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Today is the day, Celtic. Give Rodgers what he needs or risk him walking away.

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Image for Today is the day, Celtic. Give Rodgers what he needs or risk him walking away.

So, today’s the day—Transfer Deadline Day. And by 11 o’clock tonight, we’ll know whether this has been a triumph or a tragedy.

Yesterday, in the after-match press conference, Brendan made his feelings crystal clear—so clear that nobody missed the message. It wasn’t coded, it wasn’t secret, and he wasn’t saying anything in public that he hasn’t been saying in private.

The one time he seemed to fudge it, he didn’t really. He said he didn’t come back to the club to fight with himself. That’s true. And that’s exactly what he did for much of his last spell here. He bit his tongue. He compromised. He did things other people’s way. And then he went home and could barely look at himself in the mirror. When the opportunity came to leave, he jumped on it.

You know what? Years after the fact, I’m finally ready to forgive him for that, because I understand why, and after the fiasco that was the John McGinn window I always did. I knew he’d not be at Celtic long after that. I did expect him to see out the season.

He has made it abundantly clear that this time will be different.

He’s not going to meekly accept it. This time, he’s going to fight. That’s good. But he can’t fight and not win. Rodgers is the only person in the upper management structure who actually gets what our club can be if it puts its best foot forward. And those who think we can get by with a couple of underwhelming signings today had better consider the effect on this guy if he doesn’t get his writ to run.

He has earned the rewards. He has earned the backing of this board. He has proved his mettle. He has proved his strength. He is entitled to believe that the support he wants and the support he needs will be the support he gets. And this time next year, he will have six months left on his current deal unless he signs a new one. I’ll tell you now—he will not sign a new one if he isn’t supported.

I know there are a lot of fans who may shrug their shoulders at that. But we’ve been fortunate to have two elite-level managers in the last decade. One of them is Rodgers. The other is Ange. We made a move for Eddie Howe, and that was inspired—it would have been a great option had we got him. But this board did what it always does. In the pursuit of Howe, it dragged its feet. It left it till the last possible moment. And when he said no, we were scrambling—big time.

This whole window has been amateur hour.

No matter how it ends, up until this point, it has been an absolute farce. It has been a triumph for those of us who have criticised this board for lacking strategic thought because the error with Kyogo’s sale before we had brought in a replacement was so obvious that only complete fools—or people so arrogant in their ivory tower that they just didn’t care—could have failed to spot the problems with it.

We will struggle to land another elite-level manager. And you’ve seen this board’s imagination when it’s not going for the best. Don’t rule out a third spell for Lennon. Don’t rule out an approach for Scott Brown or someone else who lacks the necessary experience and skill set—earned over years of managing in big leagues against big teams. And that’s the risk we’re running.

Rodgers said it yesterday—this nonsense about targets not being available in January is a barefaced lie. There are at least two players who are major targets of this club, who have been linked with us in the media in the last two weeks, who are available if we’re willing to pay the premium price.

Their clubs have acknowledged this. These guys can go if we pay the fees they’re asking for. It’s our own bad choices which have given them the ability to stick a few million on top of what we think they’re worth. That’s the price you pay for dragging your feet and for not thinking through the implications of shipping players out before you have players in. We did this to ourselves. Do we now compound one bad choice with another, and force this manager to go for some loanee?

We put ourselves in a position where we either pay the premium price or we take a lesser option. And if we take a cheaper option when we’ve got tens of millions of pounds nestling in the bank, doing nothing else, that’s absurd.

We should pay the going rate. We bring in the guys we want. We do not wait until the summer. This window is about bedding in the team for the summer.

We have Champions League qualifiers to play, and as I said in a piece the other day, the reward is too big to justify this kind of risk.

Anyway, we all know what’s going to happen.

We all know we’re going to scramble around, messing about, gambling it all on another late-day signing—while that Champions League deadline creeps ever closer and the guy we sign will have no time to fully integrate into the team. It’s such a predictable scenario, I’d put money on it right now.

So today’s the day. And if this club doesn’t deliver—and deliver well—then the manager is entitled to be pissed. And we’re all entitled to be pissed.

It’s the club across town that should be scrambling about on the last day, trying to find loan deals and cheap options. They have an alibi for that. They are skint. It’s embarrassing to be in the position where we have all the money we need to strengthen this team properly and prepare it properly for the summer and we don’t.

And regardless of what rubbish you read elsewhere, that will be on Lawwell, Desmond, Nicholson and the rest of them. We should name and shame the guilty. We should not forget if they mess this up. It will not be the first time.

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

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13 comments

  • Johnny Green says:

    I reckon that, no matter what happens today in the transfer window, that Brendan will take it in his stride and just get on with the job of managing Celtic. I also think he is well aware of what is going on in the background and that he is an important part of the process.

    I also trust that there will be no knee-jerk reactions from him and that he is here for the long haul. Possibly wishful thinking on my part but that is my impression. Hopefully we will come up with a couple of late surprises that will satisfy everyone, but it is not looking likely at this late stage.

  • fun time frankie says:

    8MO the reason we’ve only made one significant signing is that the slekkit bastard that is Liewell is still fumming that Sonny Liewell got his gotters and he’s blaming Brendan for little Liewell getting the bump.

  • Gerry says:

    There are rumours that Kvistgaarden will be arriving today and a bid for L Miller will be submitted but until we hear deals are completed, it is very much, continuing speculation!
    We shall see…
    In Brendan we certainly trust ! HH

  • Dan says:

    Really don’t think Nicholson has a say in anything happening at the club

  • JT says:

    It seems that getting drunk is the solution!!!!

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    ELEVEN – FUCKIN – HOURS – LEFT –

  • Mr Magoo says:

    If Brendan walks. No worries

    Lennon won’t get the gig,

    Ready made international man of mystery Paul Tisdale in the building .

    His assistants will be the usual suspects

    Ohhh and I am being sarcastic

    Then again , I am a cynical old fecker

  • Spiderman63 says:

    I have wracked my f****** brains as to why this keeps happening and the only thing that makes any kind of sense is this is deliberate no board is that incompetent now we’re about to bring in a 32yr old left back/ centre back/ left mid/ striker who having played 12 league games this season accumulating in a grand total of 95mins,the worse run club in Europe.

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      They now know that Sevco are doing fuck all so they won’t…

      They out to remember it’s not that long past since Sevco Massacered is at Liebrox…

      Especially our midfield !

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