Presumably Martin O\u2019Neill had no inkling of what the coming hours would bring when he used a Monday radio appearance to talk up Hearts\u2019 prospects of winning the Scottish title for the first time since 1960. \u201cThis is the time for Hearts,\u201d O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n
The scale of reverberation around Brendan Rodgers\u2019s resignation<\/a> is such that even the return of O\u2019Neill to the Celtic dugout is not the most dramatic element. Instead, the lesser\u2011spotted Dermot Desmond broke cover to lacerate Rodgers. The attack felt personal and spiteful. This proved a sad and unseemly conclusion to Rodgers\u2019s second spell in Glasgow. So much so, in fact, that the third most successful manager in Celtic\u2019s history cannot now show his face at the stadium. Desmond appears to be a bad enemy to choose.<\/p>\n Desmond\u2019s ferocious sentiment shone a light on recent months inside Celtic Park. The environment was toxic. It does not explain why a manager accused of being \u201cself\u2011serving\u201d and guilty of a breach of trust was simply not removed from office months ago. Desmond\u2019s astonishing words turned heads but they also raise questions. Were Rodgers as egotistical as Desmond portrays, he would have left Celtic immediately after the summer\u2019s botched transfer window. Rodgers could have secured martyrdom with supporters. He instead limped on, with Celtic eight points behind a Hearts team who were well short of their best when seeing off Rodgers and co<\/a> in Edinburgh on Sunday.<\/p>\n Desmond blames Rodgers for \u201cfuelling\u201d supporter protest towards the board which has formed a regular backdrop to this ragged campaign. \u201cSome of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable,\u201d Desmond said. The 75-year-old is correct to condemn such behaviour, but plenty of the Celtic<\/a> disquiet has been articulated in sensible and appropriate style. Desmond\u2019s assassination of Rodgers is unlikely to placate dissenters. \u201cIt\u2019s normally the manager that goes when that starts to be sung,\u201d Rodgers said amid cries of \u201csack the board\u201d in late August. He was mocked at the time; he was right.<\/p>\n Those directors have no desire to alter the way Celtic are run, essentially because they think such a switch is unnecessary. \u201cCeltic\u2019s structure \u2013 where the manager oversees football, the chief executive manages operations, and the board provides oversight \u2013 has served the club with great success for more than two decades,\u201d Desmond said. \u201cWhat has failed recently was not due to our structure or model, but to one individual\u2019s desire for self\u2011preservation at the expense of others.\u201d<\/p>\n It is worth remembering that Celtic\u2019s previous chief executive lasted two months. Non\u2011executive directors serve for years, if not decades. Desmond owns just over 30% of Celtic; the Monday night bulletin was from a man with total control.<\/p>\n The success to which Desmond refers is perfectly fair in domestic context. There have been glimmers of light in Europe \u2013 including last season<\/a> \u2013 but Celtic\u2019s regular shortcomings there undermine his point. Those struggles span various managers; Kairat Almaty saw off Celtic<\/a> in Champions League qualifying two months ago, just as Bod\u00f8\/Glimt, Ferencvaros, Cluj, AEK Athens, Maribor and Malm\u00f6 have done stretching back to 2014. Bod\u00f8\/Glimt, Pafos, Slavia Prague and Union St-Gilloise are in the Champions League this season.<\/p>\n Dermot Desmond has pulled no punches in his statement which was released very shortly after Brendan Rodgers\u2019 exit was announced. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA<\/p>\n Celtic portray themselves as a major club and in many respects they are. At Rodgers\u2019s final European game, the win against Sturm Graz last week<\/a>, he completed media duties in the typical domain of a marquee in the car park. Celtic fans will not care how the press are treated \u2013 in fact many will delight in the provision of spartan facilities \u2013 but this emphasises a broader sense of the small-time.<\/p>\n The problem with criticising Rodgers \u2013 as plenty were doing even before his resignation \u2013 is that none of this could have formed part of his plan. He hardly wanted this second spell to end so sourly or there was no reason to return while ignoring more lucrative opportunities. Third-season syndrome does not adequately explain why a team that scared Bayern Munich in February but had visibly run out of gas by the time of the Scottish Cup final defeat by Aberdeen<\/a> in May was not properly rejuvenated.<\/p>\n Celtic\u2019s title was confirmed with weeks, if not months to spare. Their Champions League qualifying position was known. Rodgers\u2019s frustration over a lack of attacking reinforcement, not only in the summer but January, was understandable.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n His final game, the defeat on Sunday at Hearts, had Johnny Kenny as the starting centre-forward. Were Kenny playing for Falkirk, there would be no clamour for Celtic to sign him.<\/p>\n Celtic\u2019s squad has regressed; it would be nonsensical to believe this appealed in any way to Rodgers. Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura \u2013 all brought in during the summer window \u2013 have barely been seen. Daizen Maeda was clearly affected after a move to the Bundesliga collapsed in essence because Celtic had no replacement. Kelechi Iheanacho, who quickly became the go-to No 9, arrived on a free on 2 September.<\/p>\n It would be inaccurate to portray Rodgers as blameless. Celtic had the resources to beat Kairat, albeit Champions League involvement was likely to bring embarrassment. The manager\u2019s pointed assessment of recruitment would inevitably feed through to his dressing room. Players bought for decent fees \u2013 Auston Trusty, Arne Engels, Paulo Bernardo \u2013 have failed to deliver. Rodgers was, though, unquestionably Celtic\u2019s most talented football operator, a matter proven by a substantial body of work. His desire to drive the club forward was beyond question.<\/p>\n It became increasingly apparent Rodgers would not see out this season. There was mutual disillusionment between him and his paymasters. There were, however, other ways to handle this: by stating manager and club were no longer aligned in their thoughts or that because Rodgers would leave in the summer anyway, an immediate parting of ways made more sense. Instead, there is acrimony. Rodgers\u2019s side of the story, when presented, will be fascinating.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill is a young 73 and idolised by fans. He retains the man-management skills to improve Celtic. He will believe privately that he can do this job for longer than an interim basis and has huge motivation to prove that after a six-year hiatus from management. Nonetheless, this is an underwhelming squad playing in front of a disgruntled audience. It is also a club that not for the first time see method in going back to the future. Lingering problems way beyond Rodgers remain. Desmond\u2019s polemic does not deflect from that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presumably Martin O\u2019Neill had no inkling of what the coming hours would bring when he used a Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-247764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}