On the loudest nights at Celtic Park, the sound of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is as stirring and defiant as its cousins at Anfield and the Westfalenstadion.
But for Brendan Rodgers, the noise and fallout following his shock resignation from the Scottish champions will leave the 52-year-old walking a lonely path as he packs his bags and departs Lennoxtown for the second time. A stunning, explosive statement from the Celtic majority shareholder, Dermot Desmond, accused Rodgers of acting in a “divisive, misleading, and self-serving” manner that “contributed to a toxic atmosphere” around the club, torching all ties to a manager who had won 11 trophies across his two spells in Glasgow.
The writing had been on the wall for the Northern Irishman, whose frustration had been clear since the summer. After negotiating the league stage of the Champions League last season and pushing Bayern Munich close in the knockout phase, Rodgers wanted Celtic to act decisively in the transfer market and build on their progress in Europe. Instead, Rodgers believed the Celtic board stalled at the green light, criticising the club’s failure to strengthen before facing Kairat Almaty in the qualifying rounds. “There are only so many ways I can dress up that we don’t have the players here,” he said. Their shock defeat to the champions of Kazakhstan also left Celtic with a reduced budget for the rest of the window.
“It’s very frustrating,” Rodgers went on. “We all know where we want to get to. We showed last year, the strides that I felt we took. But you have to build on that. The last thing you want to do in football is manufacture your own stress. That’s what you don’t want to be doing. But all we can do now is look at where we’re at as a football club and decide what way we want to go.”
Rodgers saw star players sold for profit and without adequate replacements, but comparing his Celtic squad to a “Honda Civic” following the 2-0 defeat to Dundee proved unwise, with Sunday’s 3-1 loss at Tynecastle leaving the champions eight points adrift of Hearts in the Premiership. Rodgers had insisted afterwards that there was still a long way to go in the season, but his race was run; Celtic announced his resignation in a 134-word statement late on Monday night, with the bombshell letter from Desmond, at four times the length, following 15 minutes later. Amid the carnage, the return of Martin O’Neill, 20 years on from his previous spell at Parkhead, somewhat slipped under the radar.
Indeed, if Desmond accused Rodgers of “self-preservation” in his public statements to the press, this was the turn of the 75-year-old, on behalf of a Celtic board that had, in his words, “unwarranted and unacceptable” abuse directed at them and their families. In presenting his view of the events, the Corkman effectively accused Rodgers of lying – to him, the Celtic fans, or both. Desmond claimed Rodgers had been told Celtic were keen to extend his contract – Rodgers said in August there had not been contact – and insisted every player signed or sold by Celtic was done with the manager’s approval. “Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false,” Desmond added.
We now await Rodgers offering his own riposte, presumably in a three-hour interview with Steven Bartlett or on The High Performance Podcast. Rodgers upset Celtic fans by leaving them for Leicester in 2019; the 52-year-old’s attempts to rebuild bridges in Glasgow are unlikely to have led to a refurbished reputation in the Premier League, either, even amid the frustration at the board. His departure from Leicester in 2023 came with the Foxes in the relegation zone. Like Ange Postecoglou, who has been installed as the favourite for his own return to Celtic, it is perhaps the fans, rather than another club owner or sporting director, that Rodgers would have a harder time convincing.
“Celtic is greater than any one person,” Desmond concluded in his extraordinary send-off. “Our focus now is on restoring harmony, strengthening the squad, and continuing to build a club worthy of its values, traditions, and supporters.” This, it should be pointed out, is a club that has won the Scottish league title in 14 of the last 15 seasons but now faces the task of picking up its fragmented pieces while tackling the biggest threat to the dominance of the Old Firm in that time.
It was telling, after all, that on the morning of Rodgers and Celtic’s split, former boss O’Neill appeared in the studios of TalkSport singing the praises of a Hearts team “on the rise”. It’s been 40 years since a side other than Celtic or Rangers won the title, and that was Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen. But, as O’Neill said, “this is the moment, this is the time for Hearts”.
With eight wins and a draw from their opening nine games, the last time Hearts made such a strong start was in the 2005-06 season under George Burley. There have been many times across the subsequent 20 years where the Jambos have been a basket case of a club, but they now look like the only grown-ups in the room, given the disarray at Glasgow’s big two. Celtic’s own crisis has followed a disastrous start from Rangers, who sacked Russell Martin after just 17 games and are now looking to salvage their campaign under Danny Rohl. With historically so little in common, Celtic and Rangers fans are currently united by the anger being directed at the suits in the stands.
Hearts, meanwhile, are being guided by smart decision-making. The investment of Brighton owner Tony Bloom and the exclusive access to Jamestown Analytics have revolutionised their recruitment model and encouraged the club to target overlooked talents from untapped sources, leading to the signings of Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis from the Slovakian top flight and Portuguese striker Claudio Braga from Norway. Under Derek McInnes, Hearts are focused on one goal. And while Aberdeen made a similarly impressive start last season, winning 10 of their first 11 games only to completely collapse and finish the season in fifth, there is a sense that a challenger doesn’t have to be perfect to dislodge the Old Firm this season.
Celtic are not invincible any more. Rangers are not a threat whatsoever, and “are so adrift it’s untrue”. Both of which are statements from Celtic’s new interim boss O’Neill, made on TalkSport just a few hours before accepting his first managerial role in six years. And if Hearts can keep their heads amid the chaos that is unfolding in Glasgow, the unthinkable may happen in Scotland as well.
The Independent has attempted to contact Brendan Rodgers for comment
