Celtic cannot allow uncertainty over the manager to creep into the new campaign.

When Rodgers committed himself to the club at the tail end of last season, when hs said that he would be here for this campaign come what may, a lot of us asked ourselves the obvious question; what about the season after that?

The issue of Rodgers contract has been looming since he signed it. He should have been sat down last summer. We’ve allowed a situation where he’s a year out and now we need some real clarity.

Brendan Rodgers has already given us one big scare since he came back to Celtic. When the team was going through its mid-season slump in the first campaign and the knives were out in some corners of the media—and more alarmingly, among sections of the support—it was clear he wasn’t enjoying it. That was the only period since his return that I genuinely thought he might have problems. When people started whispering about possible replacements, it wasn’t just idle speculation.

But Rodgers turned it around, and he got his reward in the end. Another title. Another Scottish Cup. Another double, and not just a domestic triumph but one over a rival who thought they were ascending. A rival who thought they’d caught us. A rival who started planning their victory parades before the war was won.

Rodgers showed them how foolish that was.

He returned to Celtic with his reputation on the line, and in the end he walked off the Hampden pitch after the Scottish Cup Final of 2024 with the ultimate bragging rights.

Which is why the club simply cannot allow there to be any further ambiguity about his future going into the new campaign. There cannot be a cloud hanging over Celtic Park for the whole of this coming season. Not after everything he’s just done. Not when we have a chance to build something serious again.

That means sitting down with him, as soon as humanly possible, and getting this next contract signed. If we let this bleed into the season, we’re asking for trouble. We’re asking for months of headlines, a whispering campaign from the media, doubts in the dressing room, hesitancy in the transfer market, and anxiety in the stands.

How many times have we said this? The only people who can hurt Celtic are at Celtic. If we do our job right, we have nothing to fear. If we let the rot set in, if we shoot ourselves in the foot, if we fail to strengthen, we deserve what we get.

Rodgers has said he’s committed for this campaign. But he’s also been crystal clear that this is a summer for conversations and decisions. “I wanted to make sure there were no distractions,” he told Sky after the cup final, “but now we’ll go away and sit down and talk.”

That’s fair. It’s the right way to approach it. But the flip side is that this can’t drag. Because if we get to mid-July and nothing’s signed, then the narrative shifts. Then the press starts doing what it does best—sowing doubt. Asking questions. Stirring the pot. And they will, because that’s what they live for, and the noise will be especially loud if we have not been aggressive in the transfer market.

The last thing we need is an open question mark over whether Brendan Rodgers is going to be here beyond next summer. That kind of thing seeps into everything. Players start to wonder. Targets hesitate. The overall sense of direction starts to wobble. We’ve been there before, not just with managers but with key players too. You can’t build forward momentum with the handbrake half on.

This summer is shaping up to be busy. The club has targets. Deals to get done. We need to add quality, because although we finished the season strong, the cracks from earlier in the campaign showed us exactly where we need to improve. Already there are doubts about the level of ambition we’re showing; I think those doubts are premature but that we’re talking seriously about them betrays an obvious anxiety and a distrust of our own alleged leaders which, let’s be honest, we know is not misplaced.

If Brendan Rodgers is the man leading the process—and he should be—then every player we speak to should know exactly what the long-term plan is, who the manager is, and what the project looks like. If there’s even a whiff of “he might be away in a year,” it undermines everything. Especially when you’re trying to sell someone on coming to Scotland, with all that entails. A bit of European glamour, a chance to win trophies, the promise of a big move if they do well—sure. But not uncertainty about who’ll be managing them twelve months from now.

And let’s not kid ourselves; if we don’t tie Rodgers down, there will be clubs sniffing around. There already are. It’s not difficult to imagine a Premier League side in a bit of trouble in November coming calling. And the question won’t just be whether Rodgers is interested—it’ll be whether he’s already halfway out the door because no one upstairs bothered to make a long-term offer. That’s how you end up in trouble. That’s how you end up reacting to things instead of steering them.

And that’s another fear. We have turned into a reactive club. Look at the sale of Kyogo; it was one of the most inept pieces of strategic decision making I’ve ever witnessed, and it sent us into a panic when clubs suddenly upped their prices. We gave away our negotiating power. We were forced to react to what others did, instead of pushing our own interests. Had Kyogo stayed we would have looked strong, not desperate. Had we brought someone else in first we could have let him go without fear.

Celtic is a club that’s always at its best when there’s a clear sense of direction. When the board, the manager, and the players are all pulling the same way. That’s what we had under Ange, until the moment he left and reminded us how quickly things can unravel. That’s what we need again now.

Rodgers is capable of building something even better than his first spell. He’s already shown he’s a better version of himself than the guy who left the first time. This is a more mature Rodgers. A calmer Rodgers. A smarter Rodgers. But he won’t hang around forever without proper backing and a proper commitment from the board.

And let’s not ignore the fact that the players will take their cue from him. There are guys in that dressing room right now who are thinking about new deals—or whether to leave. Maeda is one. But there is talk around others. What do you think they’re going to do if they’re not sure who’s managing the team a year from now?

How do you think that affects their decisions? The manager’s security is the foundation. If that’s not settled, nothing is. Not fully.

Callum McGregor came out after the final and said what everyone is thinking. Rodgers is “gold dust.” That’s how highly the players rate him. That’s how vital they see him to what comes next. The idea that we’d risk unsettling that dressing room by letting this contract thing drift? That’s madness.

You lock that down as quickly as you can. And you do it not just for the players’ benefit but for your own. Because Celtic fans, for all their passion, don’t like uncertainty. They don’t like the idea of a temporary manager. They don’t like the possibility of upheaval. And if this rolls on into August, or worse, into the early stages of the Champions League, you can be guaranteed the media will ramp it up. The pressure will build. The scrutiny will intensify. The rumour mill will take on extra staff and start churning out the stories on the production line. We all know what it’ll look like.

We’ve just watched this guy win another double. Yes, we were denied the ultimate prize of the treble and he has questions to answer over his approach, but he’s a proven winner and as long as he’s at the helm I can’t see past us.

This is a guy who handled himself with class and intelligence, and he wins too. That kind of leadership isn’t just something you luck into. You hold on to it. You support it. You give it room to breathe and grow and take the next step.

The league will be tougher in the next campaign. The pressure will be higher. The stakes will be enormous. Europe is going to ask serious questions of us. But if Rodgers is backed properly, if he knows he’s got the full support of the board and the fans and the club itself, then we can go into that with confidence. We can build the squad, build the identity, and go hunting for something even more historic.

But it starts with clarity. And clarity starts with commitment.

If Rodgers wants to stay—and he talks like a man who does—then let’s not mess about. Get it done. Show him we’re serious. Show the players. Show the fans. Show the media. And most importantly, show the rest of Scottish football that Celtic is stable, united, and ready to dominate again.

Because if we wait too long, if we let that question hang in the air, then we open the door to the one thing this club really can’t afford—doubt. And once doubt creeps in, it spreads. Into the dressing room. Into the stands. Ultimately, eventually, into the results. And before you know it, you’ve turned a summer of promise into a season of stress.

Brendan Rodgers should be going into this campaign with a fresh contract in his pocket, the full backing of the board behind him, and a clear message to the rest of the league: we’re here, we’re building, and we’re not going anywhere.

The time to send that message is now.