In the summertime of 2023, following Ange Postecoglou’s departure to Tottenham, the celebs aligned for Brendan Rodgers’ return to Celtic.
The person from Carnlough had received seven trophies out of seven in his first spell in Glasgow, however left underneath a cloud for Leicester Metropolis one February day.
He loved notable success within the Midlands, profitable the FA Cup, but felt remorse on the damage his abrupt departure had triggered.
Sacked by the Foxes, Rodgers was again on the shelf. When chief government Michael Nicholson and finance director Chris McKay flew to satisfy the Northern Irishman in Spain, they have been pushing at an open door.
When Rodgers was unveiled a couple of days later in Glasgow, there weren’t the tens of hundreds who’d greeted his first coming.
However there have been the identical previous guarantees. Underneath him, Celtic have been set to make a severe go of it in Europe.
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Regardless of the 52-year-old was promised at that preliminary assembly, it proved to far faraway from the fact.
In his first season, with Mark Lawwell accountable for recruitment, Rodgers was handed a raft of gamers who he clearly didn’t fancy. Odin Thiago Holm, Kwon Hyeok-kyu and Marco Tilio amongst them.
After exiting the League Cup to Kilmarnock, Celtic struggled to make an affect in a Champions League group containing Lazio, Atletico Madrid and Feyenoord.
Again-to-back defeats to Hearts and Killie ensured the darkish clouds began the collect. It felt a good distance faraway from Rodgers’ first season, first time round when his facet received the Treble whereas unbeaten.
Within the January, the supervisor’s pleas for important reinforcements noticed him land solely Adam Idah on mortgage and Nicolas Kuhn.
Rodgers stated the board wanted to be ‘braver’. They received the title after happening a spectacular run and the Scottish Cup but there was an unmissable sense that he and his paymasters nonetheless weren’t on the identical web page.
Celtic’s Champions League play-off defeat to Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan was embarrassing
That summer time noticed the identical play unfold. With the membership once more gradual to ship within the switch market, the supervisor made emotional public calls for for extra high quality gamers.
This time, he ultimately acquired his means with £9m spent to signal Idah completely and a document £11m lavished on Arne Engels.
Celtic have been in a greater place. Within the 2024 calendar 12 months, they misplaced simply two matches — to Hearts and Borussia Dortmund. It appeared like every part had lastly clicked into place.
When Celtic took Bayern Munich to the wire within the second leg of their Champions League knock-out tie, it felt like a brand new commonplace had been set.
This was what the followers had aspired to. This was why Rodgers had been introduced again to the membership. It felt like a launchpad. As a substitute, it was the second when all of it started to unravel.
Whereas the vacation spot of the title was by no means doubtful as a result of Rangers’ ongoing points, Celtic misplaced to Hibs, St Johnstone and, for the second successive time, to their rivals from Ibrox.
The Celtic followers have been united of their contempt of the membership’s board this season
Additional attracts towards Rangers and St Mirren got here earlier than a Scottish Cup assembly with Aberdeen that, for a lot of appeared a foregone conclusion.
Celtic failed to show up at Hampden and misplaced on penalties to a group they beat 5-1 at Pittodrie simply 10 days beforehand. One other Treble had slipped by means of Rodgers’ palms.
A few weeks into pre-season, it was clear that each one was not properly. On the again of Kyogo Furuhashi leaving for Rennes within the January, Kuhn grew to become the most recent star to maneuver for giant cash when he signed for Como.
The times ticked by with out Celtic signing satisfactory replacements. Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura have been evidently not what Rodgers had in thoughts.
When a tabloid newspaper claimed Rodgers was successfully stage managing his exit from the membership forward of his contract expiring subsequent summer time, he was apoplectic, describing the briefing as a ‘cowardly act’ and demanding that the membership launched an investigation. It by no means materialised.
With the majority of the fanbase then sympathetic to his plight, he was no loss to diplomacy. Claiming that he’d ‘by no means inform followers what to do’, he successfully sided with them as demonstrations started.
Alexandros Kyziridis scores Hearts’ second in what proved to be Rodgers’ final sport in cost
So long as he may preserve outcomes, he was past reproach. However his facet slipped out of the Champions League and Celtic shipped 10 factors of their opening 9 league video games.
Sunday’s loss to Hearts got here on the again of the earlier weekend’s defeat to Dundee, the primary at Dens since 1988, with the supervisor evaluating his facet to a Honda Civic — a transparent dig on the hand he’d been dealt.
He leaves with the membership adamant he resigned, however with powerbroker Dermot Desmond accusing him of being ‘divisive, deceptive and self-serving’.
Remarkably, his second spell has ended nearly as acrimoniously as his first.
