GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 05: Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, looks on prior to during the William Hill Premiership match between Celtic FC and Dundee FC at Celtic Park on February 05, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Former managers have a responsibility to the clubs they once served. The same responsibility that former prime ministers and ex-presidents owe the nations they led: to be broadly supportive but largely silent. Because when they speak out, they can cause real problems — even if they don’t mean to.
If they talk about a player, the current boss can rightly feel like they’re being second-guessed. If they talk about the direction of the club, they can wade into political territory — and that’s far more dangerous. Smart people avoid feeding the media beast unless they absolutely have to. Why hand journalists headlines on a silver platter that only make life harder for the club?
I’ve said this before about Neil Lennon. He should know what’s off-limits. He should know there are things better left unsaid in public. He doesn’t usually touch on tactics or selections — but he’s praised individuals inside the club who didn’t deserve it, and he’s dropped the ball enough times to know better.
Yesterday I put up a piece suggesting that Gordon Strachan had – and not for the first time – violated this covenant with a suggestion as to who could replace Rodgers. In fact, it wasn’t Strachan who said it, it was Pat Nevin, which is why I took that article down. We talk about standards; if I wasn’t on holiday I wouldn’t have made that error, but holiday or not I wasn’t leaving that up online with false information in it.
Strachan’s comments were in relation to Desmond, and how he will get what he wants. I find that notion highly suspect as I’ve said already. If Desmond wants Rodgers to stay he has done a thoroughly lousy job of making sure the man feels the appreciation and the love he needs to sign an extended deal.
Strachan speaks as a Celtic insider. That’s what worried me about the idea that he was touting an alternative name. The problem we’re all having right now in relation to this is the same; a weird feeling that other people are not quite living in the real world, and that a major club disaster could be looming not far in front of us.
Kieran Tierney said the other day that this isn’t really an issue. I do wish people inside the club would stop saying stuff like this. Because we know it’s an issue and it feels like the club line is being put out in a desperate effort to shut this conversation down. But that’s like trying to plug a high-pressure hole with your finger. There is no way that this conversation is going to die down. The volume on it is going to rise, not fall, in the weeks and months to come unless the matter is resolved.
I am actually only slightly less concerned that the name of Damien Duff came from Pat Nevin and not Strachan, and I would deploy all the same arguments against it. Nevin isn’t some ex-manager with a chip on his shoulder. He’s always been perceived as a “voice of reason” — intelligent, analytical, softly spoken — which is why when he floats a name like Damien Duff as a potential future Celtic manager, it lands differently. It lands harder. And it demands a response.
Nevin’s never been on the Celtic payroll. He’s not directly linked to the club. But he moves in media circles that speak to people who are. And he moves with confidence when he talks about the club’s future — confidence that only comes from conversations behind the scenes. This still feels like a toe being dipped in the water. This still feels like a balloon being floated to see what kind of reaction it gets.
And this is because we have a perception problem at Celtic.
It’s the same one we’ve had for years — that this club is run by a closed circle of people who value their own egos more than they do excellence. Who hire their friends. Who don’t like strong personalities or independent thinkers. Who would rather have a compliant Yes Man than a visionary. A perception that they want to control everything — not just the finances, but the football too.
In the past 15 years, they’ve made three brilliant managerial appointments. One was an accident. But two of them were Brendan Rodgers — and Rodgers is the best thing they’ve done in their lives.
Which is exactly why some of them have never truly backed him. Some of them didn’t want him in the first place. He’s Desmond’s man — and that’s the only reason he’s here. But there have always been enemies around the table. People biding their time. Waiting for the moment to cut him loose.
And now it looks like they’ve found it.
For months, the assumption was that Rodgers would sign a new deal. That he wanted a new deal. That the board would back him in this transfer window and tie him down long-term. That optimism is fading fast. Rodgers does not sound like a man about to commit. And the board does not look like one trying very hard to convince him.
Because they want to go back. Back to the old way. Back to a time when they didn’t have to explain themselves to someone who actually knew what he was doing.
There’s talk that Shaun Maloney’s appointment to the youth setup is a precursor to a bigger job. That he’s the planned promotion. A neat, quiet appointment from within that wouldn’t set off alarm bells the way Kennedy or Lennon would have. Maloney is the ghost in the corridors of Celtic Park. And every day that Rodgers doesn’t sign a new contract, that ghost looms larger.
