When dirty linen is washed in public and hung out to dry.
A look at the Celtic situation and why it's actually best for all parties.
When the late, great Tommy Burns was manager of Celtic, the club he loved and graced as a whole-hearted midfielder, I was honoured to be granted an audience with him at Celtic Park. I was researching a book in the club archives in 1996, was invited into his office for a chat, and such was the team’s injury travails that Burns jokingly offered me a place at centre-back (they really were struggling) but admitted that such were the club’s equally troubled finances that he could pay any fee only from the plate of digestive biscuits in front of us. And some of them had already gone.
Even in jest as then, Celtic managers have often talked about the need for squad strengthening. Most managers do. It’s how and when they do it that causes issues. It clearly contributed to rising tensions between Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic board. Last night saw dirty linen being washed in public and hung out to dry.
Losing out in the Champions League and speaking out over need for squad strengthening was not a good combination. “You can’t be given the keys to a Honda Civic and drive it like a Ferrari,” Rodgers said recently. He resigned last night. The most powerful man at Celtic Football Club, Dermot Desmond, promptly listed his grievances with Rodgers in a statement that went beyond sulphurous.
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The immediate response to the savage takedown of Rodgers by Desmond is why on earth didn’t he sack the manager first if he felt that way? Desmond questioned Rodgers’ version of events over contract talks and squad investment. “The facts did not match his public narrative,” Desmond wrote in his missive “to Celtic supporters” issued by the club.