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Awkward Celtic truth made clear as day by Brendan Rodgers' Leicester team sheet

Keith believes the Parkhead club's failure to match their former boss' ambitions in the transfer market set a course for the current crisis.
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Keith believes the Parkhead club's failure to match their former boss' ambitions in the transfer market set a course for the current crisis.

Keith Jackson
ByKeith Jackson
06:00, 25 JAN 2021UPDATED07:21, 25 JAN 2021

It will hardly be remembered as a love triangle. But there were three managers in this season of all seasons even if only two of them have been left to slug it out for the title.
Last week, just as Celtic’s moon shot of a campaign was blowing up like a clown’s car, Brendan Rodgers was climbing the summit of England’s Premier League and threatening to rewrite the greatest story English football ever told with Leicester.
Neil Lennon was blowing his top at a post-Dubai media conference which might well, in time, become the toe curling defining moment of 10 In A Row gone wrong.
Steven Gerrard was back doing what he does on the training ground at Auchenhowie, nipping a potential malaise in the bud and applying the tactical tweaks required for his side to rediscover its scorching early season form ahead of a 5-0 rout of Ross County.

Three managers all inextricably linked to a campaign which will go down in history, no matter what extraordinary twists may still be to come between now and May.
Yes, Rodgers may be long gone now but the sight of him swatting Chelsea aside last Tuesday night to claim top spot, must have sent a shiver down the spine of Celtic and their supporters as they waded through the quagmire of Lennon’s Monday morning rant.
It was the ultimate in take-a-look-at-what-you-could-have-won moments and a twisted reminder of what the club let slip through its grasp.

Yes, in the here and now, it’s convenient to assume Celtic’s self-harming decision making only began in the summer.
That would be to ignore an awkward truth where the loss of Rodgers is concerned and why Lennon found himself shoe-horned into this situation in the first place.
A closer look at Leicester City’s full-backs from the other night reveals the root of the problem.
At right-back Timothy Castagne. On the left James Justin.
Two players who Rodgers identified as targets during his final few months in charge at Parkhead but who he was only allowed to recruit when he upped sticks for the Midlands instead.

Rodgers had wanted Belgian international Castagne as a Champions League level upgrade for Mikael Lustig.
He believed too that Justin could be routinely snapped up from Luton Town as succession planning for the inevitable sale of Kieran Tierney.
Throw in the failure to land John McGinn from Hibs at the start of the season, as well as a long running struggle to convince the club to fork out £5million on an indoor training complex for the academy, and the picture becomes complete.
Rodgers was in no rush to bail out on Celtic but their reluctance to match his ambitions left him with little option. If he could not get his way at that moment, on the back of securing successive domestic clean sweeps, then he probably never would.
So he went somewhere else instead and, two years on, the plans he had for Celtic are now being put into
practice at the King Power.
This then, was the moment when the unravelling really began.
One bad boardroom decision too many bouncing the club into a succession of blunders which culminated in chartering that flight to the United Arab Emirates.
In between times, Lennon stepped into the breach like the return of the prodigal son. Where Rodgers was accused of treachery, Lennon’s passion for the club was never in doubt.

But if Rodgers couldn’t force the club’s arm into getting the recruitment right - let’s not forget the mysterious arrival of Marvin Compper who was not even a footnote on his list of targets at that time - then, really, what chance did Lennon stand?
In fact, the former captain has not been sufficiently empowered to appoint his own backroom team, never mind drive the club’s policy in the transfer market.
As a result he’s been left stuck between a rock and hard place. Or Shane Duffy and Vasilis Barkas to give them their proper names.
On top of all that, Lennon inherited a small group of unsettled players who believe their time at the club should have been up already.
It would have been too had it not been for the unique set of circumstances presented by this particular season. Had Celtic opted to cash in on an Odsonne Edouard or Kristoffer Ajer before a ball had been kicked the car park would have been overrun months earlier than it was.

