BRENDAN RODGERS will meet the media at 1.30pm today and will be given the opportunity to clarify the current situation that is threatening to engulf Celtic.
The Hoops boss has been silent for almost a fortnight due to the international break, but is scheduled to discuss Sunday’s encounter against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
With a supporters’ groups uniting and calling for fans to delay their entrance to the venue until the 12th minute – to remember the twelfth man – Rodgers will also be conducting interviews with Sky Sports, who are covering the Premiership clash live, and multiple other TV channels.
GRIM AND BEAR IT…Brendan Rodgers watches the scoreless stalemate at Ibrox.
There has also been talk of a Europa League boycott with the champions, of course, due to play four games in Glasgow in the competition.
Chris Sutton has called on the Irishman, who is into the final year of a three-year deal, to reveal all to the press about his position at the club.
The former Hoops goal hero said: “I think Rodgers will simply now have to come out and tell everyone if he’s going to be staying or going.
“If he’s going at the end of the season, so be it.
“We saw it at Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp and it’s happened elsewhere. There needs to be some clarity – for everyone.
“It could be that he’s not made his mind up yet, or even that the club wants to go down a different route, which is another matter altogether.
“You look at the muck being thrown around with claims about Rodgers trying to engineer an exit. Are they going to stumble on with a manager who doesn’t want to be there and a club that feels the same? How is that going to work?
COMING OR GOING? Brendan Rodgers at Lennoxtown this week. Image courtesy Celtic TV.
“The entire situation just needs resolving, because it sure isn’t going away.
“It’s going to be a cloud hanging over the club all season.
“And then you thrown into the mix reports someone at the club is accusing Rodgers of tearing the place apart with his summer transfer comments and trying to engineer an exit.
“It all just needs to be settled once and for all.”
Rodgers was adamant in recent statements there had been NO breakdown between him and the board.
However, Sutton, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “The last week or so has made it even more necessary. It wasn’t so long ago Rodgers said the club was connected.
“But Celtic could not look any more disconnected right now.
WELCOME TO CELTIC…Brendan Rodgers with new Bhoy Kelechi Iheanacho.
“The ill-judged statement last weekend claimed the manager has full say on all of the signings.
“If that is the case, then why are four of the summer arrivals not in the Europa League squad?”
The one-time England international striker added: “There’s clearly been a breakdown in terms of the recruitment, whether it’s the players scouted, the board conducting the deals and the manager wanting the ones that have come in for Europe.
“And it all comes down to Rodgers’ future.
“There’s unrest in the stands and the board needs to try to find a way to repair that relationship.
“But there is uncertainty in the dug-out – and that is not a recipe for success on the pitch.”
