Celtic launch cowardly attack on Brendan Rodgers

Celtic have most certainly broken their silence on transfer issues and the failure to reach the group phase of the Champions League by providing The Scottish Sun with an incredible hatchet job on Brendan Rodgers.

The report leads on the claim that the Celtic manager is trying to engineer his exit- quite clearly the reverse is the case with people inside the club desperate to get rid of an expensive manager that has aspirations to do well in Europe such as matching the standing of Club Brugge who operate out of a stadium with a capacity of 29,000.

Dermot Desmond was the driving force to bring Rodgers back as Ange Postecoglou’s replacement, clearly the former Leicester City boss thought that attitudes had changed since his February 2019 exit but that is clearly not the case.

Rodgers was handed a job lot of seven unproven projects and punts from the sale of Jota in his first transfer window with the squad seriously weakened by the loss of Aaron Mooy and Carl Starfelt.

In the January transfer window Rodgers took control of recruitment away from Mark Lawwell, brought in Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn with the goals of the on loan Norwich striker delivering a domestic double as Phil Clement’s revolution and treble hopes were left in tatters.

Last season Rodgers had Celtic motoring in Europe, the only genuine yardstick to judge the club in.

With a squad of around 14 doing well in the Champions League Michael Nicholson stepped in to sell Kyogo Furuhashi the minute that a place in the Last 16 Play Offs was assured.

At the start of January the Daily Mail launched a campaign to trash Arne Engels, Idah and Auston Trusty. That theme was picked up by other messengers as they spread the claim that Rodgers negotiated transfer fees and signed duds.

Engels started nine out of 10 Champions League matches and appeared as a substitute in the other with Trusty having the same stats. Idah started three Champions League games and came on as a substitute in the seven others and scored three goals.

His contribution to the own goal from YB Bern provided the club with the Bayern Munich pay day but by then the weakening of the squad by Nicholson was underway.

After failing to get a replacement in for Kyogo in January Rodgers expressed his hopes that lessons had been learned, that the club would act smarter.

Clearly that is not the case with Nicholson delivering a £20m surplus from summer trading by selling Kuhn, Idah and other minor deals, he got cold feet over his attempts to transfer Daizen Maeda.

In less than 24 hours, an additional 160 CSCs and 29 Fan Media & Online platforms have signed the Open Letter to Celtic FC.

The signatories represent tens of thousands of Celtic supporters from around the world.

We urge Celtic FC to respond to the letter as a matter of urgency pic.twitter.com/39D9PX1W2o

— North Curve Celtic (@NCCeltic) September 4, 2025

With a statement from the Green Brigade gathering incredible backing from across the Celtic support the club has opted to hit back in the most cowardly fashion- by handing The Scottish Sun an extensive criticism of Rodgers which the newspaper has faithfully published.

Head of Sport Rodger Hannah has ran with the story, it seems that he had no questions to ask about the clubs strategy and reaction to Champions League failure and constant weakening of the squad.

The answer could of course be that it is all the fault of big, bad Brendan.

Late on Friday night The Sun published:

CELTIC insiders believe boss Brendan Rodgers wants out of Parkhead after a split over summer signings.

SunSport understands senior figures at the club are concerned he’s trying to “engineer his exit”.

It looks very much like some inside Celtic have been trying to engineer his exit for a long time.

Rodgers’ remarks on Celts’ work in the transfer window have not gone down well with the Hoops hierarchy.

Earlier in the window, he urged the club to ‘show ambition’ in the transfer market.  

As almost all managers do, even those that haven’t generated huge profits from transfer business and delivering success on the pitch. Maybe ambition isn’t part of the well guarded strategy?

He also said that there needed to be a major inquest after their Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty.

Absolutely, no question about it. Losing out on £40m really is a big deal, worthy of at least an inquest and probably sackings.

Rodgers was left without a replacement striker for Adam Idah after he left to join Swansea on transfer deadline day, before a last minute raid on the free agent market saw Kelechi Iheanacho brought in.

All engineered by CEO Michael Nicholson.

Now some insiders believe it’s reached a critical point — and the gaffer could go before the end of his three-year deal.

One source told SunSport: “Senior figures inside the club believe Rodgers is engineering his exit.

“What he’s said in public has torn the club apart. On and off the record discussions are creating division throughout the club.

“He’s the only manager in the club’s history who has repeatedly questioned things.

Apart from Ange Postecoglou, Neil Lennon and Ronny Deila who have all been involved in losing out in Champions League qualifiers to lower ranked clubs due to the failure of basic forward planning and squad management.

“When Brendan came back, he agreed to the club’s strategy.

Only a complete idiot would believe that Rodgers returned to Celtic to create the biggest bank balance in UK football resulting in huge Corporation Tax payments to HMRC, Hannah opted not to ask what the strategy is.

“There are now people inside the club who are deeply unhappy with his words.

Now? They have always been, as they demonstrated with the summer 2023 recruitment.

“To make matters worse, these issues appear to be seeping into the performance of the team. It’s like Groundhog Day again.”

That tends to happen when you sell off your best players and don’t bother replacing them. The Groundhog Day that the insider wants is from February 2019 when Neil Lennon was primed and lined up. Shaun Maloney returned to Celtic in the summer.

When Rodgers returned to Parkhead two years ago, he vowed to stay for the duration of his deal.

But some insiders feel the division could see the 52-year-old leave before the end of the current campaign.

Celts have forked out huge sums on transfer fees and presided over a significant increase in the wage bill since Rodgers’ return.

No evidence is given for the increase in the wage bill, turnover for last season is likely to be around £150m, a significant increase on season 22/23 before the Irishman returned. Wages are agreed and signed off by the CEO, not the manager. Celtic have made a profit on transfers since Rodgers returned as manager.

A significant profit has been made on transfer dealings since June 2023 despite Nicholson being taken to the cleaners by selling clubs that know how desperate Celtic become as August progresses.

There can be no doubting that Hannah and The Sun have been given this story by the most senior of sources inside Celtic.

If the story is fabricated there will be a statement from Celtic at some point on Saturday with access to their media conferences withdrawn for that publisher. Hannah wouldn’t put that at risk.

It appears that the source speaking to The Sun is hoping to turn supporter criticism away from the board and onto the manager, with the intention of an engineered exit.

While other messengers such as at Korea Quick News will run with that theme the support mobilised over the last fortnight will see straight through a cowardly attack on the manager coming from a club where the CEO has refused to say a word in public other than in June 2023 at a shared media conference with Rodgers and Peter Lawwell.

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