SUTTON: YOU’RE A HYPOCRITE BRENDAN
Brendan slammed Dembele for leaving Celts in the lurch but with just 11 games to go and chasing the treble Treble he’s done the same and that means he’s a...
BRENDAN RODGERS was always going to leave Celtic.
But the timing of it has made a mockery of some of his past statements about a dream job.
The speed of the move tells you it’s surely been in the planning for a while and he’s left the club in a mess.
Let’s get one thing straight immediately. It is Rodgers’s right to seek a new job if he wished.
It’s been obvious for a while that he had taken Celtic as far as he could in terms of Europe and there is a shelf-life for everyone at any club.
My view was the end of this season would have been a natural conclusion.
Rodgers could have walked out the door with nine trophies out of nine won and two Champions League qualifications in the bag as well as two post- Christmas Europa League appearances.
Having restored Celtic and filled the stadium again through three golden years, he could have left with his head held high.
Let’s be honest, with some of things he has had to deal with such as the officialdom, the plastic pitches, the budget restraints as he tried to do something in Europe and the fact the light has been shone firmly back on to the spectre of bigotry, it would be hard for anyone to give him stick for deciding his time in Glasgow’s east end was up.
However, the way this has happened with 11 games to go in the title race and the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup looming on Saturday leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the punters who idolised him.
The same punters who were having a go at me for saying things were not right behind the scenes and asking for him to come out and clarify his position in recent weeks.
Remember, this is the manager who had a pop at Moussa Dembele for making a hasty exit. It’s hypocritical, even though this has been coming since pre-season.
When Rodgers made public his dissatisfaction about the transfer policy during the camp in Austria way back in June, you knew there was a problem.
It used to be Peter (Lawwell) this and Peter that when he talked about the running of the place. Then suddenly the tone and the language changed. It became the club.
Lawwell has done a very good job running Celtic and he is a shrewd man. He would have seen right through this talk and known there and then it was the beginning of the end.
He and the board could have dug their heels in and refused Rodgers permission to speak with Leicester at this time of the season.
The fact they didn’t really does tell its own story.
The fact the move to the King Power has come about with such speed would also make you suspicious that Leicester’s plan didn’t just come out of the blue.
Rodgers had the Celtic fans eating out of his hands because of the success but if this really was the dream job he always claimed it was, you don’t walk out of it at this time.
That’s where he has ruined some of his legacy. In the future, people will look back on his reign and applaud him for what he has done. A double Treble and pointing the club towards the treble Treble is some effort given the shambles he inherited from Ronny Deila.
But bizarrely, in the way he has come to this ending, he is leaving a mess of his own for the next guy in the door.
The short-termism of the January signings said a lot. Three loan signings brought in just to cater for the here and now with no real forward planning put in place.
It looked clear as day he hadn’t thought beyond the end of this season and now it shows that was the case.
Neil Lennon is the one who has taken up the post and what a position he’s been put into.
I suppose on one hand you can say it’s a dream opportunity for him coming so soon after he left Hibs.
Timing is everything in football and Lennon has been in the right place at the right time.
In this
It was Peter this and Peter that. Then the language changed. It became ‘the club’
difficult situation he is one of few guys who could go in the door and help ease the pain of Rodgers leaving.
But while it’s a great chance for him it’s also a bit of a no-win situation in terms of on the park.
Imagine it goes wrong for Celtic over the last 11 games of the league season and they lose the title?
Or they get beaten in the Scottish Cup before the trophy is handed out?
He’ll be the one who will get the finger pointed at him and be blamed.
To be fair, I don’t think that’ll happen. Lennon knows Celtic inside out and he’s got a handle on what is needed to get through the final three months and land the trophies.
But he’s going to have to sort out a playing squad that will have its head all over the place with their manager walking out on them at this crucial time in a campaign and he’ll need to do it instantly.
As I said, the fact he’s been placed into this situation by the decision of Rodgers does not surprise me.
But what surprised me is the timing of it. It’s very poor and has cast a big shadow over the good work he’s done at Parkhead.
It’ll take time for fans to forgive him. Some never will.