had other ideas.
Ben Nygren was identified early and signed up, a smart piece of business, a player of quality on the way up with similarities to Matt O’Riley. It can be done, not every player across Europe is waiting and demanding Champions League football as the messengers claim.
After signing Nygren the managed decline kicked in before racing out of control.
From Japan Celtic signed a 23-year-old defender with less than 35 senior appearances to his name, Inanura wasn’t ready to play Champions League football two months later, alas neither were Celtic as Kairat Almaty proved.
Rodgers waited for quality to arrive all through pre-season, he was left high and dry.
Shin Yamada with two goals in 21 J-League appearances was next, featuring in the Como Cup but nowhere near Kyogo levels.
Simpson-Pusey’s arrival was well leaked, reviving the much used Manchester City link with Celtic firmly the junior partner.
The teenage defender watched the SPFL Premiership opener against St Mirren wearing a Celtic tracksuit, he signed on loan two days later and has yet to see a minute of action which probably wasn’t part of the discussions when Nicholson secured a deal with Manchester City.
Yamada, Simpson-Pusey and Inamura have been left out of the Europa League squad, a competition that it doesn’t appear will be a priority for Rodgers in the season ahead.
The Celtic boss has been hung out to dry by those harbouring grudges dating back to 2018 and John McGinn, probably before.
Rodgers has been forced through some uncomfortable questioning at media conferences, nothing is heard of from Nicholson from one AGM to the next, which is hardly surprising given his underwhelming personality.
Celtic’s recruitment is as dysfunctional and haphazard as it was in 2018, Rodgers is older and wiser, there is no sign that he is about to walk out although there would barely be any hostility from fans if he chose that course of action.
The coming weeks look like becoming very nasty but unless someone from inside the club breaks cover the manager that they have undermined holds all the cards in public with the experiences of 2018/19 to use to his advantage.
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