The reaction from Scotland to Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic resignation

► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub
► Watch Sky Sports: https://bit.ly/BuySkySports

Sky Sports reporter Gordon Duncan reacts to Brendan Rodgers’ resignation from Celtic, and what it will mean for the club now after the interim appointments of Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neil

#SkySportsNews #SkySports #celtic

► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories
► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre

More from Sky Sports on YouTube:

► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub
► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub
► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket
► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts
► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub
► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1
► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf
► Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL
► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub
► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL

► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsnews
► X: https://x.com/SkySportsNews
► Website: https://www.skysports.com

► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

So, let’s tell you what Celtic have had to say in a statement which has been posted on their website in the last 15 minutes. Celtic football club can confirm that football manager Brendan Rogers has today tended his resignation. It has been accepted by the club and Brendan will leave his role with immediate effect. The club appreciates Brendan’s contribution to Celtic during his two very successful periods at the club. Brennan leaves Celtic with our thanks for the role that he’s played during a period of continued success for the club and we wish him further success in the future. The process to appoint a new permanent manager is underway and the club will update supporters further on this as soon as possible. We are pleased that during this interim period, former Celtic manager Martin O’Neal and former Celtic player Sha Maloney have agreed to take charge of Celtic first team matters. Further details will be confirmed shortly. So that is the statement from Celtic. Let’s speak to our reporter Gordon Duncan who joins us live right now. and Gordon. It’s three defeats in five and in all competitions for Celtic, but particularly damaging that 3-1 defeat at Time Castle to Harts, who of course now, as I mentioned, eight points clear of Celtic that appears to be effectively the the final blow for Brener Rogers. Look, it still feels absolutely remarkable. I think there’s going to be huge shock tonight. Yes, of course, that was a dreadful result, a dreadful performance. Celtic not used to being eight points behind. You could also point to the war of words if you like. Brendan Rogers has said a number of things in recent months. He compared his team to a Honda Civic a couple of weeks ago and said the club are expecting him to drive it like a Ferrari. He said over the course of the transfer window that he was not the man to maintain standards. He wanted to drive standards. There’s been so much said about the disconnect between him and the club’s board. But even still, even taking all that into account, this still feels like a massive shock for it to happen now. When Brendan Rogers came back to Celtic, he said he would be here until the end of his three-year contract. We now know that is not the case. I just wonder, Gordon, how much do you feel this affected the dressing room o over the last few weeks and maybe, you know, extending into the last month or so, particularly when you look at the reaction of Casper Schmeichel when Celtic went behind her hearts, he went absolutely ballistic at them and you sort of sense that the the strain that was, you know, clearly evident there, as you’ve just detailed to us, between Brena Rogers, the powers that be at Celtic Park. Was that transferring into the dressing room a bit? It feels like there’s a lot going on. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that that it was all leading to just an atmosphere that it wasn’t conducive to Celtic being the best version of themsel. I suppose it’s always easy to want to pick one factor or or one area to blame. And it felt like for a while the board were getting that from the Celtic fans, but I think as times progressed that focus did shift a bit onto Brendan Rogers and to the team. Yes, the failure to reach the Champions League. That sort of kicked all this off. There was then a deadline day that was seen as a bit of a disaster. Celtics scrambling around in the market, but once that window closed, it was then clearly down to Brendan Rogers and the players to get on with it, so to speak, and they haven’t managed to do that. You look at the performance at the weekend, and in many ways, it all came together because you’re seeing Dane Murray put him into his own net. Dane Murray probably wouldn’t normally start Celtic games. They’ve even had injuries. They were up against a hearts team who have got their recruitment spot on. So it felt like everything that could be going wrong for South K has gone wrong. But I’ll repeat, even taking all that into account, it still feels like an incredibly big shock tonight that Brendan Ro is no longer the Celtic manager. I just wonder the Celtic fans who’ve gone to bed early, when they wake up and hear this news, I think they will be absolutely