The Three Brendan Rodgers Options Facing The Celtic Board

It’s important to keep a sense of perspective here after all the negative comments following the match. No way, it was an absolute shambles from start to finish and needs to be called out.

I read a headline quoting Brendan saying it was down to me. I assumed he meant the performance and result but no, he was accepting that he shouldn’t have played Yang! The decision to play Yang was a result of the manager’s stubbornness in playing the same tactics with essentially the same players.

He can spout any numbers from one to five but he has shown no inclination to change the formation. Supporters and Chris Sutton can rip into players but there was no need for the manager to single out Yang, particularly when any one of the starting eleven could have been rightly hooked at half time, and would probably have been glad to get off that pitch. In the spirit of fairness, the manager did eventually throw all the players under a Honda Civic.

Forget the motoring analogy, the manager needs to get more out of his squad of players. Can he?

Sadly his experiences at Liverpool and Leicester suggest that once his teams have peaked (nearly won the league with one and the FA Cup with the other) he was unable to stop the downward spiral. Interesting stat from yesterday’s EPL. Who was the last Liverpool manager to lose four in a row? Cheap shot, I know.

I read a great post in Talk Celtic before the Kilmarnock game. I couldn’t find it again so apologies to the guy who wrote it, his was much better than my following recollection…

….I hope the new players are well schooled in our tactic of passing the ball sideways and backwards to ensure our playmakers, CCV and Liam Scales, get on the ball as much as possible….

Absolute classic and the one that just keeps giving; 82% possession yesterday! I am expecting Brendan to be charged by the SFA for the use of pyrotechnics. The calling out of Yang and his Honda Civic comment blaming others are just that, a smokescreen. Sure others are partially culpable but the spotlight is more and more on the manager.

I posted a few weeks ago that the manager wouldn’t be at the club beyond the summer and his comment about being handed the keys to the wrong car only reinforce my view. The are irreconcilable differences at the club and I suspect it is more nuanced than the manager v the Board.

It is interesting that the insider told that rag of a newspaper that the manager was tearing the club apart. To me, that speaks of something more than just a dispute between the Board and the manager. Brendan Rogers used the same word “club” to describe those five or so signings who have disappeared without trace into our very own bomb squad.

Take as an example the two lads from Japan. Who signed them? Someone from the Board can deal with the financials but if you were being asked to uproot and travel half way around the world, wouldn’t you want to speak to someone on the coaching side to find out how you fitted in and what the plan was?

I’m taking a punt here but I don’t think that person was Brendan Rodgers. What could he say? Comments like I’ve never seen you play so come over and we’ll put you out on loan to any club that will have you, wouldn’t be tempting.

If not Rodgers, who? Is there someone at the club going over the manager’s head and talking football to prospective players? This would explain why he has left such players to essentially rot and speaks of a more deep seated fracture within the club. If so, I have a great deal of sympathy for Rodgers and can understand his reasons for wishing not to sign any new contract which he may or may not have been offered. I suspect it is the latter.

However, it does not excuse his inability to address the obvious deficiencies on the park.

And so to the Board. It’s decision time for them re the manager. There are three options:-

1. Do nothing.
2. Offer BR a new contract and back him in the January transfer window. I think the two are linked; no new contract, no major January incomings. I also believe we are beyond this point; it wouldn’t be acceptable to either party.
3. Bring in someone new and back him in the January transfer window.

In the short term, it will be Option 1. Let’s see where we are in few weeks time in terms of results and performances. That’s how long Brendan Rodgers has to fix it. If not, Option 3 must kick in; we cannot let things drift until the summer without new arrivals in January.

The do nothing option also applies to the Board; no one is getting sacked at the moment and even if they were, how does that improve things on the pitch? Yes they deserve a severe kicking up their gluteus maximus and maybe, just maybe, some of the points made to them will eventually hit home. However, I suspect the protests will continue but throwing more balls onto the pitch at the start of games will achieve nothing.

Christopher Wotherspoon

Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter, signed copies by Danny McGrain available from celticstarbooks.com 

Don’t miss the chance to purchase the late, great Celtic historian David Potter’s final book. All remaining copies have been signed by the legendary Celtic captain  Danny McGrain PLUS you’ll also receive a FREE copy of David Potter’s Willie Fernie biography – Putting on the Style, and you’ll only be charged for postage on one book.  Order from Celtic Star Books HERE.