It’s often easy to see the beginning of the end when it comes to football managers from the messages they send out through the media. And quite often it’s a frustration over a lack of transfers funds, particularly when it comes to managers of Celtic and Rangers.
The feeling among raging Parkhead punters when Brendan Rodgers hotfooted it back over the border for Leicester City was that he had abandoned the club he "loved" because of the lure of the glamour and the cash-rich English Premier League. But there had been signs of tension and frustration between the Irishman and the board throughout those first six months of his final season which point to the reason for him abandoning them mid-season.
When Steven Gerrard said “in the last two windows, we haven’t spent a penny” back in October 2021 it set alarm bells ringing. A month later he was off to Aston Villa. And when Gerrard’s former Liverpool boss and then rival Rodgers came out with his famous “terminado” line a couple of years earlier it was the first indication that all was not well between the Irishman and the Parkhead board.
Rodgers came out with that in-between the two legs of a Champions League qualifying tie against AEK Athens that would see them fail to reach the group stage for the first time in three seasons under the Irishman and it created a divide. The club had missed out on John McGinn around the time of that showdown against the Greek side with the Scotland star opting to join Aston Villa over his boyhood heroes.
That led to questions about the Celtic board’s ambition matching his own, and when asked if he would leave the club if they stopped pushing to be better, Rodgers said: “Yeah. My job is done then. Terminado. Gone. But that’s the challenge. You have to test yourself to the limit. You have to be courageous as a club.
“It’s a joy to work here. I love my life here and enjoy being the manager here. But it’s no good if I just sit back and get comfortable. Being comfortable is the enemy of progress. I never allow it in my own life or professional life. You see it in sports and in industry. The minute you think you’re doing okay it can quickly disappear, and that’s the greatest institutions.”
That was after the Hoops had drawn 1-1 with AEK Athens in the first leg of their tie. They lost 2-1 in the return which turned up the heat. Rodgers said after the defeat in the Greek capital: “This is a level where we need all the help we can get. I’ve said what I wanted to say about making improvements. You have to. You just have to look at Liverpool. They got to the Champions League final and went out and got great signings and strengthened the squad. We needed to strengthen no matter how good we have been over the last couple of years.”
Six months later, Rogers was off to Leicester City with a shock departure and that relationship between the Irishman and the board will now be key as he prepares to return to the east end of Glasgow. Reports say he has been promised he will receive the backing he wants as he looks to make progress in the European arena.
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