LOYALTY? What does it mean? Right now the previous Celtic manager has sold himself to a town less than half the size of Glasgow, famous for little more than being the Elephant Man’s birthplace and digging up the worm-eaten remains of Richard III from a council car park. And its football club dumping a title-winning manager.

And already the Parkhead faithful are throwing adjectives such as “betrayal” around like pennies at a Sixties scramble.

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But what of loyalty? Should we hold it up to be a virtue, or an anachronism that’s headed right for the lexicon bin marked Outdated?

The past two decades has seen the concept tested to the limit. New Labour introduced the notion of a wandering minstrel society, where workers were free to ply their trade wherever. If poets and pop stars could do it, why not the rest of us? The problem was as economies constricted so too did employment contracts of any real value.

Try telling a delivery bike rider out there right now they should show company loyalty and they’ll force a 16 inch Hawaiian– with fries – right down your throat. Yes, there was a time when trades unions had the power to look after their charges. But that day has passed, public sector apart.

Is loyalty about reciprocity? Yes, it should be part of a two-way process. Sadly, however, the public has for decades shown blind faith to banks and energy companies who have refused to pass savings onto those who built up their business. So it’s only right we have become promiscuous, learned to compare the market because the truth is we’ve been so royally shafted in the past.

The concept of loyalty has long been fostered by elites, by way of control, at times, to protect institutions that are morally corrupt. It’s been bred into us, from days in the Brownies or Boys Brigade, to respect and support a higher order. That’s not to say order is a bad thing; but that order has to co-exist alongside morality of purpose. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if loyalty demands the swearing of an oath or any weird ritualistic practice, then walk away.

READ MORE: Brendan Rodgers leaves Celtic for Leicester City 

It’s not hard to see why Scots MP Ian Murray MP won’t sign a loyalty statement to his boss. Politics now is defined by continuous acts of disloyalty. Agreements, to party and electorate are reconfigured almost on a daily basis. And if loyalty is being redefined in terms of allegiance to solid principle, that’s not a bad thing. However, the opposite is also true; we can only wonder and worry what’s going on in Jeremy Corbyn’s mind that allows him to block plans to ban Hezbollah from Britain. What’s going on in Theresa May’s head that allows for disloyalty to the truth, which is that we won’t walk away with a deal on March 29?

We can only wonder what is going on the head of Pope Francis, given his close confidante and Vatican No3 was allowed to practice evil for many years. (Cynics may suggest this relationship is no longer about loyalty, that if the Pope pulled this straw out of the game and denounced Cardinal Pell there would be retribution – and the church would clatter to the ground, like the marbles in a Kerplunk game.)

What of the notion of loyalty between friends? I’ve long thought this to be an essential, an unconditional. Unless friends bring with them new conditions under which you struggle to operate but we should see loyalty as the perpetual ideal.

Yet, the Pope and politics apart, were moving towards a society whereby the core value of loyalty has less importance. We’re living in a world where Chelsea goalkeepers can refuse to be substituted, which begs the question: where do we draw the line in refusing to take orders? Should a soldier be jailed for refusing to listen to an officer, no matter how unhinged they appear to be. (Personally, I think the goalie should have walked off; we can’t always see our own weaknesses.)

But are you betraying yourself if you don’t do what you think to be best at the time, for career and perhaps your family’s future? Yes, you will argue this suggests principles. But what are they? Groucho Marx once declared “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them... well, I have others.” He was joking, of course, but his words sit perfectly with the modern climate.

Which means it’s hard to argue the moral principle as regarding Brendan Rodgers. He operates in a free market economy which employs transients. It’s not fair to say this is the worst act of disloyalty since Judas took up cheek kissing.

Yet, it’s not wrong to see why Hoops’ fans’ green blood is boiling. A football club isn’t called a club for no reason.

The 19th-century philosopher Josiah Royce spoke of the relation between the conscious individual and the universal thought – “which will be decided in the sense of their own inclusion, as elements in the universal thought.” It says you are part of something if you believe it to be so.

The Celtic fans bought into the universal thought with their hard-earned season ticket cash.

Absolute inclusion should at least buy you the final ten league games of the season.