Muzzy_Larsson

Righto, similar to who was our first choice for most of Rodgers spell, Craig Gordon. Was incapable of playing these diagonal pitching wedge passes that Rodgers insists on, was infuriating. We'd get away with it at home but it would really cost is in Europe against the better teams. I guess the difference will be he'll have money to go out and get the exact type of keeper he wants at you guys though. From afar, would look a brave move to bin Schmeichel though given he's been pretty synonymous with a lot of your recent success.

What's Schmeichel like with the ball at his feet? Rodgers is obsessed with keepers being able to play out from the back so if he's not great with his feet I'd wager he'll try and replace him.

Boyata is out of contract at the end of the season so you could pick him up for nowt! He's been very good for us the last couple of years, improved a lot. However, in Europe he often comes up short against a better standard of striker so I'd have concerns with him playing against to strikers week in week out. Worth a punt for free probably though. I wouldn't say he'd be a better option than Evans and/or Benkovic however.

Loving this thread. Just shows the measure of the man the adulation and legend status he has at two clubs. He’s the best Celtic manager I’ve ever seen in my lifetime and I reckon I’ll still be of that opinion 50 years from now.

At least for all your sake it’s just speculation at the moment, you’d be hoping the chairman (who seems on the ball) would do some due diligence and look at his record. If he does there would be no way he would sanction his appointment you wouldn’t think.

Since Congerton arrived in March 2017: Olivier Ntcham - Man City - £4.5m - Started great but faded, would still say a success. Johnny Hayes - Aberdeen - £1.5m - Flop Odsonne Eduoard - PSG - Loan/£9m - Success Charly Musonda - Chelsea - Loan - Flop Jack Hendry - Dundee - £1.5m - Flop Marvin Compper - RB Leipzig - £2m - Flop hasn't played a single game Lewis Morgan - St Mirren - Free - Flop Scott Bain - Dundee - Free - Success By this point we had allegedly lost trust in him and withheld funds as we believed Rodgers and him wanted out. Summer 2018. Emilio Izzaguire - Free - Flop, was great player in his first spell but done now. Filip Benkovic - Leicester - Loan - Success Youssof Mulumbu - Free Agent - Flop Daniel Arzani - Man City - Loan - Jury out as done ACL in first match, looked bright though. Oliver Burke - WBA - Loan - Success Timothy Weah - PSG - Loan - Success Jeremy Toljan - BVB - Loan - Success Marian Shved - Ukraine - £2.5m - Still to arrive (summer) Vakoun Bayo - Slovakia - £2.5m - Not been seen yet Andrew Gutman - US College - Free - Will be amazed if ever plays for us Manny Perez - US College - Free - Will be amazed if ever plays for us

A Lawell signing again as far as I believe, as was the other lad signed in January, Bayo. Rumours are recommended by John Park, our ex and rumoured to be returning head of recruitment who got the heave-ho when Rodgers arrived. Rodgers was quite vocal about not knowing much about either of these two in an assumed two fingers up at the board move. He done the same when we signed Arzani in the summer from Citeh. Apparently, Congerton stopped being taken seriously in the summer when he provided a "pie in the sky" list of transfer targets that totalled £50m or thereabouts, no way we can spend that kind of money. Last summer was a shambles really and that was the moment the relationship broke down between him and the board and funds were restricted as a result, because of all the China stuff.

That's exactly what having him around has done for us, we have a first team squad of 37 players or something, most of which beyond the first 18 are useless, overpaid and we can't get rid of them. Not a good place to be.

Yeah that's a fair point, we've been leaving him out when we play on the plastic pitches as well so can't blame that either.

