The first question I was asked this morning by a solicitor and non-football fan was, “How much is Brendan Rodgers worth?” I said, “He’s probably earned around £30m over the last 15 years”. “So he has enough to sue, if anything Dermot Desmond said is wrong”, came back. You and I both know, he’s not going to sue. It’s all true. It is also high time Celtic took a direct approach to communicating with the supporters.
Who of us would have guessed that Brendan Rodgers, Brendan Rodgers, the man of legendary impeccable character, would have his “conduct and communication” called into question? How shocked was I to read that Brendan’s assertion about the club were “simply untrue”! Untruths come easier to some than others.
Two players in particular are pertinent to the assertion that Brendan had “full knowledge, approval, and endorsement” of players bought and sold; Kyogo and Nicolas Kuhn. “Sell them” is not what should have been said when offers came in for either player. Brendan has favourites in the squad. Others, not so much.
The first thing Martin O’Neill is likely to do when he meets the squad is put an arm around Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda, and put a call into Cameron Carter-Vickers. Where there are favourites, there are outsiders. Celtic have looked and played like a team divided for most of this year.
This absolute mess was predictable and predicted. On his return as manager in June 2023, I wrote, “Brendan will find a united dressing room, backroom and supporter base. We should all try hard to keep things this way, self-indulgent schisms do nothing for Celtic.” Two years later Dermot Desmond wrote that Brendan’s words and actions were “divisive, misleading, and self-serving”.
Predicted: “Self-indulgent schisms” and we got “divisive… self-serving”. I called it.
The wee-man toxicity that left the club in 2019 was welcomed back to my utter astonishment. Pardon my, “Welcome to Celtic, Brendan” on the day, it was with the best intentions but not entirely sincere.
Martin O’Neill was brought in with a remit to unite the dressing room. A team divided cannot win. Players need to know they are respected. The Honda Civic stuff was not a material comment, merely a public manifestation of what had been the reality at Lennoxtown for a long time.
Celtic has been set back years as a consequence of the decision to appoint Brendan in 2023. I hope the board recognise this, reflect how it came about and on their role in the mess. If you welcome the fox into the hen house, you cannot complain when he eats the hens.
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PCS earlier – nice one.
My family and I too will be there to cheer on the bhoys.
Protest at 7pm – presumably including for a period during which the players will be in the dressing room?
Smart thinking.
By all means cancel HCTS, don’t buy EL package, avoid merchandising.
But the collectives unwillingness to avoid impacting the playing group as they try to go out and give their best?
… says something.
Wanker(s) was out today.
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 28th October 2025 5:36 pm
“ If the CEO goes?
(I’m not current on this suggestion)
… does that mean this ends in a 1-1 draw?”
Nope.
To quote Chairbhoy talking about something that happened 20 years ago “This is when the feral Capitalists took over our Club and have been screwing us ever since”.
For folk like him it’s not about sport, it’s not about football and it’s not about Celtic.
For them it’s political and it’s ideological.
Whoever’s in the boardroom will never be acceptable.
====================================
Hi Blogger,
without entering into your feral capitalist debate with CB(lost in 1897imo:-)),i feel you inadvertently make a good point .
It is political
It is ideological
It is £100,000,000+ in the Bank account of the club founded for penny dinners
They say that nothing happened in 2012……
https://x.com/TedLogan1010/status/1982858439987736588#m
Hmmmm…..
HH
oot.
read
Does the modern day top football manager come into the category of a feral capitalist .?
They can wear expensive suits just like the board members.
Eg : I was a Brendan Rodgers “fan” , i thought at the time he was the best fit possible for us. I have no regret over that, however Brendan is worth circa £12.5 m and has a property empire of over 100 properties.
Not exactly a working class hero and far from the ethos of 1887/88. I would wager he doesn’t drive a Honda Civic.
This is the reality of an elite or top class football manager.
I very much doubt we will attract the calibre of manager we all desire if we only offer a living or average wage as renumeration .
HH.
This may help your quest for a working class hero
https://youtu.be/iMewtlmkV6c?si=4DKL3cz3wMRRc_FC
Football was given life in working class communities, Stein, Shankly and Busby all from the mining community, working class football clubs in towns and cities gave those communities something else in life outwith slaving in capitalist factories, Celtic FC has one of the best back stories of working class clubs in the world born through depression and oppression, it’s what keeps so many of us attached to the club romantic fools that we are, now we are being told to “haud yer wheesht” just pay yer hard earned money buy the season ticket, buy the overpriced tat(merchandise) etc don’t dare have an opinion on how the club is being run, the men who gave birth to Celtic Fc would be disgusted at the very thought of Celtic supporters being told to “haud yer wheesht”
If you can buy the most powerful democracy in the world electing in rigged elections a narcissistic megalomaniac as President with his finger on the nuclear button, everything else is secondary, including football clubs, hedge funds, Russian money, Saudi sport washing and Irish billionaires, football sold its soul a long time ago, now its soulless, only romantic fools cling onto the working class game, and we won’t “hold our wheesht” I will be joining the protest at 7pm
Why is the song played at Celtic Park
https://youtu.be/ULMQGLmipjU?si=XdpeVCO-CNWIYLn_
Good Morning Fholk – Grand Day To Be A Tim…
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM @ 5:36 pm,
“For folk like him it’s not about sport, it’s not about football and it’s not about Celtic.
