So earlier on tonight, someone drew my attention to a segment in Davie Provan’s column that related to Brendan Rodgers.
In that piece, Provan talked about a private chat he’d had with Rodgers where our former manager outlined his rationale for leaving Celtic Park.
I covered Provan the other day, but I do not believe he would invent quotes because he likes the access he has a little too much.
When he says Rodgers told him this stuff I believe him.
And what it amounts to is that Brendan was in a “no win” situation. The inference of what Provan wrote is that Rodgers felt his success was undermining Scottish football’s reputation south of the border. What a laugh I had reading that.
Is Rodgers saying he left us because he was over dominant, and thought it was in the best interests of the game here that he moved on?
Since when does he care about that? If he has any feelings on it one way or the other, he would not have liked how Scottish football’s profile south of the border impacted on his own reputation … but how does it ruin that reputation to be literally too good for the competition?
There are moon-howlers down there who think Gerrard doing well up here would pave the way for his taking the job Rodgers was fired from.
It seems to me that Rodgers is permanently locked in a cycle of self-justification over how he left this club.
And not a one of us cares any longer what lies he tells himself or others about it.
You get tired of repeating this to those who don’t, or won’t, get it; had Rodgers given the board notice and stayed until the end of the campaign he could have gone out with another treble, the undisputed lord and master of all he surveyed, and a hero in the eyes of the fans.
I believe there was a way he could have dressed it up as a noble gesture.
Most people would have assumed that the situation between him and Lawwell had become untenable and we wouldn’t have questioned it. If that scenario didn’t appeal to anyone, they could have found a way to dress it up as a mutual thing and put as good a face on it as they liked.
But Rodgers walked with a lot of unfinished business, and he did so in a way that was entirely conniving and underhanded. He made sure he took much of the backroom staff with him and to Hell with the impact that had on our club.
It’s a minor miracle we held it together, and it is to the immense credit of all inside Celtic Park that we did.
In times to come, people will look back and only see that the season worked out well and that everything kept on ticking, but they will not truly understand those weeks in February when it did look as if we would struggle to keep it all tight.
The club felt like it was trapped in a hurricane, and although we moved fast to steady the ship I think we all felt it rocking.
What he did was more than an act of betrayal, it was an act of sabotage.
We are not going to forget that any more than we will the trophies and the success that came before it, and the more he tries to excuse his actions – and this is the most arrogant assertion yet, and so perfectly in keeping with who we know he is – the less chance he has of even some of our fans forgiving him for it.
Do You Think Celtic Fans Will Ever Forgive Brendan Rodgers?Yes
No
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