Brendan Rodgers released more of his transfer frustrations following Celtic’s 0-0 draw at home to Kairat Almaty in their Champions League Play Off.
At best the hoops have a 50-50 chance of qualifying for this season’s group stage with a victory away in the furthest corner of Europe, just 200 miles from the border between Kazakhstan and China required.
Six months ago Celtic were level at 2-2 with Bayern Munich after 178 minutes of football. That looks very much like the freaky high point of Rodgers II with the club refusing to support the manager by investing in the squad that reached that height.
Since then a managed decline has taken place in front of supporters, week by week with every passing move in the transfer market.
Rodgers has been forced out in front of the media over the last three weeks while CEO Michael Nicholson and his hero Peter Lawwell hide behind spreadsheets and prawn sandwiches.
In a telling comment the BBC reported Rodgers saying:
There are only so many ways I can dress up that we don’t have the players here. The privilege is mine to be here.
It was pretty clear. You don’t need to look into the future too far. You know these games are tough and you want to have players in as quick as you can to tackle these situations. It is what it is. I have to accept where it’s at.
Since selling Kyogo Furuhashi the minute that progress to the Last 16 Play Off of the Champions League was secured the fault lines between the manager and the board have been obvious.
It is a feud that probably dates back seven years to Lawwell’s failure to sign John McGinn, presenting Rodgers with Youssuf Mulumbu instead. Rubbing salt into those wounds Moussa Dembele was sold for £19m in the final days of the window with no attempt made to sign a replacement.
Things escalated, in the January window Rodgers was handed Vakoun Bayo and Marion Shved, a month later he left for Leicester with Neil Lennon lined up as his successor.
Rodgers’ return in 2023 was driven by Dermot Desmond, as revenge Mark Lawwell presented the incoming manager with Odin Tiago Holm, Marco Tilio, Yang Hyun-jun, Kwon Hyeok-kyu, Maik Nawrocki, Gus Lagerbielke and Luis Palma. All on five year contracts.
Despite having his hands tied Rodgers has secured four trophies out of six, last season he also delivered real progress in the Champions League with five sell out home matches and record turnover expected to be close to £150m.
With the briefing against him and lack of support it is clear that Rodgers won’t be renewing his contract which expires in May.
Battle lines have been drawn up, the board are starving the team of investment with Rodgers reluctant to use the club signings imposed on him.
Retaining power is everything to the current regime, this season could become very messy with the manager constantly undermined but put in front of the media every week while Nicholson and Lawwell feed trusted messengers to trash the record of the manager that has won 11 out of 13 domestic trophies while also delivering a significant transfer surplus.
QUESTION: If you got that goal, James Forrest denied by the combination of the keeper and the post. If you’d got that, it could be sitting here and having a very different conversation but ultimately must have been frustrating overall?
Rodgers: Yeah, because of course you want to take the advantage, but I’ve also been here before when we’ve drawn nil-nil in a qualification game against Rosenborg. They were a good side and we were going to there to have to qualify and we did do. We played very well out there and won the game. There’s no doubt we can go there and win. Of course you’d want to have taken an advantage with you, but it’s still very much in the balance.
QUESTION: The fans were pretty vocal at the end in their displeasure, their disappointment. Is that a justifiable reaction in your view?
Rodgers: Well listen, what I do know is over many years that sack the board normally means sack the manager. It’s normally the manager that goes when that starts to be sung. But no, listen, I think I can only really look at the players that we have here and the performance. We’ve known for a long time what we’ve needed as a squad, so I don’t want to go into that. I can only concentrate on what we have here.
Of course, at the end of the game, we’re having to shuffle things about to try and make it work and playing players out of position. But the players’ endeavor in the second half was really good, but at this level it’s more than that. Hopefully we can show that. The boys are a great bunch of lads, really honest. They’ve started the season well. Defensively, they’ve been strong, but tonight we just, offensively, we just couldn’t show those moments of quality to breakthrough.
QUESTION: Brendan, given that frustration in the stands, that’s something you don’t want to fester. What needs to happen on and off the field to make sure that that doesn’t fester and the frustration doesn’t build?