Have been looking at this forum with interest over the last couple of weeks as I'm a Celtic fan and wanted to gauge how Rodgers would be received. I have no axe to grind with Leicester although I must say there's a bitter taste in the mouth with Rodgers directly, not because he left, but how he left and how his actions were very different to what he professed. Anyhow all that aside and leaving personal feelings out of I've seen a lot of playground stuff on this thread, my Dad is bigger than yours type stuff among Leicester and Celtic fans so thought I'd give an honest appraisal of Rodgers during his time at Celtic as a feeler of what's in store for you. The guy is a top class coach, one of the very best, of that there is no doubt, what you will most definitely get with him is he'll bring on the players you already have, particularly the younger ones leaps and bounds, he's done that ad infinitum with our squad. The flip-side of that would be his identification and acquisition of new players to come in and enhance the squad. He falls pretty short here in my opinion in that most of the signings he's made in his time here have been poor bar 2 or 3. The side he has left us with is undoubtedly better than the one he inherited but that is 99% down to his ability as a coach in developing players, not his transfer business, as the majority of the side was players he inherited. His record in this regard was also poor at Liverpool, particularly when he had the Suarez money so I'd beware on this front. This makes it even more critical he doesn't bring his charlatan of a crony Congerton with him who is a disaster. I get the impression if you could keep Rodgers on a leash in terms of transfers under a good DOF/HOR this may be less of a risk. In terms of his style/philosophy it is great to watch when it works and I've witnessed some excellent performances and very memorable moments during his two and a half years. The other side of this is that he's very stubborn in his philosophy and sometimes to his detriment. For example in Europe he insisted on playing the elite sides at their own game and we got a sore face more than once and we ended up with record home and away defeats under him. I get the argument that we can't compete with these teams but we've had managers in recent times who have had a lot less to spend and performed a whole lot better in Europe. All in all his record in Europe with us was pretty poor, as it was with Liverpool. The reason I say this you may end up on the receiving end of a few doings off the big boys at home and abroad due to his stubborness in this regard as he insists on playing too expansively against teams who are a lot stronger. Off the field he was like a breath of fresh air initially, however as time goes on you get the feeling he says too much and as such contradicts himself which lands him in trouble with the media and fans and he doesn't like then being questioned on it. I think a large part of this is that he undoubtedly has a bit of an ego and feels he can just say what he likes at times, prepare for a lot of cliches and quotes in that regard lol! One thing I'm going to find interesting watching from afar is that I've read one of the reasons Puel was bagged was the slow build up play and not getting the ball forward quickly enough to play to Vardy's strengths. I'm not sure how true a reflection that is but if true Rodgers style isn't too much different, prepare for a lot of sidweays passing and backwards passing at times when things aren't clicking 100%. He also seems to like big physical, mobile strikers who play well with their back to goal (e.g. Dembele) so will be interested to see how he uses/fits in Vardy. As said no agenda tried to give an honest and balanced opinion based on watching his team week in week out for 2.5 years. If everything works out it will go brilliantly and you'll be watching great football every week, I get the feeling however if it doesn't there'll be no middle ground.

No problem. As an aside Benkovic is a hell of a player. He should be your number one CB next season, does everything very well. I know he's not tested to the same degree in terms of opposition up here. However, people said the same thing about Van Dijk and look what has become of him and it was as plain on the nose on your face with Celtic fans that he was going to the very top. Imo Benkovic is another one of those where it is very obvious.

Have found myself popping onto this forum to gauge reaction to Rodgers appointment and couldn't help notice this thread. I'm a Celtic fan btw and thought I'd give an honest assessment of this charlatan Congerton. In short, I see a lot of concern on here regarding his appointment and you all should be concerned, he was a disaster at Celtic. To clarify a few things, some people have listed some successful signings under his watch like Eduoard, Weah, Ntcham and Benkovic. All those mentioned are Lawell (our chairman) signings. We've had a tie in with Man City (Lawell's son works in recruitment for Man City) for years and have had a rake of players on loan/permanent and Ntcham is one of them, Congerton did not identify him and we'd been trying to get him prior to Congerton arriving, even before he went on loan to Genoa. Benkovic we've had a long standing interest very much prior to Congerton arriving and we tried to get him a couple of years before he signed for Leicester but wouldn't pay the £8m they wanted. Weah and Eduoard are from PSG, another club we have close ties with as our chairman is buddies with the PSG chairman Nasser, he's confirmed this publicly more than once. Over the last decade or so we've done very well at picking players up for relative peanuts and selling them for big money (in our terms), particularly to the EPL, to mention a few Van Dijk, Forster, Armstrong, Wanyama, Hooper, Ki, Dembele (Lyon). Ironically while we've had Congerton in charge we've not sold a single player we've signed under his watch on for decent money, in fact we now have a bloated squad, on the periphery full of dross that we can't shift due to his approach to recruitment. I've no axe to grind with Leicester but this guy is a charlatan and has been a disaster everywhere he has been.