For them it’s political and it’s ideological.
Whoever’s in the boardroom will never be acceptable.”
Thank you for telling me what the little Chairbhoy that lives in your head thinks.
Now let me tell you what I think…
Celtic are first and foremost a football club, a sporting institution, secondly they are part of a community, a community with an ethos of altruism.
Anyone who gets that, lives that, is most welcome to our Board.
You can have those qualities and still have the necessary skillsets to do your job anyway job at Celtic.
If it was Banking or Commerce or other highly competitive business sectors that may well need a more ruthless and more callous approach in today’s business environment but it’s not.
It’s a sports club and supporters of the club are more than happy, in most cases, to give the club money – in effect free money.
So, if the feral capitalists are going to run it as a single minded Commercial venture, with little regard to the Club’s sporting values or traditional ethos – they have to dupe the supporters into parting with their cash.
They did that twenty years ago, they managed it right up to the summer.
Now the games~a~bogey…
It still seems we are not much clearer what went on with our Manager, coaches and staff around their departure from the club.
Suffice to say many thanks for all the expertise, hard work and success you brought… best of luck to…
Brendan Rodgers, Adam Sadler, Jack Lyons, Glen Driscoll and last but certainly not least John Kennedy.
You were colossal…
Good luck to our new coaching team, especially Martin who is a footballing legend in these parts.
Hail Hail
It still seems we are not much clearer what went on with our Manager, coaches and staff around their departure from the club.
We do know from King Dermot that following a meeting in June between the King, his political attache (CEO) and Brendan which broke up acrimoniously and without agreement, a plan to remove Brendan was put in place.
Shaun Maloney hired in June to step into the coaching role when Brendan leaves, obfuscation, deflection and bad faith in transfer deals to frustrate and provoke Brendan during the summer (plus save balance sheet)resulting in a farcical last 48 hours during which the 1st team where left with having virtually no quality in the forward positions, left Brendan then seeking out to rehabilitate a former star striker on a free transfer, next was the Kings commander in chief using his contacts in the media and online to spread misinformation and disinformation to further undermine the manager, when the King decides off with your head its only a matter of time
Log
Had to google Susan Whelan.
Very powerful woman, ticks all the boxes and im sure DD would know her personally.
She is currently available, but is there a vacancy at Parkhead ?
HH.
https://www.youtube.com/live/7zh9qgSALVM?si=7phCDP4h7dbZl0WF
https://spotify.link/sQVf2G23QXb
https://theorg.com/org/celtic-football-club/org-chart/michael-nicholson
On paper, Seriously impressive and certainly no fool.
.
Going to the game tonight but very nervous already.
Don’t believe the players state of mind will be great, hasn’t all season, with the uncertainty of virtually the whole coaching dept gone and the limited time with the new guys.
Will be interesting to see how approach and tactics change because Falkirk unlikely to change their plan and how easy or other wise it will be make more chances and score more goals.
Hope I am wrong but I do not see a massive change and imagine it will be a struggle as our squad is bang average and ravaged with injuries.
The presser yesterday was awful and looked like two people stuck in the wrong movie. They looked a little startled and nervous in my view. Clearly it’s all happened quickly and we all love MoN but for some to say it was great and positive change is really clutching.
We are in a huge mess and there are multiple moving parts – the manager and virtually all football staff leaving regardless whether sacked or resigned is not a good look and leaves a huge gap. Situation made far far worse by the arse that is DD going nuclear with his wholly unnecessary and unhelpful statement. What a self serving sanctimonious prick – nobody bigger than. Celtic…….except me.
That our NEDs, executives or chairman do not see or could not stop that ego maniac putting that out tells you all you need to know about them – gutless and useless would be a polite description.
stephenbhoyboy@11.31pm
Not sure where you get your figure of £24 million in Corporation Tax paid over the last two seasons.
Maybe you could point me to the relevant sections in the two most recent Annual Reports.
As for your other concerns, not quite sure that Season Tickets cost an arm and a leg, various concessions available, and fact is they are not easy to come by. Raise that and other longstanding concerns at the AGM.
Been in various sections of the Stadium recently including the old Main Stand, and lower tier elsewhere, pretty good for viewing a football match. Cannot speak re wheelchair access tobe fair. Overall the stadium is holding up fairly well but it is over thirty years years old, with the old stand probably over a century with some work in 1970-71 to roof etc. As for food, nobody is forcing you to buy it, have a meal before you go to the match. One thing is for sure none of your concerns will resolved by throwing tangerines on the pitch or the other infantile tactics adopted by the Steering Committee of the Celtic Fans Collective. Surely there has got to be some grown ups in there somewhere. No?
