When Brendan Rodgers chastised the Celtics board and CEO Michael Nicholson over the weekend, he committed a grave error.
The manager performed the same task on his employers last Sunday after his team had hammered St Mirren from pillar to post. The best of them all, Jock Stein, was the first Celtic manager I ever spoke with for a newspaper. I have never heard any of the great man’s successors publicly criticise the club’s management style in the 54 years that have passed since then, the way Rodgers did when he expressed his displeasure with the delay during the transfer window.
His error was not including Auston Trusty and Arne Engels in his squad to play Rangers at Celtic Park tonight, instead opting to watch the game from the stands, had Brendan fully disclosed how he was feeling a few weeks ago. Rodgers seems to have come to the conclusion that those in positions of authority need compulsion rather than cooperation when he discussed how long it took to complete administrative tasks.Having evidently come to the conclusion that having modest ambition will only lead to modest success both at home and in Europe. Following months of trying to transform Adam Idah’s loan move from Norwich City into a permanent transfer, Celtic abruptly terminated their efforts when Kyogo Furuhashi hurt his shoulder against Hibs at Easter Road last month. They paid a premium to acquire him before there was any criticism.
Similarly, before the supporters pulled a Rodgers and publicly questioned what was happening behind the scenes, deals were made for Engels and Trusty when Matt O’Riley left Celtic for Brighton and brought in record-breaking money. All of it must have resulted from the manager giving what was hardly a glowing recommendation of the folks who provide his salary.
Rodgers rejects the idea that a balance sheet serves as a trophy. “We can’t be happy just to make our money and build our pot because the bottom line is on the pitch,” he stated, emphasising his argument. It is our responsibility to field the strongest team possible.
Said another way, neglecting to do so constitutes a duty violation. The manager made the team accountable, and all of a sudden there was a shift in the recruitment department’s operations. Funny that. One fourth of the four most significant games in their league schedule is today’s Old Firm match, which Celtic will play in. They will do so with a team that is weaker than the one that played Rangers in the Scottish Cup final last May as a result of O’Riley’s departure to England.
That’s what happens when you get into the last few days of that window with not enough business being done, as the manager pointed out in his harsh evaluation of the transfer window’s unpredictable pace. Rodgers and Celtic are not interchangeable. In order to meet the manager’s expectations, they must strive to be compatible, which calls for higher standards.
If not, Rodgers will have to develop the habit of holding the team to a higher standard and use home games against the team that plays on the opposite side of the city as a yardstick. It has Celtic roots. Rodgers claimed it was a Rangers issue when issues with appropriate crowd segregation surfaced and plans to let away fans into either team’s stadium were shelved.
If Philippe Clement’s team loses today at home, supporters will become enraged, holding the inability to bring in new players on schedule responsible for the outcome. Disapproval from managers is one thing. Everyone in the audience gets a sore neck when they become agitated. The idea that Rangers are poor and Celtics are wealthy, meaning that his club will win today’s game, is too much for Rodgers to handle.
The manager is a realist and understands that if there had been more urgency from the people who write the checks at work, he would have had a stronger team on the park today. Assumptions are not something you can count on.
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