There was an inevitability about my having to write this article, which I actually consider to be quite comical. I knew this day would come the moment the title was secured. Someone, somewhere, was going to start the ball rolling … and Pat Nevin did it.
He thinks Rodgers is the ideal man to take the vacant job at Chelsea. So, we’re off to the races, with the easiest, laziest news narrative of the summer having gotten its ignorant shot in the arm, in spite of there being absolutely no prospect of this happening at all.
Pat Nevin has always been quite amusing to me. Allegedly an intellectual because he has a degree, has read some books and wears glasses on the telly. But boy, he talks rubbish. See, I’m sure that he could do a lecture on whatever it is that he’s qualified in, but when he talks about football at times, he sounds like just another pub bore on the subject.
“I don’t think Brendan would walk out easily, if any old Premier League club came calling, I don’t think he would walk out,” he said of our manager. “However, this is Chelsea and there may not be a better job for him out there. In his mind, there is probably not a bigger job out there for him. I would imagine that when he started his coaching career at Chelsea, and he closed his eyes and imagined the future, reaching the top job at Stamford Bridge would be the pinnacle of his career.”
Chelsea have sacked four permanent managers in the last four years. The average life-span of a Chelsea boss in the last twenty years has been 18 months. As to Rodgers thinking there is “not a bigger job out there” for him … how about all the quite literally bigger jobs out there? What is this nonsense based on? That he started his coaching career there?
This is really poor, surface level analysis and linking Rodgers to that job is both ignorant and lazy in equal measure.
Lazy for all the obvious reasons. Ignorant because Nevin, who self-defines as being a Chelsea man and who is considered something of a major figure at the club, apparently doesn’t know that they have already identified a number of targets, with Kevin McKenna as the top one. They are also considering the Thomas Frank of Brentford and Michel of Girona with Vincent Kompany considered a possible dark horse candidate for it. They have plenty of options.
The story is dead almost before it has legs under it, but I suspect we’ll see it explode briefly all over the mainstream media before succumbing once Chelsea actually appoint someone. But this is the start of it folks, and especially with other major jobs likely to become available either over the summer or in the natural course once next season starts.
Rodgers, who could not even get on the media’s “manager of the year” shortlist will suddenly be linked with everything going elsewhere, all over again. In the meantime, interest in the tactical and strategic genius at Ibrox – who did make their list, let’s not forget – will be minimal if there’s any of it at all. This should flatter us, I suppose … but it’s not intended to.
Prepare for a summer of this garbage. If it’s not them trying to shift our best players it’ll be them trying to shift the boss. It is grimly, darkly inevitable.
I went to school with Nevin and played in the same teams as him in Barlanark. He didn’t get signed by Celtic as they thought he was too wee. Family are all dyed in the wool Tim’s. He was able to shift opinion like a chameleon when he was younger – musical taste was prog and classic rock. Loved Genesis. Next minute it’s New Order. Just to create image.
You can’t shift allegiance from Celtic – it’s in your DNA and Nevin and his family were all hoops supporters so the Hibs thing is utter bollocks.