Rodgers: I think that we need to improve the squad. There’s clarity around that for a long time and we see that, you know, I think supporters see that. We certainly do in football. We need to improve. And then from that, then this is a performance club. This is a club that’s to perform. And that starts on the field. And you do that with getting the very best players you possibly can to allow you to perform. It’s getting performance on the pitch, a style and a type of football that excites supporters, and that’s what this club is used to. We know that, and hopefully between now and the end of the window, we can get that. And then that’ll support us going through the rest of the season.
QUESTION: But you knew you had this game, Brendan. Does that add to the frustration that this was always potentially going to be a tough tie whoever you got and maybe being in a better place going into it?
Rodgers: Yeah, but I can’t answer that because it’s not my decision in the end. I can prepare the team with the staff, and the players that are here have been fantastic over pre-season. We were all clear on what we need to improve, and for whatever reason, we haven’t been able to do that. Now we’re in this position and we have to accept it and not dwell on it and try and come through it for Saturday and for Tuesday.
QUESTION: Do you feel you have enough to be able to do that then? There’s enough game-changers in that team to get you through to the Champions League league phase?
Rodgers: Yeah, well listen, whether I think it or not, we have to do it. But I do believe that we’ll be better than what we were in the first half. The second half you see we dominated and arrived into a lot of good areas, but just that final ball, a little bit of finesse and that little extra bit of quality that’s needed, as you come through the levels, that allows you to break teams down. That’s something we’ll look at and analyse and hopefully correct when we get out there.
QUESTION: You said, Brendan, that you need to accept it and move on. Should the fans accept it? Considering the money that’s at this club, the amount of times you’ve sat here in this position at this time of the year saying that you need players, and now the playoff tie hasn’t gone the way you want. Should fans accept how the club’s been run at this point?
Rodgers: Well listen, I, that’s not for me to answer. I can answer for the team and what we’re doing. I think we showed last season the hint, like I’ve said before, of what we can do. But that’s all, that will always be based around the level of players that you have. And I believe that with a level of player that we can really push forward. But if we don’t have that for whatever reason, we have to try and find a way to win here and to qualify. And up until tonight, as I said, the team have been moving along well.
First half, I wasn’t happy with the first half at all, just slow and waiting on the game. And like I said, we’re the guys that can only change that future and that responsibility now is with us to do that. And for me to find a way to get us through the next leg. It was a wee bit messy towards the end, but that’s not the players’ fault. We’re playing players out of position and trying to work the team to try and stimulate a goal and players maybe playing out of position a wee bit, but that’s what we’re at. But of course, our job is always to entertain our supporters.
QUESTION: I appreciate it’s probably early, but in terms of Alistair Johnston, it didn’t look great. How is the player and is there any sort of prognosis as to how bad it could be?
Rodgers: Yeah, I haven’t spoken to the medical guys yet, it looks like a hamstring injury, which is disappointing. But yeah, I’ll get more in the morning.
QUESTION: Brendan, obviously Adam Idah got hooked at half-time, kind of struggling half the first half and maybe struggling at the start of the season as well. Is there a way to build him for him to get a wee bit of his confidence or what’s the situation with Adam at the moment?
Rodgers: Yeah, there’s, listen, there’s no rocket science in it. It’s all hard work. It’s all preparation. That will obviously lead to confidence and then you normally succeed then as a player from that. So yeah, I didn’t quite go for him first half. I wanted a little bit more activity in and around the box because I felt that we could get up there. And yeah, so yeah, he’s, Adam’s a good boy, he’s an honest boy. Hasn’t quite started how he would have liked. But in games like these here, I can’t afford to wait. And that’s why I made the change at halftime.
QUESTION: Just coming back to kind of some of the kind of fan unrest and displeasure about the kind of activity in the transfer window. A lot of these questions that you rightly say you can’t answer yourself, but you’re having to answer these questions on a weekly basis. Is it starting to get a point that it’s not really fair that you’re having to answer these questions when it’s probably for the guys who are being targeted by the fans at the moment?
