Rodgers v Desmond: Analysing the Celtic fallout

The farewell and then the filleting are first.

Monday night brought two statements from Celtic Park, one from the club announcing that Brendan Rodgers had resigned, the other from major shareholder Dermot Desmond excoriating the now ex-manager in the most incendiary fashion.

Every story has two sides, and we are eagerly anticipating Rodgers’ interpretation.

“Celtic Football Club can confirm that football manager Brendan Rodgers has today tendered his resignation”.

No one had any idea that Brendan Rodgers would join Celtic next season, but neither did anyone else. He claimed during the week that he “was never more inspired during my time at Celtic.”

In the wake of the 3-1 loss to Hearts on Sunday he said: “I’ve never worked harder in all my time here. Therefore, we have the drive to try to reverse the current levels. It’s still very early, so that’s fine. I think that’s the key point in it all. We just need to concentrate on these performances, the outcomes, and hopefully our standards will continue to rise as the season progresses.

He left just over 24 hours later. It begs the question – the first of many – what changed? Desmond’s own statement is the source of the rest of these quotations.

“Both Michael Nicholson and Eddie Desmond both expressed to Brendan in June that they wanted to extend their terms of service by offering him a contract. He said he would need to think about it and revert. Brendan continued to make the same pitch in subsequent press conferences as evidence that the club had not made a commitment to offer him a contract. That was completely false.

All of this is open to interpretation. Only those present in the room are aware of what was said, but Rodgers’ version can be analyzed more fully. He claimed in August that he and the other three parties had a conversation about where we were and where it sits, and that I am very happy there.

Rodgers pointed out to the media that “when the club feels there’s that time to make an offer then they will do”. Rodgers stated in September that he hadn’t yet received an offer, and that he wouldn’t be so haughty to declare that he wanted to stay here for another three years. I might not want to join the club. I have to respect that. I carry on doing my job until there is something serious on the paper.

“Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan’s full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any other inference is completely false.

When two players, the striker Shin Yamada and the defender Hayato Inamura, were brought in during the summer, the “insinuation” occurred. Rodgers referred to them as “club signings”.

Rodgers did not say this outwardly, but people insisted that he had not been responsible for those arrivals after his remarks. Of course, the former manager might disagree with the interpretation, but Desmond certainly did so in this context.

The inference that players were being signed without his support caused disquiet behind the scenes and suspicion and rancour among the fans. The board and Rodgers’ distrust was at its breaking point, or it was the continuation of it.

A group of Celtic fans’ organizations called the Celtic Fan Collective met with some important club members last month to discuss whether Rodgers had the final say over all players. Chief executive Michael Nicholson said he had.

Nicholson was asked why Rodgers made reference to “club signings” then. Nicholson shook his shoulders in response. No words, but a further indication that all was far from well.

Later, a statement emerged from Celtic, and after reading it, the color is changed. The article stated that “a lot of what is reported in the media or online about our transfer dealings is inaccurate.”

It went on: “We also understand that this leads to frustration among supporters. In order to improve the clarity for our supporters, we are looking into ways to close the gap between speculation and reality while we are still in the ongoing negotiations.

“His (Rodgers’) later public statements about club operations and transfers completely out of the blue.”

Regrettably, his words and deeds have been conflicting, deceptive, and self-serving since then. They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the Board. Some of the abuse directed at them and their families was completely unjustifiable and unacceptable.

A very serious charge. There’s no doubt that a toxic atmosphere has set in at Celtic but for Desmond not to accept the board’s own role in that is quite something.

Rodgers believes that if he had a role, Rodgers did as well because the club’s poor recruitment and inability to find new stars to replace them.

“One person’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others is what has recently failed,” according to one person. Not our structure or model.

Desmond claims that there is no acceptance of responsibility for the club’s recent problems.

Celtic’s model has served them extremely well over the years, but most recently it’s faltered badly. At Celtic Park today, there are no mapped out players who perform below the standards. There is a lot of responsibility to bear on that front.

Kyogo Furuhashi, Matt O’Riley, Liel Abada and Nicolas Kuhn were X-factor operators for the club, but they don’t have that kind of quality anymore.

They’ve spent a lot of money, but have they done so wisely? If not, isn’t that an indictment of the Celtic process and execution?

“We all have the same goal: to ensure Celtic’s continued domestic success and European success.”

There’s no doubt that Celtic is full of people who want the best for the club, but Desmond’s line about “further progress in Europe” is highly debatable.

They recently suffered a Champions League exit from Kairat Almaty, and they have repeatedly failed to reach the old group stages, falling to teams with smaller budgets under the leadership of several different managers.

They have won 41% of all European games in the last ten years, while losing 45%.

Celtic is “more powerful than any single person.”

When Rodgers replies it will be interesting to see if he makes anything of this.

Celtic fans will be able to vouch for Desmond’s excessive influence over the club’s management and leadership.

Perhaps the fact that the club is not more important than any one person is indicative of the fact that it wasn’t the club’s chairman, chief executive, or the board as a whole that delivered that thunderclap to Rogers on Monday night. Desmond, the largest shareholder but a non-executive at Celtic, is.