The idea of Maloney terrifies me. He’s a middle ground choice between someone completely unacceptable and someone just competent enough in terms of experience if not actual success to be acceptable to a section of the fanbase. I said that he was a superb appointment; my only concern was that this is us once again going to that old familiar well of names from the club’s past as though no other candidates existed.
Yet Maloney is brilliantly qualified for that job. He is a great choice, a far better one that I had expected. But a first team boss? Of Celtic? Nothing he’s done makes him suitable. Nothing qualifies him for it. But I know that would not necessarily prevent those at the club right now from giving it to him. Lennon wasn’t qualified for it on either occasion they handed the reins to him. They did it anyway.
Damien Duff is even scarier. His is a name I could well see someone inside Celtic coming up with and deciding was a contender. His name coming out of nowhere is more than a little bit strange. Floated with a straight face, as if it were perfectly reasonable. As if it made sense.
It doesn’t. It absolutely doesn’t.
Nevin couched it in the usual language. “He’s a fan.” “He’s worked at the club before.” “He’s respected.” “He’s Irish.” All emotional appeals. All sentimentality masquerading as logic. And only one of those things — that he worked at the club as a coach — has even the faintest link to what the job actually requires.
The rest? Irrelevant.
Because when you strip all that away, you’re left with Damien Duff’s actual CV — and it’s not good enough. Maloney’s is better, and maybe that’s the plan. Name so many unacceptable choices that we’re left with one that actually sounds reasonable.
Neither should get an interview to replace a man like Rodgers … and nor should many of the other names that will be thrown out over time, because, really, that’s what’s going on here and you can see it clearly. We are being conditioned to the certainty of Rodgers’ departure. When you are discussing names to replace him you’re already past the point where you think he’s going to stay.
That’s why Nevin’s comment matters. That’s why it should worry every single fan of this club. We’re already in the place where the media is freely flinging names about, and I think some of it will be steered by those inside the club. We’re being softened up for the hard landing, folks, by people who don’t care if Rodgers goes.
Do I believe Pat Nevin just randomly name-dropped Damien Duff? No. I think he’s heard something. Or been told something. Or been asked to test something. I think someone put that name in his ear, and he floated it on air to see what kind of backlash it got.
So as I said in the initial article, here’s the response we give: Kill this idea now. Dead. Stone cold. And kill the other daft names we’re going to be reading. This club should have one over-riding priority right now; to hold onto the guy we’ve got, and I don’t like the way people inside Celtic keep wanting to dance around it, and to pretend that it does not matter and that we really can go into the season like this.
These rumours and suggestions cannot be allowed to put down roots. This cannot be allowed to gather momentum. The idea that Damien Duff is a credible option to succeed Brendan Rodgers is an insult. It is offensive to every supporter, shareholder, and person who cares about Celtic. It is an obscenity.
But it’s one mad suggestion amongst many, and the reason so many of us recoiled at it with the same instant revulsion is that we know that some people inside Celtic may well see this as a viable option, believing as they do that the “organisation” matters most, that guru managers don’t exist, that you can put anyone into the “system” and have them work with “the strategy” and get the same results as you would with an elite coach. It’s nonsense. But they want to try it out just the same.
Duff, Maloney, Kennedy — whoever. If this is the path they’re on, we have to demand that the club stop it now. Not later. Because if Rodgers walks and they replace him with a puppet, that’s not just a mistake. That’s not just mismanagement. That is betrayal. That we have even ended up here is shambolic.
It’s not just shambolic and betrayal James it’s a dereliction of duty that would legitimately mean the board’s sacking. Would however prefer to keep the bean counters with BR than another manger and a ‘new’ puppet board because as long as ‘liewell’ has breath he’ll try to make sure he’s the one running the show.
There appears to be nothing anyone can do to get rid of parasites like Lawwell and Nicholson, indeed one of Nepo man’s shills on CQN who constantly briefs against the manager, outed himself yesterday by stating that he was party to internal discussions concerning Brendan. That is their M.O., with the overriding motive being their own self aggrandisement to the detriment of the club.
These people are snakes in the grass and enemies of Celtic.
It seems that only an act of God can remove them.
I would like Rodgers to sign a new contract – whether a fixed term or ideally a rolling two year contract. But what if he doesn’t want to sign another contract with us, irrespective of what we put on the table? What if, like many of the up and coming players that we sign he now wants to move on and test himself (again) at a different level? There is no blame in that scenario (unless you want to prevent Rodgers from having his own freedom of movement).
It does make it very difficult for the club to say anything of note. I take what anyone says in the broad media landscape with a large pinch of salt – they are ALL trying to stay relevant in what is a very crowded space, as are the plethora of coaches and managers who are out of work or working at a level that they view as for the short term.
