If Luis Palma thought he was mistreated at Celtic he was never going to succeed here.

So, Luis Palma is making the papers today—and not for a good reason. He’s complaining, and it’s not the first time that he has. But this time, he’s complaining about Rodgers in particular, and talking about being mistreated at the club. Let me tell you something: any player who talks about being mistreated simply because he doesn’t fit into the manager’s plans—or because he’s not good enough to fit into them—was never going to make it at Celtic in the first place.

Rodgers is one of those managers who sees a player’s overall contribution. Not just the odd flash on the pitch in certain games, but how they train, how they are in the dressing room, and what their attitude is like around the club. And yes, of course, how they perform once they step onto the football pitch. Palma’s form has ranged from non-existent to very decent. I can’t remember him ever having an absolutely brilliant, standout performance. But certainly in the early period of his time here, he looked like he was going to contribute something. Why that didn’t happen? Who knows?

But I suspect attitude has a lot to do with it—and he’s never had the right one. This is not the first time he’s complained about Celtic, and not the first time he’s complained about his so-called treatment. But his “treatment” doesn’t amount to anything more than being left out of the team when he simply isn’t good enough. That’ll happen to him at any major club he goes to.

In some ways, I think Palma’s been unlucky at Celtic, because he clearly is a talented footballer. There’s not much doubt about that. But he’s an awful lot like a guy who’s walked onto the wrong movie set. This is not the place for him to be. He doesn’t fit the style. He doesn’t fit into a team that requires players to work hard—regardless of what position they play.

Let me give you what might sound like a crazy example.

Erling Haaland would not fit into this Celtic team. Rodgers simply wouldn’t tolerate a player who has 15 touches of the ball in 90 minutes—not even if those 15 touches produced four goals. Rodgers wants players who are willing to graft. He wants players who play their role in the team by working hard for their teammates, by taking up positions, making runs, pressing and counter-pressing. And for all Palma’s talent, that’s not the sort of player he is.

We find ourselves, in a sense, coming back to that old question: why was he signed in the first place? Well, let’s not forget—he was signed during the transfer window where Mark Lawwell held all the cards and dealt them in a very haphazard manner. That’s what happens when you’ve got someone who doesn’t understand team-building, who doesn’t understand tactical systems, who doesn’t know how to sign players to fit a style. The manager is the architect—and only the architect knows how and where and why all the pieces fit together.

The circumstances of that window were always going to leave a lot of unhappy people, because Rodgers made decisions on most of those guys the moment he realised they weren’t going to fit his style of play. A lot of them doubtless feel hurt, aggrieved, bewildered. But they weren’t the manager’s players, and the manager is entitled to deal with them however he sees fit. If they’d suited his style, they would’ve thrived in it—but they didn’t.

To Palma’s credit—and I will give him credit for this—he at least tried to adapt. If you watched him in the handful of games before he was allowed to leave in January, you saw a player who was trying to change the way he played. A player trying to find an extra edge. A player trying his best to make an impact on the side, difficult as that was always going to be. But it just wasn’t going to happen for him. Rodgers prefers a more dynamic type of player—and in Maeda on the left, and in Nicholas Kuhn on the right, he had that. The moment we signed Jota, that was game over.

You only have to look at Yang to understand this is a manager who doesn’t write players off without good cause. Yang has been able to adapt. He’s been able to learn new things. He’s changed his game to suit how Rodgers wants him to play. He’s added new tools to the array of skills he already had. That is how a player reacts to being snubbed by the manager—he finds out what the manager wants, and then does it.

Palma hasn’t been prepared to knuckle down and do the work. He’s had a few pops on social media about not being in the team. That’s not going to impress the manager. The only way into the team is to work hard. The only way in is to show you’ve got something worth the manager’s time and effort. Otherwise, you’re not going to make it. And if Palma brought that attitude to Celtic from the start, he was never going to make it in the first place. Not under this guy.

The thing is, I like Palma. I would have loved it if he’d played as a number 10, because I think in that role he might’ve been excellent. But Rodgers doesn’t really use a system that utilises a number 10—not in the classic sense. And Palma would still have had to work a lot harder than he does. But he’s always had an eye for goal. He’s got a very decent degree of technical skill, and that’s been obvious from the word go. So I’m a little disappointed the move didn’t work out. And I’ll bear him no ill will if he stays in Greece and we get the £4 million for him.

But he just wasn’t suited to life at a club like Celtic under a manager like Rodgers. And I think an acknowledgement of that—rather than playing the victim card—would have been a more sensible course of action. These things happen. It’s happened to players more talented than him. Sometimes you go somewhere and it just doesn’t work out. The idea that Rodgers mistreated him in any way? That’s nonsense. That’s not how it works. That’s not how Rodgers works.