3 weeks ago
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After a Champions League embarrassment that was curiously both expected and avoidable, what is left for Brendan Rodgers at Celtic?
The Parkhead manager reiterated only recently that he would see out his contract in Glasgow, seemingly keen to avoid the furious backlash that followed him jumping ship to Leicester in his first spell at the club.
When asked last week if he could be tempted by another early exit, in the wake of that damaging first-leg draw with Kairat Almaty in the Champions League play-off, he responded: ‘Absolutely no chance. No chance. We’ve done that one before. It didn’t go down well!
‘Listen, I said from the first day, and there’s no hidden messages and there’s no this and that, I said I’d be three years. I’m here for three years.’
Those three years are up next summer, and no player nor manager should be criticised for honouring a contract and then walking away at its end.
Previously, there had been talk of whether Rodgers would extend his deal. Fair to say the smart money is not on that at the moment.
Brendan Rodgers' European ambitions have been blown wildly off course at Celtic
Celtic were sent crashing out of the Champions League in Kazakhstan on Tuesday night
Yet the Northern Irishman’s future – or, rather, the uncertainty around it – has arguably played its part in creating the perfect storm that has blown Celtic’s Champions League plans so violently off course.
There are no doubt myriad reasons why the club have failed so miserably to strengthen what was an already-weakened squad from last season prior to their play-off exit in Kazakhstan on Tuesday night.
Some potential targets could have been waiting to see if Champions League football was secured, anxious to ply their trade on the biggest European stage.
Some might have been waiting until the big English clubs had finished their business, keeping their options open until the window was about to close.
Of course, the Parkhead rank-and-file seem certain that it has been incompetence on the Celtic board’s part that has caused everything to fall apart in Europe. After all, did they not heed the multiple warnings coming from the manager throughout the summer?
Rodgers had warned that his side needed strengthening prior to their European exit
Yet these things are rarely as a straightforward as some might perceive.
Rodgers has spent money in the past. Arne Engels, Adam Idah and Auston Trusty cost upwards of £25million. It would be difficult to argue they represented value for money.
It’s also difficult to sell a vision to a potential new player when the future under the current manager is uncertain.
Indeed, how can Rodgers even persuade his current squad to sign extended deals, never mind attract new talent, when he seems set to depart at the end of the season?
How far away all of this now seems from the day when the Northern Irishman returned to Celtic Park in 2023 with grand plans for Europe. His words back then must haunt both him and the board.
‘Your bread and butter is always in Scotland, but I’d like to think we could do something in Europe,’ said Rodgers at the time.
‘It’s been well-documented over many years when the club hasn’t qualified so, even though that is a challenge given the resources other clubs have, that is a great challenge for us.
‘Champions League football this season, we’ll look to have European football after Christmas and that is a big challenge for us all.
‘When Michael [Nicholson, chief executive] outlined the infrastructure of the club, there was a lot of things in place that we had spoken about the first time, the recruitment team in place is set up perfectly to work in the markets we need to be working in.
‘For me, that’s very important.’
Celtic fans have taken aim at the Celtic board for the lack of activity in the transfer market
It remains to be seen what is important for both club and manager now.
The blame game over the Kairat calamity will continue but it’s obvious there is a collective responsibility for what has transpired.
Celtic are now a club without a clear identity, without a clear future. So, do they wish to be a Champions League club? They certainly were one last season when they pushed Bayern Munich so close, but did not treat that status with the respect it deserved.
If they want to be elevated to that level again, they must earn it. That means planning for it now, in terms of recruitment, in terms of manager.
They could well enjoy domestic success again this season, but alarm bells were sounded earlier this year when it was claimed the nature of their dominance did not necessarily bode well for the future.
Such suggestions were scoffed at and belittled, but they came home to roost in devastating fashion on Tuesday night.
Rodgers returned to Celtic in 2023 looking to rebuild his reputation and leave with his head held high.
He can still do that, but whether he will depart with the club in a stronger position than when he arrived very much remains to be seen.
