Eight month investigation into Rodgers will shock Celtic fans: An Exclusive By Keith Jackass.

Eight month investigation into Rodgers will shock Celtic fans: An Exclusive By Keith Jackass.

Today, this writer can exclusively reveal that an eight-month investigation into Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has uncovered a man deeply frustrated, angry on the inside, and on the brink of detonating — and taking all of Celtic with him.

At the weekend, we saw Rodgers at his most agitated as he walked in solitude across the pitch after the St Johnstone game, like the loneliest man in the world. He was visibly upset, even panicked, as the prospect that Barry Ferguson may yet win this title began to sink in — a thought he clearly had started to come to come to terms and to deal with when he spoke to the media after the match.

Footage shows him speaking into a mobile phone as he trudged across the pitch — footage that has sent Celtic fans into a spin. Was he calling his agent to line up a move? Was he on the phone with another club’s chairman? Was he speaking to Dermot Desmond, as the Irish billionaire desperately tried to talk him out of quitting?

This newspaper has just completed an eight-month investigation into Rodgers, during which we’ve had him scrutinised extensively by a body language expert in an effort to uncover his innermost thoughts.

The results of that investigation will be devastating to Celtic fans.

It reveals a different Rodgers than they are used to; a spiky individual — easily irritated, easily distracted — and, therefore, we believe, desperately unhappy in his current role, a picture which the weekend appears to confirm.

Our investigators studied not only footage of Rodgers prowling the touchline, but photographs of him at training. They reviewed his interviews extensively and, for a period of four months, our expert followed Rodgers around as he went about his business in his personal time.

And what he documented is astonishing.

The specialist, Billy Graham from Larkhall, observed Rodgers under a number of conditions.

These is an excerpt from one of his staggering reports.

“In April last year, at the start of my investigation, I had someone slash the tyres on Rodgers’ car. I filmed him coming out of his house early in the morning to start his day’s work. His demeanour, even at that hour, was dreadful. I can only imagine what the Celtic players had to endure when he finally made it to Lennoxtown. As he changed the tyres, he grew increasingly agitated. I remember thinking to myself, ‘This man is very prone to sudden outbursts of frustration.’”

Another excerpt says this:

“On another occasion, I overheard him say that he had booked a table for his family at his favourite restaurant, and would be heading there at 8:00 p.m. At ten minutes to eight, I called the restaurant myself, pretended to be Rodgers, and cancelled the booking. He showed up on time and got very aggravated — especially when confronted with the news that he had personally cancelled the dinner. Nobody who acts as badly as he did that night, as he sat waiting for a table, has the proper temperament to be a football manager in the modern age.”

This journalist called the restaurant to confirm the story, and we were told that Rodgers was indeed extremely vocal that night, expressing his frustration. Although he sat in the bar and waited for a table without any over-the-top behaviour, and seemed to enjoy the meal — tipping lavishly at the end — he drummed his fingers on the table, kept glancing at his watch, and repeatedly asked for information on the person who had called. This verifies Graham’s version of events.

In addition to those two incidents, Graham documented Rodgers’ behaviour whilst waiting in queues, stuck in traffic, and, once, after getting his foot stuck in chewing gum in the middle of Buchanan Street during a shopping trip.

Video footage and still photographs of Rodgers wearing a variety of aggrieved expressions do present a troubling picture of a man with a highly suspect temperament. Celtic fans are entitled to be concerned, as the true nature of their manager becomes clear.

A source at Celtic Park — who we will refer to only as Mr L — confirmed that Rodgers has, at times, shown the dark side of his nature.

“He has moaned quite a few times,” Mr L said, “Such as when his lunches have been cold, when doors have been left open during meetings, once when his office printer had run out of ink, and several times over his transfer budgets. This is a man who doesn’t like things not going his way, and we think that might be the wrong mentality for the club — especially when the rest of us are so content all the time.”

We also reached out to Celtic fan blogger Mark Hendry, who told us that he finds these stories deeply alarming and questions whether Rodgers is the right man for the job.

“If you combine these with the stories that regularly appear in Football Insider,” he said, “it’s obvious that Rodgers and Celtic aren’t a good fit.”

This journalist called Rodgers last night to confront him with the details of this story.

“Let me get this straight,” Rodgers asked our man. “Someone’s been stalking me and filming me clandestinely for many, many months, and you want to know how I feel about that? At the risk of playing into your stereotype, I’ll say only this; I’ll be just fine about it once my lawyer has sued your newspaper into non-existence.”

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