stunned. And the other stunning element of this, Gordon, as you’ll know, is the interim appointment of Martin O’Neal and Sha Maloney. Martin O’Neal, who hasn’t been in club management since, well, in management of any sort since June 2019 when he was sacked as Nottingham Forest boss. I mean, this is seismic, isn’t it? Yeah, I think that’s clearly the shocking bit. Look, the Celtic fans absolutely adore Martin Neil. They worship Martin Neil for what he did at the turn of the century. He came in after a really bad spell where Celtic had to watch Rangers win trophy after trophy and and overnight Martin landed a treble. He turned Celtic into a winning machine. He took them to a UEFA Cup final. They they couldn’t hold him in higher esteem, but in some ways that’s probably not the point. As you say, he’s been out of football management for a long time. There’s there’s clearly a bit of a double act going on there with Shawn Maloney being in as a sort of younger modern coach of course previously at Wigan and had a spell up here in the Scottish Premiership with Hibs as well. But it is seismic is is a a fair word for it because for Brendan Rogers to leave it feels like that’s shocking enough for Martin and Neil of all people to return. This um they always say that Scottish football what it sometimes lacks in quality it always makes up for in storylines and drama and I think we’re seeing that and then some tonight. Yes. And also let’s just remind ourselves of where Celtic are in the Scottish Premiership right now. So obviously second in the table, but it’s not just the fact they’re second in the table. It’s the fact that they are eight points behind league leaders hearts. Uh and that 3-1 defeat I mentioned before at Tying Castle. How big a job has Martin O’Neal, even if it’s just interim got on his hands to try and instill something in Celtic that clearly was lacking to a point there with Brendan Rogers given you don’t just have a game against Kirk coming up in a couple of days time but crucially another old firm match but this time in the Scottish League Cup after that. It is incredible the games are just going to come thick and fast. I think Celtic play seven midweek games between now and January. So that shows you how relentless it’s going to be. With no disrespect to Falerk, there’s possibly a feeling that if you’re going to get a fixture that could take care of itself, it might be that one, a home game against Falker, I hope that doesn’t upset the the Fal fans, it just means on the on paper if you like. But at the weekend Sunday, as if the stakes could be any higher, there was already a real intrigue around this because of the pressure that would have been on Brendan Rogers to deliver any cup semi-final defeat is painful for Celtic. If it’s against their biggest rivals, it’s even more painful. And if you want to take that a stage further, worth bearing in mind, this is a Rangers team that’s perceived to be in crisis. They’ve already had to change their manager and bring in Danny Rule. So this weekend is going to be blockbuster. To think if we had said three, four weeks ago that this cup semi-final would take place between Celtic and Rangers at Handen with Danny Rule and Martin O’Neal in the dugouts, it would have been unthinkable. And yet that is the reality here in Glasgow this week. Yeah, I wonder if you can just unpack that a little bit more for us, Gordon. just the sort of state of let’s say where where the power lies right now in in Scottish football simply because as you say both clubs having changed their manager now and we’re not even through the end of October yet I mean you know when was the last time anything like this happened this is this is so significant isn’t it a tectonic plate shifting a touch it feels totally unprecedented because of the way the balance in Glasgow tends to work there’s usually a good cop and a bad cop there’ll be one club that’s in a good place and one club that’s in a bad place. Very rarely are they both in a good place at the same time. That that can’t really be possible. I remember when Rangers reached that Europa League final under Javanni van Bronkers and Celtic were going well under anoglo and strangely they both felt like they were in a good place but this season for the first time possibly well certainly in my living memory but maybe maybe you could go back a bit further and find a time but it feels unprecedented that they’re both in a a bad place. Now maybe that’s a bit unfair on Rangers because they’re at least they’ve made the change and they’re in the early stages of of Danny Rule but but generally speaking for this season Rangers have been in crisis could still be in crisis if Danny Rule can’t hit the ground running and Celtic plunged into that tonight of clearly Martin Neil can come in and turn that around. So crisis might not last long but a period of of real uncertainty and certainly as far as I can remember totally unprecedented that both teams would find themselves in a situation like this. I just wonder also about Brendan Rogers U Gordon when we think about you know what he achieved first time around but then second time around it’s not like he’s not won any trophies in fact four of them because he’s won the two league titles in the last two seasons but then also the first one was paired with a Scottish cup the second one was paired with a a Scottish League Cup but you know what is his legacy now and and and has it been tarnished in any way by what’s happened today and the way he’s gone? That’s going to be really interesting to see how that pans