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Celtic Fans Are Watching England. Brendan Rodgers May Have Won Another Title.

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When you see “Brendan Rodgers” trending on Twitter these days you wonder if the Leicester board have said enough is enough, or that he’s fired another warning shot across their bow about transfers or that he’s up and quit for somewhere else.

What you don’t expect is to read that “Brendan Rodgers is an EPL winning manager.”

Where in God’s name did that come from?

Is it a joke that you have to be in on to get it?

Oh, it’s pretty damned far from being a joke.

This is a serious issue.

Because the reason “Brendan Rodgers is an EPL winning manager” is trending is that the league has finally opened its far-reaching investigation into Manchester City, the one that could see points deductions and because of that, well, potentially title stripping as well.

Which would make Brendan Rodgers a Liverpool title winning boss.

Hence the Twitter trend with his name all over it. This is not just a funny headline. Celtic fans are watching to see if Rodgers becomes a title winner because, of course, of what didn’t happen here.

City are accused of a bewildering range of offences related to how they’ve financed their club.

The charges stretch back to 2009-10 all the way up to 2017-18. These are some of the most serious charges ever levelled at a top flight side in England and the consequences of them could be absolutely momentous.

According to The Guardian, an independent commission will be set up to examine this issue and depending on what they find, “could recommend that City be expelled from competition, suspended or docked points if it finds the club guilty. Those sanctions are listed in the Premier League’s handbook but a commission is clear to apply any punishment it considers appropriate.”

Any punishment it considers appropriate. That’s the critical term.

Football has a way of looking after its own, of course, and up here we know that the most corrupt stitch-up in the history of the game was done over Lord Nimmo Smith.

That was meant to be “an independent inquiry” as well.

But of course, it had some of its terms set for it by the SFA who were the ones who called it in the first place … so you had poachers setting the rules for the game-keepers and that was never going to end well for us.

In England, the EPL brand must be protected at all costs and whilst some people might think that means giving Manchester City a free ride there’s more at stake here than just what that club or those in its periphery would want.

They take these things more seriously than they do here in Scotland and with UEFA watching it is “get tough time” for those clubs which have made a mockery of FFP and its regulations. City are in big bother.

We are about to see how associations which take this stuff seriously deal with these matters, and at the end of it all City might well skate even if they’re found guilty. UEFA found them guilty of much the same offences and they appealed it all the way to CAS and won their case. But the EPL case looks, even at a glance, to be more detailed and robust.

And so Brendan Rodgers may be a title winning manager in England after all.

There will be the usual caveats of how managers don’t want to get titles handed to them in such a manner, but cheating is cheating folks and it has to be dealt with in the appropriate way … and it’s just possible that the outcome will be a large mural of that grinning face and those ever-bright teeth beaming out from that too-perfect tan somewhere down by Anfield.

Brendan Rodgers. A Liverpool legend after all. It sounds like a joke.

It sounds like I’m trying to be funny.

But this is real, and that’s what we should all be watching.

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  • JimBhoy says:

    Man City the asterisk (*) years…. Would never happen here. rangers fans are even trying to get world war football counted as professional tournaments, they had the advantage then with their numbers hiding in the shipyards when others where defending their country.

  • Paul Mac says:

    Funny watching Jim White´s reaction .. you would have thought that he had never witnessed his favourite club do the same thing ?!

  • Tony B says:

    The difference in Scotland is that the football authorities, the SMSM (and maybe even Celtic directors) would fight tooth and nail any attempt to remove any of the titles stolen by the old club.

    Too many vested interests and people with things to hide and backs to protect, quite apart from the “social unrest” bogey man.

  • Benjamin says:

    The most interesting piece of the news today is that these charges aren’t just a rehash of old news. There are serious (and one not so serious) new charges being leveled at Manchester City. Among them are that they failed to properly disclose compensation for their management staff around 10-12 years ago. That seems highly relevant as that would mean the original case of them cooking the books by inflating their sponsorship deal with Ethiad isn’t the end of the story. And they’ve also been hit with over a decade of charges that amount to lying, and then covering up, then refusing to cooperate with any investigation. In any normal business, this is called ‘fraud’ and carries jail time as a punishment. And if the charges are proven and not overturned by CAS, it could lead to new charges by UEFA as well.

    On a humorous note, the not so serious charge relates to them not handing out sufficient tickets to away fans many years back. I can’t imagine the punishment for this being severe, but the English FA is throwing everything they have at Manchester City right now. I guess this is like charging the bank robber for excessive speed when he made his getaway.

  • Duncan says:

    Just how poor was the Premiership back then when “League Winner” Brendan couldn’t get a “Title Winning “ Liverpool into the last 16 of the Europa League twice at the asking?

    Despite spending £300m on transfers adding to a side that already had Agger Skyrtl Johnson Gerrard Lucas Suárez and Sterling.
    Meanwhile back at Relegation battle torn Leicester currently 6 pts above Southampton and one win ahead of Everton.

    • Scouse bhoy says:

      Brown envelopes at the ready nothing will happen a token paltry fine at best. By the way brendan rodgers is a good manager still held in high esteem in liverpool.

      • Duncan says:

        Deluded Brendan was chased down the road.
        He came to Celtic to repair his CV.
        Job done he disappeared out the Fire Exit in the middle of the night mid February with a series of tough fixtures awaiting.
        Serial failure in Europe .

    • Woodyiom says:

      That’s unfair – he only spent that level of money having SOLD Suarez, Sterling, Carroll, Agger, Reina etc. Feel free If you want to have a go at BR if you want but at least have the decency to check the facts first!

      • Duncan says:

        Liverpool spent £300m when he was there and failed to make it to the last 16 of the Europa League.
        He’s shot in Europe thems the facts.

  • Scouse bhoy says:

    Brown envelopes at the ready nothing will happen a token paltry fine at best. By the way brendan rodgers is a good manager still held in high esteem in liverpool.

  • Peter cassidy says:

    Football world wide is corrupt on every level and FIFA the biggest offender followed by our own sfa.

    • Eldraco says:

      Like other “sporting” scandals ” it will take someone outside this country to expose the entire sordid dreadful affairs of Scottish football and be well funded by a group of people to do so.

      It’s time those sewer rats were exposed

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