But the immaculate job Gerrard has been carrying out on the other side of the city has compounded all of the above and this was hammered home at the weekend when the Rangers manager arrested a recent wobble to romp 23 points clear at the top of the table.
As much as Celtic have made an almighty mess of their own business, the rebuilding work Gerrard has done at Ibrox cannot be overstated.

It seems reasonable to argue that not too many of his players would make it into an all-star select from championship winning Rangers squads of the past. That makes Gerrard’s contribution and that of his coaching staff all the more remarkable.
Between them they have come up with a system and a contemporary style of play which makes the sum of the parts more important than the individuals within it.

Where Walter Smith might have relied upon an Ally McCoist, Mark Hateley or Brian Laudrup to dig his team out of trouble, Gerrard does not have any such luxuries.
On the contrary, his team has to function at full tilt every week in order to keep on winning matches and that fact that Rangers have now claimed 69 points from a possible 75 underlines an astonishing level of consistency.

On Saturday, Gerrard’s players appeared to be nearing their maximum levels again after a punishing schedule over the last month or so. There will be no stopping them now.
 
From the BBC's "Half Term Report" for the Premier League:

Leicester City​

Leicester City recovered well from the disappointment of missing out on the Champions League places on the final day of last season - they even topped the table after beating Chelsea in their last game.

Manager Brendan Rodgers has bought well, with the excellent young French defender Wesley Fofana and Belgium right-back Timothy Castagne adding competition and quality. The Foxes look perfectly balanced in all areas although the loss of striker Jamie Vardy for a few games following hernia surgery is a huge blow.

Some mixed results, but Leicester have every reason for high optimism in the second half of the season.

Phil McNulty's pre-season prediction: 9th

Leicester's current position: 3rd

Half-term report card: The foundations have been laid, now can the Foxes stay in the top four and even make their mark in the title race? Why not?


How condescending, he seems to have forgotten that we were top of the table for a while earlier in the season.
 
www.dailymail.co.uk

SAMUEL: Leicester are the nemesis of Europe's cosy cartel

MARTIN SAMUEL: If the super league's founders were genuinely interested in supremacy then Leicester would undoubtedly be among the six English invitees, at the expense of Arsenal
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

It does make me wonder what would happen to our club if the breakaway takes place. Incredible training ground, redeveloped stadium, highly paid players..... then suddenly a huge chunk of the income disappears.
 
Micky said:
www.dailymail.co.uk

SAMUEL: Leicester are the nemesis of Europe's cosy cartel

MARTIN SAMUEL: If the super league's founders were genuinely interested in supremacy then Leicester would undoubtedly be among the six English invitees, at the expense of Arsenal
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

It does make me wonder what would happen to our club if the breakaway takes place. Incredible training ground, redeveloped stadium, highly paid players..... then suddenly a huge chunk of the income disappears.
Click to expand...

Hasn't FIFA just stopped the breakaway league from happening?

They've said no players from that league would be allowed to play international football, but I think there were also other penalties to it
 
Graz said:
Hasn't FIFA just stopped the breakaway league from happening?

They've said no players from that league would be allowed to play international football, but I think there were also other penalties to it
Click to expand...
a bit different but it happened in cricket with Kerry Packer‘s World Series
 
Miles Away said:
I dunno, feels like a fair point to make. We were ****ing awful for an extended stretch last season.
Click to expand...

Yup. End of season collapse, starting season with key players injured, extra matches in the Toto cup....perfectly reasonable to not expect the season we've had so far.
 
Graz said:
Hasn't FIFA just stopped the breakaway league from happening?

They've said no players from that league would be allowed to play international football, but I think there were also other penalties to it
Click to expand...
Ah but that's just FIFA posturing for more money. They have no morals.

 
I don't think not being able to play international football will be much of a deterrent. I'm sure a pay rise will persuade most players to 'retire' from international football.
 
Feriol said:
I don't think not being able to play international football will be much of a deterrent. I'm sure a pay rise will persuade most players to 'retire' from international football.
Click to expand...
I know people think playing for England doesn't matter for players but it does matter a lot for foreign players
 
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