Celtic must back Brendan Rodgers or face dealing with the consequences

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The Celtic Star

·17 de julho de 2025

Celtic must back Brendan Rodgers or face dealing with the consequences

With every passing day, the story of Brendan Rodgers and his contract situation gets bigger and bigger…

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers gestures on the touchline Sporting Lisbon v Celtic, Pre Season Friendly, Football, Estadio Algarve, Portugal – 16 Jul 2025 Estadio Algarve Portugal Photo Carlos RodriguesShutterstock

Prior to the summer transfer window opening it was assumed that these next couple of months would be the barometer of whether Rodgers, who has collected 11 trophies across four-and-a-half years as Celtic boss, will commit to a new contract or not.

Vídeos OneFootball

Celtic have reverted to type in the transfer market. By type, I mean the £1.5-3 million players where they will come in to the club, develop and look to be sold for a substantial profit. After all, that is the Celtic Way of doing things.

After spending £33 million last summer but taking in more through player sales, Brendan told me and other fan media outlets ahead of last season’s Champions League opener against Slovan Bratislava that “you need that calibre of player,” when referencing the acquisitions of Arne Engels, Adam Idah and Auston Trusty.

He was bang on. All three had huge roles to play in our fabulous Champions League campaign. Four home victories in a row, colossal performances in Bergamo versus the then Europa League holders. A gritty display in Zagreb. And, who can forget the outstanding but agonising night in Munich?

So, it begs the question, why are Dermot Desmond and the board returning to punts and penny-pinching?

Dermot Desmond prior to the Celtic vs St Mirren Cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park on May 20, 2023 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

It wasn’t Rodgers’ fault last summer that the hierarchy procrastinated on all three of our most expensive signings which inevitably sky-rocketed the price. This is once again a Celtic BOARD problem. Ultimately, like the net spend of last summer exemplifies it is the Conservative nature in which Desmond, Nicolson and Lawwell operate. Profits might have been higher lads if you had signed those players earlier.

Did the £1.5-3 million transfer policy do the club any good in the summer transfer window of 2023? Are Celtic going back to spending £18-20 million on 10 players? Bloating a squad with bang-average players whilst burning fire to notes? The evidence of Tomoki Iwata, Odin Thiago Holm, Marco Tilio, Yang, Kwon, Maik Nawrocki, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Luis Palma, Nat Phillips [loan]and Paulo Bernardo [loan]shows that maybe, just maybe, reverting to type is not the best idea.

Fast forward to January 2024 where Celtic signed Adam Idah [without an option-to-buy clause]and Nicolas Kuhn, Rodgers said: “I’m just looking at good players. I only look at the level of player I can get to. I don’t necessarily say, ‘give me a 7m player.’ He might not be as good as a £2m player who has capacity to grow. So for me its about the level of player who’s going to come in and improve us and not just sit in behind someone. They have to really compete.”

Having £67.3 million in the bank was financially inefficient

That window was of course the one where Chairman Peter Lawwell admitted that having £67.3 million in the bank was financially inefficient whilst acknowledging that investing into the squad would have been more logical than surrendering a significant portion in cooperation tax payments.

So, here we are again. We have all been in this movie before. All the while there is, according to Celtic’s latest financial update, £65.4 million in the bank which excludes Kyogo’s exit, Kuhn’s departure, other player sales and the £5 million sell-on-clause for Jeremie Frimpong Celtic received last month.

Kawasaki Frontale’s Shin Yamada during the 2025 J1 League match between Kawasaki Frontale 4-0 Nagoya Grampus at Uvance Todoroki Stadium by Fujitsu in Kanagawa, Japan, February 15, 2025. Photo IMAGO

If you include the incoming arrival of 25 year-old Japanese forward Shin Yamada, Celtic have spent around £3.75 million during this window, according to Sportmole. The club has gained more than £18.7 million in player sales. HMRC must be rubbing their hands again.

Rodgers last night confirmed that Yamada is a “club signing.” Are you convinced? The immediate focus must be on bringing in players who are ready. Not projects. Not developments. Players who will strengthen the current first team.

‘It’s only July’ is no longer tolerable. Because ‘it’s only July’ turns into ‘it’s only the first game of the season.’ Then, before you know it, Celtic head into the last week of the transfer window amid Champions League qualification on the line, scrambling around for players and overspending on key targets they could have gotten for a significantly cheaper price if they negotiated and didn’t lowball clubs a month or two earlier.

The new Celtic FC x adidas Away Kit. Revealed 15 July 2025. Photo Celtic FC

Meanwhile, Celtic have released four kits and are charging season ticket holders £25 [excluding the £1.50 delivery fee per ticket]for a pre-season friendly match. One can wish that Celtic’s recruitment team operated with the same drive and relentlessness as the club’s marketing department.

The first red flag for me in this window was Brendan’s comments on defender Hayato Inamura joining the club from Albirex Niigata for £250,000. He said: “No, he won’t be [ready to go into the first team], he’s a part of the investment from the club.”

Does this not contradict the manager’s own comments 18 months ago? A reminder: “Players have to come in and improve us and not just sit in behind someone,” the Celtic boss said in January 2024.

So, who is driving this ‘investment from the club?’ Is it the self-proclaimed ‘footballer doctor’ Paul Tisdale? Is it our very own mystery Michael Nicolson? Or is it the manager who is out-of-contract in less than a year and doesn’t yet know if he will be here beyond May?

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 Dermot Desmond on the 18th tee during the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2024 on the Old Course at St. Andrews Golf CLub, Fife, . 06/10/2024. Picture Fran Caffrey / Golffile.ie

The second red flag was the manager saying a few days ago there is “plenty of time” to iron out contract talks with Desmond. No there isn’t.

Simply put, Rodgers’ contract situation cannot be allowed to drag on.

Simply put, Rodgers’ contract situation cannot be allowed to drag on. Celtic’s most decorated player James Forrest was asked about the manager’s current contract distraction by the MSM in Portugal last weekend. This is a story that will rumble on if not resolved and it will directly impact performances on the pitch.

It is almost a guarantee this will be asked about at every media conference for however long it takes the manager to decide if he is here for the long-haul or whether this season will ultimately be his last. Either way, I think we need to find out soon.

The clock is ticking.

Conor Spence

Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter, out 5 September 2025. Available to pre-order now.