If Rodgers has told the board that he won’t be signing a new contract then we will be in the market for a new manager in the summer of 2026. The board will have succession plans and long lists and short lists; when these plans are activated is the key.
There are a lot of ifs and buts in my post – as most of this noise is conjecture. Roll on the new season when we can focus on the football!
Sorry James once again I think there is a lot of conjecture here.
Conjecture from you and from the Hibs fan Nevin.
Who on the board wants rid of Rodgers?
Do you have any names?
Will Rodgers sign a new contract?
Will Maeda sign a new contract?
Truth is we don’t know including yourself.
HH
That’s kind of the problem though. So many unanswered questions thats shouldve been addressed months ago. Big players should never get to the last year of their contract, let alone managers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Daizen is waiting to see what happens with Rodgers before committing himself. Either way we need to get a grip and get things done and fast.
I hope you are enjoying your holiday James, but you really should cut down on the bevvy intake, for your imagination is starting to run riot, there’s even a hint of paranoia in there. I prefer KT’s inside information version of Brendan’s situation, no worries, no problem and all is rosy in the garden. That will do me for now.
Oh, and by the way, I wouldn’t believe a word that came out of Nevin’s cakehole.
There are too many Celtic fans with their heads in the sand. They’ll be the first to ask why nobody warned them when Duff or someone else equally unsuited to the job is put in place.
I think KT’s comments were based on the reality that this is the final year of BR’s contract. BR stated when he signed the contract that he would see out the three years, and that’s what’s happening. I’ve started reading articles which from the tone of the headline I thought may have been suggesting there was a concern BR might not see out his current contract, but on reading on found this wasn’t the case, they were only talking about what happens if he fulfils his commitment to a 3 year contract.
There is a full season to go before that time so I can see why KT is saying there’s no issue as that is the reality of the situation and BR will give everything he has to make this a successful season. Even you yourself James wrote about “The Last Dance” which also recognises this is BR’s final season.
Strachan also alluded to this point when talking about 3 years being the longest period that a manager could give his all to managing Celtic and all the expectations around the club. He didn’t mention what I felt could be another key factor: BR had decided to take a year out before he answered the call from DD, so to then go for another 3 years at his renowned high intensity is testament to his commitment this time around.
It’s the kind of thing the board should be discussing but in private. This looks like BR’s final year so they should be scouring the world looking for his successor so they can hit the ground running.
Looking at possible candidates contract lengths etc.
As it is, you know they are in there sipping the finest whisky and discussing this years improvements in heated driveways.
If we have to replace Rodgers I want it to be because he has chosen to leave/retire and not because he has been forced out. If he leaves on his own terms this time he will leave with our thanks.
But if we must replace him, let’s get a top contender. Damien Duff may one day be a good manager. That day is not today. Our standards should not now drop below the Rodgers or Ange level of candidate. If we get a good DoF in, then we can experiment with the head coaches that are up and coming but play the way we want….only with the safety net of our coherent strategy behind it. Whilst we’re on the manager system…only the best we can get will do.
Having listened to plenty of Pat Nevin over the years, I would say we don’t have to worry about it. I don’t believe he’s got an inside scoop, if he stumbles upon a fact then that’s just the law of averages. I’ve heard him talk with the utmost confidence and be totally wrong enough times.
The media won’t let the Rodgers contract story go but if we’re playing well and winning then I doubt the club will react to the media. The rumours are Maeda’s new deal is close, that’s great news if true. I don’t want to start speculating on who the next manager might be, it’s too stressful, thank fuck we playing football again.
It’s the way it’s always been under DD, the only Billionaire in world football to make money out of owning a football club ( £500,000.00 Dividend a year forever. Peter Lawwell will drive Brendan Rodgers out of Celtic. He requires a Yes Man, not someone who will challenge his penny pinching biscuit tin ways. He and DD will appoint a Yes Man who will do as he’s told whilst cutting and culling costs. Exactly as they did when MON left. Then it was WGS. Coincidence that he’s set the hares running?…….. ?
If Rodgers has decided that this is final season there is nothing anyone can do about it, I’ve got no doubt DD will have done all in his power to persuade BR to sign a new contract, but if Rodgers has decided that not to to do so there’s nothing the club can do. BR is DD’s man and I’m pretty sure that if he decides to move on it’s nothing to do with money. It’s probably more to do with lifestyle and as a guy with a home in Spain, it wouldn’t surprise me if he would like a crack at managing in La Liga.