Rodgers: Yeah listen, I accept the responsibility as the manager of the club. I’m just, I can’t tell you anything that which I would like to, but yeah, there’s only so many ways I can dress up that we haven’t got any players in. But I accept the responsibility to stand here, or sit here, sorry, and tell you where we’re at. And no, it’s listen, the privilege is mine to be here and if it’s my role to do that, then of course I will do that. So yeah, that’s what we’re at.
QUESTION: Again, Brendan, forgive me because I do appreciate it’s difficult for you to speak about it, but at the same time, is it fair to say that this is a situation that you feared, that you envisaged, that you maybe warned was going to be a possibility if things didn’t happen as maybe you hoped they would?
Rodgers: I think it was pretty clear. I think you don’t need to look into the future too far. You know these games are tough games and you know that you want to have your best players in and have players in as quick as you can to tackle these sorts of situations. So yeah, but it is what it is. And I just have to accept where it’s at. And we shall, as I said, get ready now for Saturday and then get ready for the long haul Sunday and really try and get through on Tuesday.
QUESTION: In terms of next week, what’s it going to take from your point of view? You’re saying about the team being quite passive tonight at the start. What do you think it’s going to take over in Almaty next week?
Rodgers: Well, I think the beauty is it’s a one-off game now. You know, sometimes over two games, they come and you see they sit in and they defend quite well and get one or two little moments. For us, we weren’t quite quick enough, but we now know it’s a one-off game. We know we can win. We know we can win there and we know we can play better.
For sure, that’s especially on the first half showing. So I think we can, absolutely, I think we can go out there and win, but we’re just going to have to, as I said, not wait on the game. And I said to the players, you know, at halftime, I was saying that I’ve heard before, if you’re going to miss the bus, make sure you run when you miss it. So don’t be walking. And for us, whatever happens in this next game now, we have to go and give everything and make sure we’re running. If it doesn’t happen for us, we’ve given everything. And I thought we wasted 45 minutes tonight, which has surprised me a little bit because up until that point of the season, we’ve been good. So we have to correct that. And we’ll start that on Saturday and then get ourselves ready and then it’s a one-off game and I’ve got every confidence that we can do that and win.
QUESTIONS: Brendan, if if you do it next week, will that be one of your more satisfying results in the circumstances?
Rodgers: Yeah, I would say going into these sort of games, this is probably the lightest that we’ve been in certain key areas of the of the pitch. You can see over the course of the season so far, we haven’t given away a great deal. Defended well, defended strong. But of course, goals win games and that’s the area of the pitch where we’ve been we’ve been short.
And it’s more just in terms of freshness and energy and that bit of quality. We’re having to get midfield players out there and players playing two or three positions and then it can become a little bit messy. But yeah, listen, we’ve started the season well. Wee bit of a blip tonight in terms of the result we wanted, but I’ve got every confidence we can go out there and win.
QUESTION: Brendan, you said yesterday about not having the control over, you know, the time scale of bringing players in. Is that something you’d like to have more control over?
Rodgers: Listen, I just want what’s the best for Celtic. I don’t necessarily need control. If there’s alignment and everything is aligned and I want what’s best for the football team, that’s where my strengths are. And like I said, this is a performance club. This is where you need to perform. And for that, it’s getting players in, getting the team prepared to the best level that you possibly can and then going on journeys that can excite supporters and create great memories. That’s why I’m here, in order to do that. So it’s not about control. I just want what is the best for Celtic.
QUESTION: Does it feel like that alignment is there at the moment?
Rodgers: Well listen, at this moment in time, the focus is on the team. Focus is on us getting through into the group stages. And that’s my only focus.
Rodgers will be back in front of the media on Friday to preview the home match against Livingston, not many questions will be asked about the tactics and formation expected from David Martindale’s side.
With the online anger and resentment now surfacing in home matches the briefing against Rodgers is likely to increase with the releasing of details about transfer targets that have been rejected by the manager.
Only Dermot Desmond can salvage the situation but as Rodgers acknowledged when fans sing SACK THE BOARD the more likely outcome is that the board will sack the manager.
The first briefing against Rodgers is expected on a long running fan media website between 12 and 12.30 today.
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