I sincerely hope that BR is able and willing to take DD to task for his horrific and harmful statement.
Not because support BR or think he did not have a part to play in this fiasco but because DD was 100% wrong to do it, it damages Celtic and there should be consequences for such recklessness.
Much if not all of his statement is also factually wrong – BR clearly acknowledged discussions about contract extension but there was nothing formal. The club failed on multiple occasions to complete the right deal and the right time so how can he say they club never failed to support him. The smoke and mirrors BS about record spend when there was record incomings and NEVER a nett spend. Full of half truths and misinformation – usual corporate BS.
He deserves to be called out.
greenpinata @ 7.35
Very impressive indeed. One of my main, serious even, concerns is how the Celtic Fans Collective is attacking Celtic Supporting members of the Board with a vindictive personal campaign. (Encouraged in part by Brendan Rodgers). Not too dissimilar to that to be found at Ibrox. Maybe it is an Old Firm kind of thing.
“ By all means cancel HCTS, don’t buy EL package, avoid merchandising.
But the collectives unwillingness to avoid impacting the playing group as they try to go out and give their best?
… says something”.
Spoiler alert – it’s not about the football.
He does indeed deserve to be called out, he does not own Celtic but as we have seen he behaves as if does, the executive employees would be sacked for facing him up and the NEDs are useless or agree with him, those expecting a new CEO to do anything differently while he is in control will be disappointed however she I’m assuming it’s the woman who was at Leicester, might communicate more frequently.
31003@8.47
Why dont you answer your own question?
BR is now gone, if he was responsible for their actions which he wasn’t then he isn’t now.
John Kennedy deserved to have some recognition for his years of service, none given a few mumbled words from maloney and O’Neil talking about a game in Barcelona, that again tells me this club will discard anyone at any time in a heartbeat, it does not look a good place to work which is where you will attract good people to work for you.
Fotheringham and Mcmanus are now working with the first team.
Celtic Mac on 29th October 2025 8:08 am
I hope you are being well remunerated for all the time you spend on here.
A SILENT CEO 🤫 and has backers words fail me yet again these privileged ones are on a other planet.
LIONSROAR67
Brilliant analysis of how this assassination of the manager has been planned and delivered.
in and in
There is bit of memory lapse re the selling of Kyogo and Khun.
Apart from wanting to leave they both had stopped being as valuable in football terms when sold.
Kyogo was not getting the kind of service his positional running needed and Khun to me was more focused on not getting hurt.
The title was still won so BR could argue his decision was football based and correct at the time.
That is quite separate from failure to replace both, but if money is the means of measure then Celtic would have to have spent £10m and £15m to recruit equivalents on a wage that reflected the market value of both players at their level best.
The worst thing about hindsight is the ability to find arguments that suit the core beliefs of some and ignore balancing factors.
If those are stated the risk is being accused of being a Board placeman by those whose core beliefs are unshakeable and immovable and destroy trust.
Good morning CQN
Game day. Interesting.
An T earlier
“without entering into your feral capitalist debate with CB(lost in 1897imo:-))”
😆😆 ….. the “lost in 1897” bit.
Thought provoking too.
Auldheid,
As ever, wise words. What saddens me nowadays on CQN is the almost total lack of respect so many “newish” bloggers have for those of another opinion. I seldom read other blogs; is it the same on those?
Change is a depressingly long way off .
Dermot , ‘it’s ma baw’ Desmond will be the last to leave the burning vessel , cos it’s his vessel and his fire anaw .
maolmuire o muirgheasa@8.31
I hope to hell you’re not…..
Auldheid @ 08:57am.
Agree with all of that.
I think your logic exposes one of the key faultlines in the recruitment strategy debate.
Daizen, Matt and Nicolas were relatively inexpensive purchases.
If each case their development followed similar trajectories.
– not fully effective when they came in. Took 6 to 12 months
– consolidated
– over performed
– became “£20m players”
Genuine question.
When you sell a guy for £20m you bought for £2m two years ago, how much do you spend on his replacement and where do you get him from?
If the model works (often enough to get by)
… why wouldn’t you rinse and repeat?
But if you do ..
You are replacing a £20m guy with a £2m guy who might become a £20m guy in 18 months …
… so the team will be less effective.
If we are constantly dipping temporarily, how can the playing group then consistently take the next step performance and outcomes wise?
Just thought I would post the responses my daughter sent me on Monday night when I texted her that BR was gone.
“wow wasn’t expecting that”
“Martin O’Neil for now should be interesting”
“hopefully start winning again”
Not earth-shattering; but, with all the angst and anger swirling around, gives me a straightforward and more pleasant way to view it.
I think I won’t be alone.
It would help if we keep some of them for a longer period after they have “developed”. Most of our contracts for new players are generally 5 years now. por cierto
…..
Two horse race between McKenna and Keane?