Gary Keown of the Daily Mail has delivered an incredible verdict on Brendan Rodgers’ first stint in charge of Celtic, a period that included an invincible treble while collecting seven domestic trophies out of seven.
Yes, Europe wasn’t fantastic which is the gist of Keown’s column but that arena takes some time and financing.
Rodgers inherited a squad that had lost out to Maribor and Malmo in the Champions League, largely through his own drive they qualified for successive Champions League group places before other issues kicked in highlighted by the failure to sign John McGinn.
Celtic took a few sore ones in Europe but there were signs of hope. Manchester City were held to draws home and away, there was an eye-catching 3-0 win away to Anderlecht and a very credible 1-1 away to Borussia Monchengladbach. There were signs of progress, hope that the club was moving in the right direction.
Not according to Keown, in the Daily Mail he writes:
Let’s face it. Rodgers failed first time around at Celtic. If his second spin round the block is to be based around a five-year plan with the ultimate aim of reaching a European final, all available evidence suggests he will fail again.
Yet, that would probably fit with the Scottish champions’ evident penchant for going round and round in circles. Looking backwards rather than forwards.
Peter Lawwell is back in a senior position despite being chased out of the chief executive’s role in an angry whirlwind of spraypainted ‘Shoot The Board’ bedsheets and flying crush barriers after Ten In A Row in 2021 disappeared into the ether faster than the infamous 2008 end-of-season Japanese tour.
The guy who is the new chief exec, Michael Nicholson, was the club’s Director of Legal and Football Affairs all the way through that shambles too, and Dermot Desmond is still pulling the strings at the top, so maybe it shouldn’t be any great shock they’ve gone for a manager who was probably more unpopular than any of them when he slinked out the door to Leicester City four years back?
After all, the Celtic punters have shown they are willing to forgive and forget almost anything as long as the domestic trinkets keep rolling in and no one dwells too deeply on why they have become a complete irrelevance — a laughing stock, even — outwith this silly little country of ours.
Make no mistake, when Rodgers arrived amid much more ballyhoo and breathlessness in 2016, reaching for the stars in Europe was a big part of the schtick too.
Rodgers was taking on a squad that looked to have died on their feet during a Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Mark Warburton a month before.
That squad had lost badly to Ross County in the League Cup semi-final in January 2016. Things had deteriorated to such an extent that Carlton Cole and Colin Kazim Richards were in the dressing room.
Across the city Warburton signed Joey Barton to incredible acclaim- he never played again after Scott Brown drove Celtic to a 5-1 victory in the first derby of the season.
Filip Senderos and Nico Kranjcar were also signed up for an attack on the SPFL, Josh Windass and Matt Crooks had been recruited on pre-contract deals.
The domestic challenge that Rodgers inherited was very real. From the 2016 Scottish Cup semi-final Scott Brown was virtually written off, similarly Tom Rogic, Mikael Lustig and Stuart Armstrong looked like lost causes.
Keown is more than entitled to his opinion, last week his employer brought on board a former Prime Minister to share his views with readers.
Europe is certainly an area that Celtic fans will look to see progress in but winning domestic trophies will never be dismissed.
The memories of season 20/21 are still fresh and raw while a significant element of the Celtic support can remember the nineties when just three out of 30 domestic trophies were win.
Over the last 15 years there has been Hampden defeats from St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Ross County and Inverness Caley Thistle- every single trophy will be celebrated by supporters even if they are dismissed by someone at the Daily Mail.
??????????????? You can smell the fear from the photo alone ??? pic.twitter.com/Yayezrmz9s
— T H E ~ S H A M R O C K ?? (@TheShamrock1888) June 17, 2023
Do you get the feeling a certain club are crapping themselves for future events. Lol.
I wonder if he regarded Walter Smith a failure.Six wins out of thirty six champions league games and irregularly financed up to the hilt but winning lots of domestic trophies.
He wouldn’t dare.
Another one who’s dreading Rogers coming back.
Cant wait.
Russia, north korea, trump, and the tory party are just amatuers compared to the sevco media . Rotten to the core.
Is he that bitter or just stupid the same really utter trash paper just as bad for printing it
Laughing at the audacity of this guy writing a piece criticising our European record whilst the Huns made history as THE worst team in CL.
It’s also funny that they write BR off, 7 out of 9 a failure? SG won just 1 out of 9 & was deemed a success! His pain is glaringly obvious.
They’re running scared before a ball is kicked. Beale with his Bosman’s while BR has a transfer kitty they can only dream of.
Oh dear
That is one bitter bitter piece dripping in fear and loathing .
Great ain’t it
I’m sure he went for a drink after writing that Pulitzer contender. Gin and bitter, bitter lemon I expect….
Like many things in life, the underlying meaning is in fact the opposite of the outward one. The hun world is properly shitting themselves that they could get ‘grannied’ yet again next season, despite Ange leaving and the ragbag of Bosmans and non-scoring strikers being recruited by Pete Beale.
What this idiot failed to understand is you have to win domestic trophies TO GET INTO EUROPEAN COMPETITIONS. The very trophies this idiot dismisses as meaningless… But what do you expect he is a member of the SMSM
that’s the kind of bitter shit you’d expect to read on FF !!!! pathetic…..
The worst most bitter piece of Scottish football journalism av ever read – surely he should do the decent thing and resign immediately?
Yes and Rodgers will inherit a squad full of brilliant players to work with, fully fastened, motivated and tuned up, thanks to Ange!
Not signing McGinn is a taken mistake, but they couldn’t hold Tierney either and that split what could have been a successful European team!
We will never know!
Gary Keown sounds just like a bitter wee man from the Daily Mail.!
Glasgow Celtic are now World Record Treble Trophies Winners as well as all their other outstanding achievements. Not bad for a wee team, who are of no relevance outside their own country. Shall I go on … ?
Have you got it?
Why bother commenting on the slobbering iidiocy of someone who works for the Daily Mail. The pro-Nazi, ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts’ Daily Mail. This rag and its employees should have been shot after the War. But they have been allowed to continue with their racist garbage for 80 years. Therefore, why are we surprised that a bitter wee Hun uses this rag to have a go at Celtic. He will be unemployed in few months. And hence unemployable. Just focus on the actual job, winning on the park.
Absolutely disgraceful reporting bigotry of the highest order and the delusional lengths of which he has gone to too appease the other side of the city are evident in this hit piece, oh how they would dream of one trophy let alone 7 out of 7 from a so called failure, disgraceful that they actually published it in the first place… come on home brendan all is forgiven in my eyes anyway… HH YNWA
Who the fuck is this dobber!!!!
Is he that bitter or just stupid the same really utter trash paper just as bad for printing it
An average human has around 2 billion brain cells, God has not blessed Gary Keown with one.
You can gauge failure by winning trophies, seems like the more you win the bigger a failure you are.
Celtic must stop winning trophies to become a success!
Gary Keown couldn’t write a sensible story on any subject.
How I hate being a failure.
? ????