Brendan Rodgers addresses talk of problems at Celtic, recruitment concerns and Switzerland rumours

Celtic manager addresses current mood, recruitment, and why Adam Idah is not a last-minute stopgap

Brendan Rodgers insists he is happy at Celtic and planning for the long term. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Brendan Rodgers has a problem and it’s one that stretches beyond his current frustrations over Celtic’s inflexible recruitment structure and the rutted state of the Parkhead pitch.

Rodgers has admitted several times that something hasn’t felt quite right since he returned as manager for a second spell, an indefinable, intangible sense of unease that has hung over the club, a pervading air of anxiety that not even a run of victories and a five-point lead at the top of the table have been able to eradicate or even ease.

At its heart is trust. Or, more accurately, a lack thereof. A support that worshipped Rodgers like a messiah during his first time in charge, only to get burned by the haste and manner of his exit, appear reluctant to become too emotionally invested second time around lest the same thing happen again.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers with new signing Adam Idah during a training session at Lennoxtown. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

A board of directors possibly of a similar mind, unwilling or unable to provide their manager with the resources needed to execute the long-term squad refurbishment he so desperate craves, leading, in turn, to Rodgers maybe wondering how much faith to place in the hands of a chief executive and board whose parsimonious approach to transfer activity threatens to impair his reputation and legacy. It is a debilitating circle of mistrust that may only be broken eventually by time, trophies and transfers.

The fabricated tale that did the rounds via WhatsApp at the start of the week, claiming Rodgers had flown straight to a Swiss ski resort after last Saturday’s match to hold crisis talks with Celtic’s majority shareholder, Dermot Desmond, with a view to offering his resignation, was clearly nonsense, although given the undeniable undercurrent of discontent around the club, the premise was not entirely far-fetched.

Rodgers is aware of the prevailing mood among the Celtic rank and file, bringing up the Swiss speculation himself as he sat with reporters to, nominally, discuss this afternoon’s match away to Aberdeen. There was a smile as he dismissed it – revealing he had travelled no further than Glasgow’s west end – but with it came the more serious point that this is just the nascent stage of what he hopes and expects to be a long-term project. His face – and comments – may somehow suggest otherwise but Rodgers insists he is content at Celtic.

“There were reports that I’m this really unhappy person and I flew out to Switzerland after the game the other day, which I found strange when I was reading it in Finnieston!” he says. “These were all the considerations I had coming back. I wasn’t going to be that person, and I said that when I first came back because I only wanted the best for here. I wasn’t going to be in that place again.

“Sometimes because of how I am I might look unhappier than what I actually am, and that’s my dad’s fault because I look like my dad, and he always looked not so happy even when he was. I always wanted to come back to Celtic and I knew it wasn’t going to feel straight away like the first time because people were hurt.

“And they probably still are. There’s probably still a wee bit of people thinking, ‘How long is he going to be here?’ and ‘Can we trust him?’ But I want to give everything and I want to be here as long as I possibly can be. If I can have success here with the team and we can look forward and into Europe, then brilliant. It’s just navigating a way through all of this and doing my very best to pull people together.

“I’ve always said that if I was the major problem here, then it’s not what I’d want for the club. When I do leave here, I’ll always support Celtic. But I now want to be here so I can really see the benefits in the short-term and longer term and hopefully take us through this period. I certainly wasn’t away having crisis talks.”

Celtic only signed two players in January, Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah, the Irish striker who could make his debut on loan from Norwich City at Pittodrie. The expectation had been that several more would have joined them and Rodgers hoped the club would be “braver” as they now look ahead to the summer transfer window.

“I would go along with supporters thinking we could maybe be a little bit braver in terms of bringing in another level of player but that's up to me to try and fix that over the course of my time here,” he added.

“I think we want to be better, and there are ways that I hopefully can try and convince us to be braver in the market. When I was here before we had Odsonne Edouard who was £9m. So, we can do it. But it’s always about balance.”

Rodgers batted away the notion that Idah was someone who was presented to him as a last-minute stopgap, instead believing he is a player who will enhance the squad over the next few months. And the Republic of Ireland international is relishing the chance to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Robbie Keane.

“When I found out on Monday morning, I said to my agent it’s a no-brainer,” he revealed. “I said I always wanted to play for Celtic. We came here last year in pre-season and to me it was like a big shock. I was like, ‘Wow. This is one club I’d love to play for’.

“I’ve had a lot of experience in first-team football. I’ve been in the first team at Norwich for five years. Now it is about getting minutes and developing that next step.”