It’s not ideal but the team looks to be playing well and with another additions in the pipeline I’m just settling down to enjoy the coming season.
Hopefully BR surprises us at some stage of the season and stays, if he doesn’t the Board will have plenty of time to hunt a decent replacement, no more dilly dallying or a Eddie Howe debacle, just surprise us for once and have a decent replacement lined up.
As has been said many times, we can all only speculate about BR and his future intentions.
I think in these modern times, there, will be a shelf life for anyone managing this great club, and especially at the intensity our manager works at and demands from his players.
A lot of great comments as per, and like others, I sincerely hope we can retain him beyond his three years. Additionally, that if he departs, it’s of his own volition and not the wishes of certain board members, who may be at odds with him.
If we think positively, we all know that our board are renowned for tardiness in their transfer dealings and let’s hope this may be the case with BR.
If this is to be his final year, let’s enjoy it and ensure we give him and our players, the optimum support at all times .
Ifs, buts and maybes are part and parcel of being a Celtic supporter.
As are speculation and conjecture!
Let’s remain optimistic until we are informed otherwise ! HH
Terry The Tim hit the nail on the head when he said it was all conjecture and that is spot on. Everyone has their own thoughts on it and some imaginations run riot, but the fact is that not one of us know, none of us can second guess Brendan, and certainly Pat Nevin is not privy to any inside information. We should all calm down and just wait and see, without the wild speculation.
That’s the way I am Johnny – It’s what will be will be is the way I look at it…
And there is the square root of absolutely fuck all myself or anyone else can do about it either for sure !
This is testing the waters. When was the last time duff raised his head with matters of this mag itude?. We can now take it to the bank that brenda will see out the 3yrs with this year a lame duck as far as boardrooom battles go. And while am at time it get strachan, all of them away far away tae fuck celtic plc has become worse as a old boy network than the kellys ever were!!
Sorry Eldraco, this is nonsense. Strachan is not involved in any way, shape or form – and let’s not forget he is a man that won us six trophies in four years, including three league titles and took us to the last 16 of the Champions League. I take comfort from the fact that that our board is focused on the bottom line and that the best way to enhance that is to reach the promised land of the Champios League. As such the return on employing a top level manager is much improved than it was only 5 or 6 years ago. I don’t think our board will be willing to gamble on missing out. If Rodgers decides his time is up (and we should respect that) I don’t think that DD will allow the board to effectively downsize. In this regard Mark Lawwell might well become to be regarded as a “lesson learned” – Peter Lawwell will not be able to impose his will as easily as he has done in the past.
Fair call porto but tell me what does he do? The mighty gordon. What exactly are his duties and return for money. We need to grow porto and we wont do that unless we hire the best, bringing in ex players because we can is no excuse.
If we are not gonna spend it on players then at least spend it on the best backroom and board we can we had that with Dom and Ange until someone got to PL and forced the carnage of his comeback upon the plc.
We need the best across the whole plc so lets go get it
What does Gordon Strachan do? You mean the same Gordon Strachan who is employed by Dundee FC? Maybe you can give Dundee a call and ask them that stupid question.
Your deliberate misspelling of Brendan marks you as a hun. Fuck off and go slither among your own kind in swallow swallow
eldraco, your deliberate misspelling of Brendan marks you as a hun. Fuck off and go slither among your own kind in swallow swallow
Must be the worst thing a fellow
Celtic supporter calling you a Hun.
Think we should have a bit of decorum on this forum.
A lot of us have Rangers supporting friends and would never call them Huns.
HH
Friends or not Terry, they are still HUNS.
By the way I don’t have any Sevco supporting friends, just the odd acquaintance.
Terry – Your friends must therefore be supporters of Brora Rangers, Queens Park Rangers, Cove Rangers, Berwick Rangers or Stafford Rangers as Glasgow ‘Rangers’ are dead as dead can be…
I don’t know where you were in the summer of 2012 when the sordid death or ‘Rangers’ that you so often speak of occurred…
Perhaps you were in a coma – I don’t know – But if so I’m glad you came out of it sort of ok…
But for the absolute avoidance of doubt Terry – “RANGERS” ARE DEAD !!!!
This post season’s rambling articles have been of a decidedly poor quality, this one being no different
On another matter a big shout for Trusty who was MOM on Saturday.
He is obviously a very good defender when Celtic are under pressure (think of Atalanta).
Celtic are also a very good counter attacking team but cannot do this domestically when other teams sit in.
HH