Roger Hannah won’t be at Lennoxtown tomorrow for the Brendan Rodgers media conference that is being billed a ‘box office’.
After publishing the blockbuster story about Brendan Rodgers engineering his exit from Celtic the Head of Sport at the Scottish Sun started a well timed week of annual leave.
Hannah tweeted details of Scotland’s 0-0 draw away to Denmark on Friday night but signed off from Twitter without any reference to the claims from someone close to Celtic that their manager was looking for an early escape from the contract that runs until June 2026.
Celtic’s bizarre Saturday statement attracted plenty of attention but there is a bigger, more immediate issue over a source quoting senior figures at Celtic and their unhappiness over a manager that has delivered absolutely everything that could reasonably be expected of him.
Four trophies out of six and the best Champions League performance in over a decade have been achieved on a transfer surplus with the development of Matt O’Riley and Nicolas Kuhn entirely down to the manager that is being briefed against.
Later this month Celtic will publish their accounts to 30 June 2025 which will announce record turnover, with a figure around £150m expected.
The Celtic source told Hannah:
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.
Irony seems lost with the source quoting senior figures being upset over off the record discussions!
He’s the only manager in the club’s history who has repeatedly questioned things. It’s been the same board, same management and same strategy.
Apart from Neil Lennon, Ange Postecoglou and Ronny Deila who all questioned the way that the club failed to prepare properly for Champions League qualifiers.
The club have spent tens of millions.
All generated from sales since Rodgers returned to Celtic in June 2023.
When Brendan came back, he agreed to the club’s strategy.
A strategy that the club won’t define.
There are now people inside the club who are deeply unhappy with his words. To make matters worse, these issues appear to be seeping into the performance of the team. It’s like Groundhog Day again.
It certainly does, just like in season 2018/19 when the CEO was doing everything to undermine a manager that delivered seven trophies out of seven in order for the CEO to regain complete control.
Six days after the article was published there has been no comment from Celtic, if the article was fabricated the club would have commented.
Clearly the source is genuine with Michael Nicholson comfortable with senior figures briefing against Rodgers.
Hannah isn’t in the usual circuit of reporters given inside information by Celtic, the claims made by the source have certainly set the agenda, confirming the suspicions of many that there are people inside Celtic that will be happy to see the back of Rodgers for the second time.
When Dave Murray was flogging his book earlier in the summer Hannah was one of the hand picked reports called to Murray’s gaff to sympathetically portray the man that did more than anyone else to kill Rangers in 2012.
With Hannah on holiday The Sun will have someone else from their Sports Desk inside Lennoxtown.
Celtic normally upload the pre-match media conference onto their You Tube channel about 3pm with no tweets permitted in advance.
Sky Sports News generally have a Friday one-to-one with Rodgers ahead of their live matches, the comments published in The Sun are bound to be asked about.
There are multiple issues to be covered at tomorrow’s media conference with Rodgers in sole control of what information he feels should be made public.
Nicholson and Peter Lawwell will be watching anxiously and getting updates from Communication Manager Ian Jamieson over what is said in front of the cameras.
It appears that there are many people inside Celtic would be delighted to see Rodgers resign or better still quit for a job elsewhere, allowing the club to install a compliant manager on a third or a quarter of the salary being paid to the former Leicester boss.
Rodgers knows that his arguments in February 2019 were sunk by the timing, quitting two days before a league match away to Hearts followed by a Scottish Cup tie against Hibs.
He is older and wiser, he won’t fall for any of the traps being set by those that can’t stand him being in post as manager, second time around Rodgers will set the agenda while the suits and sources twitch nervously over whether or not they’ll be called out.
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Nicholson 8 minutes- the strategy has always been clear and that is to be a world class football club in whatever we do
