If I had told you on May 7 2023 as Celtic clinched a 53rd league title that in thirty seven days time Ange Postecoglou would be Tottenham manager & Brendan Rodgers is the leading candidate to be his successor you would have laughed at me & probably would have continued to laugh at me for a very long time.
That’s football though folks, things can change very quickly. In this case quite dramatically.
When Ange Postecoglou told Celtic majority shareholder the night Celtic won an historic eighth Treble and a fifth Treble in seven seasons that he will depart Celtic for North London, Celtic’s search for a new manager begun.
Managers have been spoken too, Celtic chiefs have been unimpressed with some (Marsch & Farke), others have intrigued the hierarchy which include young Italian boss Francesco Farioli & Manchester City assistant Enzo Maresca.
However, the outstanding candidate & the one that has gained the most attraction is former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. Clearly, he is the one that Dermot wants. Positive phone call conversations, coupled with Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson & Finance Director Chris McKay jetting out to Majorca for in person talks at Rodgers holiday home has shown Celtic want the Northern Irishman to make a dramatic return to Parkhead.
Productive discussions in Spain has resulted in Rodgers agreeing to have face to face talks with Desmond in London which outlines that talks are progressing or being finalised.
When Rodgers traded Celtic for Leicester in February 2019, it was met with anger & exasperation from the Celtic support. With it being well known that he fancied a move elsewhere in the summer of 2018 (preferably China) & did not get it, Peter Lawwell & Dermot Desmond were not naive to see the signs were on the wall & the next opportunity that arose for him to leave, he would be off.
So when he did leave mid-season & tried to take the entire backroom team with him including current assistant manager John Kennedy, with a league still to be won & a Scottish Cup to play for, it was expected in the boardroom, but not to the supporters.
Time is a healer though as we have seen in the past few days with many who chose for years not to forgive are now seeing the bigger picture & realising he is the perfect candidate for this role.
Securing an FA Cup for Leicester against European champions Chelsea, a Community Shield victory, finishing 5th place two consecutive seasons which meant narrowly missing out on Champions League football & getting to a Europa Conference League semi-final were the remarkable achievements Brendan accomplished at the Foxes.
It is time for Celtic fans to move on, come to terms that Brendan is not only a winner but an elite manager who can push Celtic on to retain domestic success yearly but aid Celtic’s ambition of becoming a force in Europe once again.
Undoubtedly we took some scathing results in Champions League under Rodgers (7-0 vs Barcelona in 2016 & 7-1 vs PSG in 2017) but one of the top European performances in recent memory occurred under his watch winning 3-0 convincingly in Belgium against Anderlecht. We were also more than a match for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City home & away in 2016/17.
His domestic success was unrivalled, winning 7/7 trophies whilst being well on our way to making it 8/8 with his Celtic side being eight points clear when he departed. Finishing on a record 106 points in the Invincible season which carried onto the 2017/18 season where we stretched our unbeaten run to 69 games domestically - another unprecedented record.
Two question marks surround Rodgers tenure. The first was his second season, despite winning a Double Treble, the football at times was stale, boring & performances were nowhere near to the standard of his first season. We finished on 82 points which to put into context Rangers finished on 92 points this season. To put into larger context we only accumulated five more points in the 2017/18 season than we did during the disastrous COVID season. Although we only won twenty four league games during Rodgers second season - we turned it on when it mattered, winning the big games we had to win, most notably at Ibrox when the pressure was on.
The second question which was a huge problem was his uninspiring recruitment. Brendan Rodgers transfer success rate at Celtic was woeful. Admittedly, he got the odd one right (Edouard, Dembele & Sinclair) but his short-term deals such as De Vries, Gamboa, Kouassi, Mulumbu, Compper & Toljan and many more were dreadful. Unlike under Ange where long-term recruitment planning was in place where the likes of Alistair Johnston & Oh were in the door before Juranovic & Giakoumakis went out the door, last minute deals & failure to plan decisively under Brendan caused fall-outs & cost us big money.
The relationship between Nicholson & Mark Lawwell seems to be strong - our success rate in the transfer market in the last two years has been both smart & ruthless. If Rodgers is appointed we must not go back to the old ways of recruiting and penny pinching. The precedent has been set, we have explored and been successful in markets all over the continent in recent windows, so surely we can continue this?
I get the argument that leopards don’t change their spots and should Rodgers be triumphant in Glasgow for a second time he will accept a return to the promised land that is the English Premier League & inevitably will wave his goodbyes again. However, this isn’t isolated to Rodgers as Ange has shown. Win trophies at Celtic & EPL clubs will come calling. The lure of English football is too strong for managers to stick around in Scotland & that is a sad reality.
A second stint at Celtic for Rodgers would mean concessions would have to be made, the toxic nature of the way he left is still prominent, but all I care about is winning. I could not care less who is at the helm as long as that person is winning. Brendan is a winner & for that reason, Celtic should do the right thing & appoint him as the next manager of Celtic Football Club.
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