Brendan Rodgers has a decision to make after another disastrous transfer window for Celtic.
Michael Nicholson’s laughable last minute scramble for players has thrown a number of Rodgers’ previous public statements into the limelight.
The fans reaction to the transfer day shambles has been both unanimous and furious.
Celtic’s performance in last season Champions League gave a lot of supporters their first ever taste of mixing it with the big boys at the highest level.
And with so much money in the bank we could have strengthened that team, improved a few key positions and possibly established ourselves at that level.
But it was not to be, the squad has been weakened, the remaining quality players look jaded and Champions League qualification proved a step too far for a team starved of an attacking threat.
There wasn’t even enough in the tank to beat a truly woeful team cobbled together by Russell Martin at the weekend. In the recent past we would have knocked five past far better teams from Ibrox.
“Dermot, Michael and I had a conversation over the summer on where we are at and I said I’m very happy here,” the BBC reported Rodgers saying on August 1, just before the start of the new season.
“There’s conditions we want to be able to improve because I’m not the type of manager that’s good at maintaining anything. If there’s just something to maintain, I’m not the manager for Celtic.”
Rodgers’ squad hasn’t been improved and it hasn’t been maintained – it has been depleted.
Nobody can argue differently, and nobody has even tried to.
If Rodgers truly believed Nicholson was planning to improve his squad, he has been desperately let down.
Deadline day went from being hopeful when we were being linked with Kasper Dolberg to laughable when Chelsea’s eighth or ninth choice striker chose Charlton ahead of Celtic. Then saw his move to the Championship club fall through!
Fans were left humiliated following Nicholson’s complete failure to at least maintain the strength of the squad – but it is made all the worse for Rodgers having publicly backed the Celtic money men to deliver investment just days earlier.
“There’s interest in Adam,£ Rodgers said on Friday as the Swansea story emerged. “But, obviously, no one can leave here unless we get players in to replace them. It’s as simple as that. There’s been negotiations and chatter around it, but I have to have players in here before I can consider letting anyone go.
This was in reference to Adam Idah being allowed to travel to Swansea, negotiate a contract, film some promo videos for his new club – then get recalled to Celtic.
On Monday those comments from Rodgers were mocked and ignored when Nicholson happily sold Idah without having a replacement signed or lined up.
Once again the managers comments were made to look foolish.
“We’ve got a major owner in Dermot Desmond who’s a super-intelligent guy,” Rodgers explained at the same media conference in which he explained the need to retain Idah. “We’ve got board of directors who bleed for the club. They want the club to do well.
“So, everyone here’s connected. It’s not, you know, why I see and I hear all these stories of disconnection. It can’t be further from the truth. Every single guy from me, the board, Dermot, we love Celtic, but we want Celtic to be the very, very best.”
There is zero connection between this transfer window and Rodgers’ stated aim of improving the team.
There is zero connection between selling Idah without a replacement in place and Rodgers specifically stating that it would not happen.
Any hopes of having the fans, the players and the club administration aligned have been shattered.
The boards attitude towards the fans is long established, we are viewed with utter distain. Our views are not welcome and should Police Scotland allow you to get into the stadium, you are treated like cattle, herded to your seat and only allowed to use your allotted toilet.
A small army of stewards employed to enforce the boards disdain for us. In that context its no surprise fans feel let down by the transfer window.
But now the club have publicly undermined the manager, made his public statements look foolish.
“There’s a number of people that really don’t like me here at Celtic”, Rodgers said following the 2-0 win away to Aberdeen.
There’s enough ambiguity in that quote to leave it open as to who he was meaning but whoever he was referring to at that time, the transfer window has delivered a prime suspect as to who doesn’t share his vision from within the club.
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2 Comments
by Che
Brendan is being forced out that’s more than obvious, and if we continue to fund this then we are complicit in what is about to descend upon this club ,a billionaire has decided to arrange the deck chairs on this ship and I think we know what’s next.
Stop giving them your money
by Pat Clark
We need someone to buy Desmond out. I’ve been going to see Celtic since I was a kid in 1967. No Celtic board has shown any ambition in that time. I had a lot of respect for Desmond but it’s all gone. He and his henchmen have to go. I sent an email to cancel my HCTS. Straight after the Kairat debacle, I hope loads of fans do the same