ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 10: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers arrives ahead of a William Hill Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie, on August 10, 2025, in Aberdeen, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Brendan Rodgers has taken aim at the snipers that will never praise him, his team or his achievements at Celtic.
Having watched two Ibrox managers get the sack since he returned to Celtic in June 2023 the Irishman is turning up the pressure already on Russell Martin.
When Rodgers returned to Celtic two broadcasters were letf out of the Celtic media invites, they are still out in the cold two years later.
He also has his internal critics, it isn’t difficult to trace the fingerprints when certain sources pour out their criticism, the most obvious being the orchestrated campaign to undermine Adam Idah, Arne Engels and Auston Trusty.
The players are a side show, the main purpose is to undermine Rodgers, to doubt his judgement and valuation of players despite the transfer fees being the responsibility of the hapless Michael Nicholson, a sports lawyer groomed for the job while Peter Lawwell was CEO.
Rodgers loves to throw a friendly jab at the media, delivered in a light heated mode but also carrying a serious message.
The Daily Record reports the Celtic manager saying:
Listen, there’ll always be a narrative around. You know, I heard something the other day about ‘you don’t play good football and don’t play that, we’ve never played that in the last two years’.
So, I think there’s a number of people that really don’t like me here at Celtic! But with me and looking at the team, I’m really happy to see how the players are, the current players that we have.
His critics and boardroom cheerleaders have been all-in trying to justify and defend the lack of spending at Celtic this summer despite a £20m surplus to top up the £80m that was already sitting in the bank as last season ended.
Unfortunately for them, despite the complete lack of support from the club executives, Rodgers is still delivering results.
Kieran Tierney and Ben Nygren combined for today’s opening goal, signed for less than £1.5m and benefitting from being involved in pre-season training from day one, something that Trusty, Engels and Idah were denied last season.
Despite that Trusty and Engels started nine of last season’s 10 Champions League matches and each came on as a substitute in the other fixture. Idah starte three Champions League matches and was a substitute in the other seven scoring three times and creating the vital goal that defeated YB Bern.
Rodgers’ critics won’t utter a word about Odin Thiago-Holm, Marco Tilio, Yang Hyun-jun, Kwon Hyeok-kyu, Maik Nawrocki, Gus Lagerbielke or Luis Palma.
A fun fact for the critics is that Idah has scored Celtic’s last two goals at Ibrox.
C’mon Peter, stop wi the one-sided tripe. The man is clearly the outstanding candidate and will continue Celtic’s dominance & success.
The chances of him taking this club to new heights are greater than they were back then.— ???? #??? ??????????? (@Johnniebhoy1) June 12, 2023
I can see sevco capturing another 2 players this week with another big transfer fee player getting a mention being interested in joining the sevco revolution.
They can’t have Celtic in charge of all the headlines being top of the league and 4 clear of Sevco.
Infact it’s going to be chilly this week in the Southside of Gladgow,apparently it’s to -4.
The BBC is one of the worst on their players ratings for today’s game Adam got a similar or even less than Tony and he never got on until the 89 minute, pathetic ?
FFS…Is it not possible to have an opinion without it being an agenda…??…For the record…I rate BR…even if he does waffle on a bit…so I hope that clears that up…However…and without quoting the money spent…I don’t rate Engels and Idah…and if you know anything about football…you know why…Trusty I have no problem with…He does his job…But to sum up…It is ridiculous to suggest that, because I don’t personally rate two players , I have an agenda against BR …is utter nonsense and you should know better.
Great managers everywhere have signed duds, and for far far more money than BR ever will at Celtic, but Idah is far from a dud, he has delivered in important games and deserves this season, ffs, he scored 20 was it last season and came off the bench most weeks,Engels for me could be a player as he has showed glimpses, but unfortunately hasn’t progressed as expected.
Trusty is no worse or better than many others we have had over the years.
There absolutely is a narrative around the big money buys, and that can only be for one reason, to undermine BR’s judgement.
Just as a side note, there have been more duds in and out of the front door at Ibrokes than anyone can tell and rarely if ever do the pundits and media round on the manager over there…..they are always bedding in, give them time…
PL is lower than whale shit and I don’t doubt his media lackeys are doin his bidding.
BR wins this season, see he didn’t need money. BR wins nothing, see, we would have wasted our money on a sh*t manager.
Utter disgrace to not have this guy signed up for another 5 years and have a plan.
Amateur hour from a so called big institution.
Top comment. Couldn’t really agree more. Lawwell’s an absolute snake.
Well he is an adder !
Add, add, add, add, add, fuckin add, add, add them millions up !
Regards so called poor signings,who can forget Raphael Shiedt,ie Shite