There’s no conflict between the dug-out and the directors’ box at Celtic, says Brendan Rodgers.
He’s 90 minutes away from being knocked out of the Champions League at the qualifying stage by a team from Kazakhstan, of course, and seeing a £40million payday go up in smoke because the board haven’t bothered to buy any of the players he really wants while investing in plenty he doesn’t seem to think are up to the task.
No drama, claims the manager. Everyone wants the very best for each other. And the band played ‘Believe it if you like’.
The words that jumped out most from Rodgers’ reflections on a chastening night against Kairat Almaty at Parkhead, a goalless draw that simply highlighted all the staleness and deficiences evident for months, came when he was asked about those punters who spent a large part of Wednesday evening chanting ‘Sack The Board’.
He says he understands where they are coming from. Says they have every right to be frustrated.
Sure, he also issued a call for unity when speaking after the dust had settled, but his answer, in the raw emotion immediately after the match, to a TV reporter’s question about whether the directors would listen to those supporters or his own demands for new players spoke volumes.
Rodgers was all smiles as Celtic enjoyed a routine weekend win at home to Livingston
Peter Lawwell and Michael Nicholson were again subject to abuse and ‘Sack the Board’ chants
Celtic face a tough challenge against Kairat Almaty… and a gruelling 7,000-mile round trip
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. Does that really sound like someone unshakable in his belief that everyone is on the same page, wants the same things and is moving in the same direction?
Whatever comes from within the tent, you hardly need the instincts of Poirot to ascertain that things just aren’t right inside the champions.
Be sure, despite the disappointments of last week, that Celtic still have a strong chance of making it through to the group stage of UEFA’s top competition.
Kairat were capable. Better than expected. They kept Celtic at bay and possessed threat on the counter. They have the raw materials to give Rodgers and Co a seriously tough time in Tuesday’s return.
However, they aren’t all that, and the suspension of Dastan Satpayev is undoubtedly a huge loss for them.
Yes, Celtic are short up front. Chances are they’ll have to stick Daizen Maeda through the middle again and maybe go with Benjamin Nygren out wide, but they should still have enough to go through.
Benjamin Nygren scored twice against Livingston and may have to play out wide in Almaty
If they don’t, that’s on the manager as well as the board. Even though the transfer window has been a strange, confusing mess at Celtic so far, they are still running a big squad with a big wage bill.
And as the boss himself said before that uninspiring first leg, those players are being paid well and have a job to get on with, no matter the noise surrounding them or the club in general.
Rodgers returned to Glasgow with the declared intention of turning Celtic into a respected force in Europe again after 10 years of serving as a punchbag for all sorts of mid-range outfits.
Progress was made last season, running Bayern Munich close in a play-off to make the last 16 of the Champions League. However, what would it say for Rodgers’ second spell if, nine months out from the end of his contract, they were back to competing in the Europa?
Where would it leave him? There was talk of taking the club to a UEFA final of some sort when he first held those discussions about returning in his Majorcan bolthole two years ago and the Europa League would offer that target, but he doesn’t want to be mixing in the secondary competition. Nor do those above him in the food chain.
Pulling in that £40m-plus available from the Champions League is surely one of Rodgers’ key performance indicators, particularly when you’ve been pulled out of the hat in the play-offs against Kazakhstani opposition.
Celtic’s last-16 battle with Bayern Munich seems a long time ago now, with scorer Kuhn sold
Is getting through a pre-requisite to having the padlock opened on the old transfer war chest? Who knows? But it is easy to see why the directors might be reluctant to back Rodgers’ judgment to the hilt again unless he is pulling in serious money to compensate.
It is easy to see why there might be the kind of friction between manager and directors that Rodgers claims doesn’t exist.
Jota looked a shadow of himself when returning from Rennes for £8m last year, but he’s injured and doesn’t count. What does count is that almost £30m was spent on Arne Engels, Adam Idah, Paulo Bernardo and Auston Trusty.
Against Kairat in a crucial European qualifier, Idah was the only one deemed worthy of a start — and that’s because there is no one else to play centre-forward. To most eyes, the Irishman getting the hook at half-time was inevitable after another anonymous display.
The guys Rodgers hung his hat on last year aren’t showing up in big games. Simple as that. Look at the Scottish Cup final defeat to Aberdeen last May.
Engels and Idah would have been expected to take a spot-kick in the shoot-out. As it turned out, neither made it past 65 minutes — replaced by Yang Hyun-jun and Luke McCowan respectively.
Arne Engels is beginning to look like no one’s idea of an £11million footballer
Trusty, by that point, had lost his place to Liam Scales and didn’t make it off the bench. So far this term, Rodgers’ big signings have shown little to suggest this term is going to be any upgrade on last.
Instead, it looks like we’re back to where we were in Rodgers’ first summer. Loads of guys being brought in on low-cost deals and getting nowhere near the first-team because he doesn’t think they’re ready.