out. Firstly, what’s incredible is the speed in which this has unraveled because last season Celtic started the season unbelievably well. They then did what no Celtic team has really done for the last decade or so and they managed to kick on in Europe. You’ll remember they got through the new Champions League phase. They played Bayern Munich. They were outstanding against Bayern Munich and just couldn’t quite take them to extra time on the night. And then from that moment on it seemed to go downhill a bit. Look, there were penalty kicks away from another treble. They didn’t win it. They didn’t get over the line, but the margins were clearly small. Aberdine winning the Scottish Cup final, but it feels like everything has gone steadily, in fact, not steadily, quickly downhill since then. Failure to qualify for the Champions League, a poor start to the league campaign that has caused Celtic fans to question Brendan Rogers. But it’ll be interesting to see if they hold this against him or they hold it against the Celtic board because the first time they held it against him, he walked away. There was banners, there was all sorts of negativity towards Brendan Rogers and many fans didn’t really welcome him back. That shifted a little bit in the summer. I often heard the narrative amongst the Celtic fans in the summer that if Brendan Rogers was to walk away, he would do it with the best wishes of the Celtic fans because it would be an acknowledgement that he hadn’t been backed by the board. But we’re now a couple of months on, so I think there will be a real split here. I think some Celtic fans will feel that the the board has pushed Brendan Rogers and he’s not had the backing he deserves, but for sure it will damage his legacy in the eyes of some. In terms of the the next appointment, I mean, what one factor perhaps we haven’t necessarily considered fully. Yes, we have Martin O’Neal and Shaw Maloney in this interim position. Not to say that if they do a good job that couldn’t be extended into a permanent appointment, but how key is this appointment in terms of politically what’s happening at Celtic and this strained relationship? Do you need someone who’s going to try and effectively unite all parties? Is that going to be part of the recruitment process? It feels like they’re always massive, but I think you’re right. The unique circumstances which have led to this one means it’s going to be critical. And you when you look at what Celtic have done in recent times when Brendan Rogers left the first time they turned to a familiar face in Neil Lennon who who managed to steady the ship and won some trophies. Then when that then went downhill they managed to recruit a certain ana cogler. Now that wasn’t popular. It wasn’t universally popular. People questioned where he’d come from and his credentials but he came in and he won almost straight away and he and he did it in a style that made people forget about the managerial search. You may even struggle to remember that that Eddie how was so strongly linked with the job at that time. So I think key will always just be get someone who comes in and wins. If you come in and win quickly, everything else can can sort of fall into line. But this feels like more than just managerial issues at Celtic. We keep mentioning it every week. The fans are protesting. They’re throwing tennis balls onto the pitch at D Park. They’ve got banners up. they a large number of them won’t change at boardroom level. They don’t feel that the structure at Celtic is functioning the way that it should. So in in some ways that remains unfixed by by a change of manager. So these are massive days ahead for Celtic. First of all, they’ll have to get the managerial appointment right. If that manager then wins everything before him straight away, then then maybe the other stuff does die down slightly, but but it won’t go away completely. I’m just wondering as well, Gordon, you mentioned these are these are sort of seismically important moments, days right now for Celtic. Well, tomorrow is going to be significant, isn’t it? Because it’s it’s match day minus one before the full coat game. Normally, we would be hearing from Brennan Rogers in that pre-match press conference, but instead, I’m guessing you would imagine it would be Martin O’Neal that we’re going to be hearing from tomorrow. Yeah. And it’s funny now, with the benefit of hindsight, you can start to piece little things together. Last time I checked, there hadn’t been any official email sent out from Celtic to confirm that the press conference details tomorrow. I think many of us in the media didn’t really think anything of that. Sometimes it can it can take a while. Sometimes plans are put in place later on, but now looks like it was because there was a a grumbling that that Brendan Rogers wouldn’t be the man sitting in the hot seat tomorrow. Just incredible to think that. And uh what it was always going to be a big day actually speaking to whoever it was to try and get the answers as to where Celtic are going wrong because today’s discussion in Scottish football has really been can Harts win this league. Are Celtic going to do the unthinkable and surrender the title not to Rangers but to hearts? But yeah, I think the press conference room up at Celtic’s training ground will be busier than normal. And who would have thought it? Martin and Neil back to face the questions, face some old faces, maybe some new faces in the Scottish media and put forward his plan for the short term to turn the situation around at Celtic. Just remarkable.