No Celtic player’s contract would be allowed to just expire. Neither should the manager’s.

For every Celtic fan, it is clear what one of the priorities for the summer is. The squad has to be improved, yes.

But there’s another issue that has to be resolved, and it has to be resolved with a final answer one way or another. Forward planning has to be done in the event that we don’t get an answer that we like.

Everyone knows that this club operates on a number of sound policies. One of those policies is that we do not let key players drift towards the expiry of their contracts before we take a decision about whether or not to move them on. No player will be allowed to reach the end of his deal and walk away on a free.

But the key to holding a club together is the man in the dugout. And nobody will convince me—nobody—that we are going to be the club that bucks that trend. Nobody will convince me that we could put in place a structure that makes it irrelevant who the manager is. That theory has been disproved over and over again wherever it has been tried, and it would be the rawest form of madness for us to attempt it.

To put that another way, Rodgers is one of the most important people at the club, if not the most important. The success we have enjoyed under him is almost unparalleled, and we will continue to enjoy that kind of success as long as he is at the helm.

Keeping him beyond the scope of his current contract is of crucial importance to Celtic. Just as we would not let a key player run down his deal, nor should we allow Rodgers to drift towards the end of his without offering him an extension and getting a definitive answer on whether or not he wants to stay.

It is Dermot Desmond himself who may hold the cards and who may be the biggest factor in determining whether Rodgers stays or goes. If there are people at the club whom Rodgers currently cannot work with, then Desmond has a very simple choice to make about who stays and who goes.

If he wants Celtic to carry on being as successful as possible, he will back Rodgers. If he wants to gamble that there’s another Rodgers out there and that this board of directors is capable of finding that person, then he may be willing to see Rodgers walk. In my view, that would be a grossly dangerous risk.

I have speculated before that we may have gamblers in charge of our club, people who like to tweak the environment every now and again to see if we can continue to succeed under a set of ever-decreasing conditions.

I strongly believe that we ended the January transfer window weaker than we went into it. We had a priority to sign a left-sided midfielder, and we did that. But we also lost our star striker and failed to replace him. So, in many ways, Rodgers was asked to do more with less. They seem to enjoy putting people in that position.

And the feeling grows ever stronger that this summer, the manager will have to part with at least one saleable asset before he is allowed a significant transfer budget. This, despite there being plenty of what the news likes to call “fiscal headroom.” We have massive sums of money sitting in the bank. We probably pay more to the exchequer than we do on player bonuses.

Yet for all that, there are signs that Rodgers will be willing to stay.

If he believes he will be supported, if he believes the club will back him, if he sees the opportunity to grow this team and expand Celtic’s reach to the point where we are punching above our weight in Europe, where we look credible again, then this will be the challenge that keeps him here longer.

But if Rodgers has to endure interference, second-guessing, or if he is not convinced that the club matches his level of ambition, then nothing will keep him here. Because Rodgers can go and work anywhere.

There is little doubt that Premier League clubs would fall over themselves to bring him back to England’s top flight. Any harm that had been done to his reputation at Leicester has been completely repaired. And I have always believed that the Scottish media overhyped his sacking there.

Rodgers’ record at Leicester was actually pretty good—twice qualifying for Europe, one FA Cup win. If it were not for Leicester’s bonkers title-winning season, Rodgers would be the most successful manager the club has had in the modern era. The top chairmen in England know this.

Managers can come to Celtic and win things. This is the biggest club in the land, and it would be strange indeed if a manager didn’t win something here.

That’s not the point. The point is that Rodgers’ record—the sustained success, the level of that success, the doubles and trebles in every year he has been here—paints the picture of a manager right out of the very top drawer. Even with the English media’s underestimation of Scottish football and the difficulties of managing under the pressure that comes with this club, that record stands out a mile.

It would be terrible if Rodgers walked away at the end of next season because his contract was allowed to run down and the club did not do enough to convince him to stay. Rodgers remains the only upper-echelon individual at Celtic Park who embodies what we mean when we talk about wanting to be world-class across the board. If the club fails to act accordingly, I have to wonder who is really pulling the strings at Celtic Park and what their vision for the future looks like.

Because we know what Rodgers’ vision for Celtic is. The question is: will the club rise to his level or fall to the level of somebody else?

Talks should be opened with him the moment the season ends.

Securing his future should be a priority, and we should aim to have him signed up on a new deal before the summer window shuts. Making sure that window is as successful as possible and that we emerge from it as strong as we can be will be one of the ways we ensure that he will stay.

The latest Trinity Tims podcast is out now.