It is not a normal way of working and not conducive to harmony behind the scenes.
Over the past while, though, it has just felt like Rodgers isn’t really driving the bus any longer.
He isn’t getting £11m to spend on an Engels or £9m to spend on an Idah. Meanwhile, the uncertainty over his contract ending — something he is in no clear rush to resolve — is just becoming more and more of a diversion.
The longer things go on the way they are, the more it looks like it would be better for everyone if he called it a day in summer.
Rodgers had hoped for a first-leg advantage from the home clash with the Kazakhstan outfit
He clearly isn’t getting what he desires in the market. Right now, the idea of going further in the Champions League looks a pipe dream.
Part of the reason he came back was to heal the open wounds left when he jumped ship to Leicester City in 2019. He’s done that.
In the current state of tumult, the punters are clearly on his side rather than the board’s — and the care he is taking to make sure he is sympathetic to their wailing and gnashing of teeth suggests he knows it.
He will be keen to protect and preserve the fact he is loved again, as he always wanted to be. Winning another title and sailing into the sunset in May will do that, particularly when struggling in Europe is being laid at the feet of others.
Given the impasse that exists with regard to new signings, it is hard not to think that former boss Ange Postecoglou — happy to work with talent of a certain value from a certain sector of the market — was maybe more suited to those in the Celtic boardroom than the ambitious, insistent, politically-astute Rodgers, who is no longer sitting glazed-eyed in press conferences and insisting he is happy to coach whoever he’s given.
Ange Postecoglou might have been worth a phone call, but Forest might get there first
Maybe they had thought about giving the big Greek-Australian a speculative call over his plans for next summer until Nottingham Forest started wondering what he’s doing right now too.
Even so, it looks like Celtic and Rodgers would still be well advised to begin thinking about the next chapter of their lives.
Right now, it doesn’t appear that they are any longer capable of giving each other what they need. And just because one party says there’s no conflict, that doesn’t mean a conscious uncoupling isn’t on the cards.
Centre-parting of the ways of the cards for Martin
Never has anyone spoken so much about the energy in the room since the days of having MCs on the stage during those all-night raves at the Plaza in Glasgow in the early ’90s.
Russell Martin has certainly been good value in the media lounge, if not the dug-out, so far. There’s the phoning his mum, talking from places of love, and now defending his centre-parting and explaining why he doesn’t like wearing suit and tie on the touchline.
There hasn’t been such focus on the subject of sweaty oxters in an interview since Prince Andrew ran into Emily Maitlis.
Good bloke or not, the problem is that a fair bit of what Martin has to say just doesn’t add up. His words about Joe Rothwell and Max Aarons having barnstormers in that midweek shambles against Club Brugge in the Champions League qualifiers and being unable to influence things from the technical area have already been picked apart in surgical fashion.
In his latest appearance at the end of the week, he was talking about how his team should have beaten Dundee when drawing 1-1 at home the other week. Is he kidding?
Russell Martin has bemoaned the fact that some fans aren’t keen on his hairstyle
The Rangers boss got away with one against Dundee after being awarded a very soft penalty
Has he forgotten that the visitors were a goal up and two against one with 12 minutes to play and simply took the wrong option? Has it slipped his mind that Ryan Astley flashed a header just over from a corner late on and should have scored? Dundee deserved the point they got.
Martin painted himself into a corner when going studs-up on the egos and self-protection instincts of his squad in that opening-day draw at Motherwell and has given the impression he’s been trying to get himself out of it since.
His problem is that people are already beginning to compare his Rangers reign to that of Michael Beale’s — and that can never, ever be a good thing.
Martin, fresh from stating that all the Rangers fans he meets think he’s the bees’ knees, suggested on Friday that the games coming up over the course of the next week are not critical. It’s doubtful the punters going off their dinger on a weekly basis about how ponderous and wobbly his team looks agree.
Fail to win at St Mirren today and take a towsing from Celtic at Ibrox next Sunday and Martin’s condition will be worse than critical. He’ll be dead meat.
Clarke goes on a timely charm offensive
Gosh, how lovely to see Scotland manager Steve Clarke in such unusually bright and breezy form when appearing in a near 20-minute interview on the BBC with Kelly Cates.
Steve Clarke enjoys the 3-3 weekend draw between Hearts and Motherwell at Tynecastle
Joshing about how it was maybe best to exit the Euros at the group stage to save the livers of the Tartan Army. Having a laugh about how much Scott McTominay likes Italian tomatoes.
What a difference from the snippy old grump who pulled up a journalist at those finals in Germany for asking a question he didn’t like and then disappeared into the ether for months following our ignominious exit.
Either he has summered well and is full of vim and vigour ahead of the World Cup qualifiers — or he’s considering his prospective employment status when the group is over in three months’ time and trying to win friends and influence people.
Let’s hope it’s the former.
