Last week Celtic quietly announced that their manager Brendan Rodgers had “tendered his resignation”, to be replaced on an interim basis by their former manager, Martin O’Neill, and former player, Shaun Maloney, in the latest addition to their version of the “Back to the Future” franchise.
So far, so good. Move along please, nothing to see here.
Dermot Desmond Statement
Not so fast, big boy, as just 15 minutes later, Dermot Desmond put out one of the most extraordinary statements ever seen on a club website that basically amounted to a total evisceration of Rodgers’ character.
The Irish billionaire owns 34.5% of the club, so is the largest shareholder, though not the majority owner. Nor does Desmond hole the key roles of chairman or chief executive, but he has long been considered to be the “power behind the throne”, even though he has (until now) maintained a very low public profile.
In recent months, Rodgers had complained a few times about the lack of quality in his squad, most notably suggesting that he had only been given the keys to a Honda Civic, but was being asked to drive it like a Ferrari.
This implied criticism of the board was the final straw, so Desmond really put the boot in, describing Rodgers’ words and actions as “divisive, misleading and self-serving”, contributing to “a toxic atmosphere around the club”.
He pointedly added, “What has failed recently was not due to our structure or model, but to one individual’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others.”
Nor did Desmond pull any punches when talking about the much discussed transfer failures, “Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan’s full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false.”
There was much more, including a reference to a three hour meeting between Desmond and Rodgers, “Despite ample opportunity, he was unable to identify a single instance where the club had obstructed or failed to support him. The facts did not match his public narrative.”
Transfers Summer 2025
Where both protagonists might be in agreement is on the root cause of the antagonism, namely a fairly disastrous transfer market this summer, when Celtic only spent £13m on improving the squad, which was around half of Rangers’ £26m outlay.
Chairman Peter Lawwell noted that the club had signed 11 players “as part of our ongoing strategy to refresh and strengthen” the squad, including Sebastian Tounekti from Hammarby, Michel-Ange Balikwisha from Antwerp, Shin Yamada from Kawasaki Frontale, Benjamin Nygren from Nordsjaelland and Hayato Inamura from Albirex Niigata.
There were also four free transfers, namely Kieran Tierney from Arsenal, Kelechi Iheanacho from Sevilla, Ross Doohan from Aberdeen and Callum Osmand from Fulham U21. Finally, a couple of players arrived on loan deals: Jahmai Simpson-Pusey from Manchester City and Marcelo Saracchi from Boca Juniors.
With the greatest respect to these players, that’s a pretty uninspiring list of signings, though at one stage of the window the picture had looked even worse, as Rodgers noted, “We have gaps in the squad that are very clear. I have to convince the board to really push to get the players in that we really need.”
In fact, Celtic actually made a profit on player trading this summer, as they sold £26m of talent to give net sales of £13m, by far the largest in Scotland.
The main departures were Nicolas Kühn to Como, Adam Idah to Swansea City, Gustaf Lagerbielke to Braga, Marco Tilio to Rapid Vienna and Hyeok-kyu Kwon to Nantes.
It is fair to say that these players were not adequately replaced, which could also be argued for those that left in the January window, especially striker Kyogo Furuhashi, who was sold to Nantes.
At a time when most would have expected the club to push on, it did seem strange that they actually ended up with a surplus, which many fans ascribed to a lack of ambition.
The other major problem this summer was the timing of the signings that the club made, as most of the arrivals came very late in the window.
Indeed, Lawwell himself admitted, “We recognise and share the frustration and disappointment of our supporters with respect to the timing of some of the incoming acquisitions. We will always look to improve how we operate and overcome challenges where possible.”
Chief executive Michael Nicholson drily added, “This year regretfully we did not achieve all of our objectives in the transfer window.”
Failure to Qualify for the Champions League
Celtic clearly took a risk by waiting so long to complete deals, which surely contributed to the awful defeat to the unheralded Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan in the Champions League play-offs, which meant missing out on the money-spinning league phase.
The board said that it took responsibility for the failure to achieve the key objective of Champions League qualification, but the disappointing result could reasonably be considered as the price paid for its excessive caution.
Penny wise, pound foolish, if you will.
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