In hindsight, Brendan Rodgers should have opened the door and walked out with his reputation intact.
Harnessing his years of experience, he could have sensed the way the wind was blowing and taken a decision to bring his second spell as Celtic manager to an end.
Days after the window closed, the opportunity was there to leave of his own accord with no hard feelings. In contrast with that unfortunate Leicester City business in 2019, fans – this time – would have offered no complaint.
Shorn of attacking talent, his squad undermined by inept player trading, he could have tendered his resignation and opened his heart on why he felt let down by his own club. After weeks of – barely – biting his tongue, he could have said his piece and strolled down Celtic Way with his legacy as a modern day Che Guevara intact.
There were two-and-a-half million reasons to honour the final year of his contract; all of them with an image of the king on one side. He’d gone strong with public statements promising to see out his three years and managers rarely rip up a lucrative agreement unless a club pays them to go.
While Rodgers might feel that the current malaise is not of his making, a record of two wins in seven games is bringing supporters to a different conclusion.
His relationship with the Celtic board glacial, there’s more chance of Prince Andrew becoming the next presenter of Strictly than there is of the Parkhead boss signing a new contract at the end of the season.
It feels like an eternity since his team won a truly meaningful game and if they screw up against Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, a grown up conversation might become unavoidable. A parting of the ways might be seen as the best way to save a Parkhead season lurching from bad to worse.
It didn’t have to go this way. A wealthy man, Rodgers could have saved himself the grief by leaving when the going was good.
He could have pulled out the violin and flagged up the sale of Nicolas Kuhn to Como for £17million with no replacement. He could have queried the decision to spend the guts of £10million on two left wingers and sign no one at all for the right.
That a club with £77million in the bank spent the final hours of deadline day scrolling through a list of free agent strikers on Transfermarkt is patently ridiculous.
Kelechi Iheanacho – the player they signed – has now joined Daizen Maeda on a list of injured players, leaving last season’s fourth-choice striker Johnny Kenny to lead the attack. When that doesn’t work, there’s always the Hail Mary option of Shin Yamada, a striker the manager clearly didn’t want in the first place.
Read more
Inept player trading is only half the story. Crippling injuries to key players have weakened Celtic further, stripping away a little more of the manager’s veneer of invincibility. Like Samson shorn of his golden locks, Rodgers is in danger of ending a Scottish season second best for the first time in two spells. Eight points behind Hearts in the title race, his reputation as an elite manager is on the line.
Fans still feel that they should be able to win the league with what they have. When Rodgers branded his team a Honda Civic, he overlooked the fact that Dundee and Hearts are hardly cutting up rivals in a high-performance Ferrari themselves.
The careful, astute, data-led recruitment of Tony Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics is rewriting the rules of recruitment. As the excellent Alexandros Kyziridis gave rookie right-back Colby Donovan a torrid time, Celtic’s decision to spend the guts of £5million on Michel-Ange Balikwisha became ever more questionable.
Criticism of the tactics Rodgers plays and his playing style ignores the bigger issue. Strip Carter-Vickers, Johnston, Jota and Maeda out of the team and the lack of quality in the squad below is glaring.
Starting only his fourth first-team game in four years, central defender Dane Murray was a nervous wreck. Slicing a hideous sclaffed clearance into his own net, the 22-year-old then gifted Hearts a needless penalty for 3-1.
That Liam Scales has become one of Celtic’s most reliable defenders doesn’t say much for the alternatives. Kieran Tierney is less assertive than he used to be and the same might be said of Reo Hatate, a midfielder developing a dangerous habit of passing the ball to the opposition.
Arne Engels takes a nice set piece but flits in and out. Two left wingers with no end product are balanced by Benjamin Nygren – a midfielder – playing on the right wing.
Nygren missed a glorious chance to put Celtic 2-1 ahead before half-time. Trailing 3-1 after a second-half implosion, there was no hint, no sign at all, of a fight back.
Captain Callum McGregor showed up in the first half – scoring a fine equalising goal – before Hearts clamped him for the second. The only thing missing in attack in the final stages was Willie Falconer galloping around the Tynecastle pitch in a green-and-white shirt.
Publicly, Rodgers sticks to the party line. With 29 games left to play there is time, yet, to stop Hearts in their tracks. Whether a second-rate squad have what it takes to resurrect the spirit of Love Street 1986 is another matter.
Out-played, out-thought and out-fought, Scotland’s champions are now a pale imitation of the teams of the past. There are no Brian McClairs or Paul McStays in a side which has now lost back-to-back league games for the first time in two years. A team with eight wins from 16 games in all competitions.
There’s an argument, now, for embracing the need for change. While Rodgers is not to blame for the hopeless asset stripping of the team, the relationship between manager and club has turned sour. The football no longer gets fans off seats and evidence that he can change it with this group of players is scant. Defeat to Rangers would offer more evidence that Celtic are a club in need of new ideas and fresh thinking.
Changing a manager is easier said than done. It’s not clear that Ange Postecoglou needs or wants a return to Glasgow, and finding someone ready to come in midway through a season is the difficult part. Putting Shaun Maloney or John Kennedy in as interim appointments until the summer would play badly with supporters.
For the first time since George Burley’s reign, Hearts lead the Premiership by eight points. And, with wins over Rangers and Celtic under their belt, it must be obvious to everyone by now that McInnes and his players don’t need to be flawless to win a rare and precious title. Competent should be plenty.
Share