Whilst we’re on the subject of sabotage…
Before agreeing to return, Rodgers was assured that recruitment had improved since his first tenure.
Remember that first window? £19m spent on 10 players. Nothing had changed. We were still on the hunt for cheap punts.
He wanted centre-backs with pace for the Champions League. Mark Lawwell delivered Maik Nawrocki & Gustaf Lagerbielke - two players who had no pace.
We sold Jota & Abada, but failed to adequately replace them.
Joe Hart announced his retirement in February 2024, yet we had no replacement lined up five months later when Rodgers had to personally contact Kasper Schmeichel and do the recruitment team’s job for them.
On to the second season, where we actually showed some ambitious intent in the summer window. The fact we were without a Head of Football at that time due to the departure of Mark Lawwell may have been coincidental.
We sold Matt O’Riley and then Kyogo in January, but failed to adequately replace them.
Then came the third season, where we were dreadfully ill-prepared for the Champions League, failing to negotiate the qualifiers for the 7th time in 9 attempts.
We sold Kuhn, but failed to adequately replace him (do you see the trend developing here?).
We kept Maeda when his head was already in Wolfsburg.
We sold Idah, messed up the Dolberg deal, then had to go back to the Rodgers Rolodex to bring in Iheanacho.
When Rodgers eventually spoke out about this amateur approach to recruitment, someone at the club briefed against him to the worst tabloid rag imaginable.
You may well have a predetermined view on Brendan Rodgers, but he wasn’t the one sabotaging Celtic. If you believe that, you’ll agree with every word of Desmond’s statement obliterating the man on his departure - a statement that remains a stain on Celtic’s reputation.
The target of our disdain should be fully focused on those in the boardroom who are incapable of progressing our football club, not on managers trying to achieve success to a backdrop of chaos and dysfunction.
We have seen this movie before. My @Record_Sport column on why are we still waiting for Celtic to appoint a manager? Other clubs are getting their business done and Celtic will be playing catch up once again… your thoughts?
▶️ Take a look at the VAR check that saw Celtic awarded a late penalty at Motherwell for handball.
At 6pm on @SkyFootball watch Scottish Football VAR Review to hear what the SFA's head of refereeing Willie Collum made of it 📺
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Has an EU & UK passport and would love to play overseas… (the closer to Glasgow the better haha)
Any clubs interested in him on a free transfer then reach out to Malcolm directly over instagram @Malcolmjohnston_ or our agent @Rem.Sports