Muzzy_Larsson

Congerton is a massive f%&kin w&£ker.

Good, Soyuncu has been utter dog meat of late anyway.

Eerily similar to how his time at Celtic ended, started deflecting in the exact same way in terms of finance available etc.

Excellent post and have to agree. I often thought latterly in Scotland he was too one dimensional and in terms of Europe he definitely was and it got us a few pastings. The thing is there was less scrutiny in that sense up here as we were so much better than everyone he still got away with it as we were winning everything and he could always play the finance card in Europe. I got slaughtered a bit initially on here about saying how he and Barry Chuckle are pretty terrible in the transfer market but throughout his career, at several clubs I don't think there is one you could say Rodgers recruited very well at over the piece. I'm trying not to totally discredit him on the recruitment front but I think he's been fortunate at Leicester to come into a club with a recruitment model that is mature and runs, in comparison to most EPL clubs anyway, like a swiss watch. Due to that I think his transfer record has been a bit better at Leicester than at Celtic and Liverpool for example but I don't think that's his own doing. Where he does excel as you allude to is as a coach and I think that should be his focus and he should be far more hands off in terms of recruitment (whether his ego would allow for that is another discussion). For every bad signing he made at Celtic for example there was a player he inherited that he turned from mediocre to a world beater, in terms of in Scottish football anyway. Guys like Armstrong and Boyata for example were whipping boys and the fans were desperate for them to leave. Rodgers turned these guys into very good players and both got decent moves to the EPL and Bundesliga and have acquitted themselves pretty well. Armstrong couldn't even get a game for us prior to Rodgers arriving. There are more he worked wonders with I could go on about, McGregor, Tierney, etc, etc.

Yeah our injuries were an absolute nightmare throughout his time at the club. He also ran Tierney into the ground which I think is a large part of why he’s made of glass now. I think including internationals he played something crazy like over 120 games in two seasons.

Have to agree with this, things are regressing at an alarming rate and there is very little to cling to in terms of signs of things changing.

Yeah was exact same at Celtic, over the course of pretty much all his time at the club.

I totally don't get it, even when the team has been struggling at points this season he's still marginalised. I've said this before but I just don't think Rodgers fancies him and he's stubborn that way, he was the same with a couple of players at Celtic, Sviatchenko being the most obvious. We happily sold him and replaced him with 2 or 3 different duffers who weren't half the player he was.

He trotted out similar to this at Celtic when we'd get horsed in Europe. Going on about how can people expect us to compete given the disparity in budgets. Maybe not fckin passing the ball out from the back between the goalkeeper and centre backs against Neymar, Cavani and Mbappe would help us compete.

Ziyech couldn't lace Mahrez's right boot. He's not cut out for the premier league at all and his attitude looks pretty poor, he doesn't look exactly like he's bursting his arse whenever he does play to try and make it work. He'd do well in a less physical league where the pace is slower.

He was a great player indeed and I reckon a good appointment for them. I hope it goes terribly for him though

Yeah but I guess my point was when Rangers did arrive back in the league we had the best team we've had in around 20 years. I'll admit that was by accident rather than design which backs up your original point.

Agree in the main, only thing I'd say was under Rodgers we'd built the most formidable side we had in a long time (maybe due to luck rather than design) so we had a second chance at really capitalising after dropping the ball when Rangers were out of the league. However, as various Celtic boards have done for nigh on 100+ years we never capitalised and built from that position of strength. We replaced a Ferrari in Rodgers with an Austin Allegro in Lennon and tried to replace huge players, like Dembele, Tierney. Armstrong, etc, we got huge money for (in our terms anyway) with £2-3m punts. Deila's final season in charge we were there for the taking in all honesty, Aberdeen had a few chances to really put the pressure on us and bottled it.

Agreed, he's always been like that though so I don't think anyone can have any complaints on that front.

There was, our league is brassic, we simply didn't have the finances or manpower to do the continual testing, put the necessary protocols in place, you need to remember this is a league that said they couldn't afford the multi-ball system initially and is trying to whip round money from sponsors to fund VAR. It wasn't just Scotland, there were leagues with far more money than us across Europe that logistically didn't have the means to resume their league, Holland, Belgium, France, etc. Obviously Rangers being out the top league gave us a free run at some of that 9 in a row, there is no disputing that, part of that is Rangers own fault though, for example it took them two years to get out the championship. It was the same for their 9IAR in the 90's it coincided with us almost going out of business and finishing fourth in the league and the likes and spending 100k on guys from the English lower leagues while Rangers spent millions. Furthermore, it wasn't until the year Rangers came back into the top league that we started being really successful and winning trebles etc. I think only one team has ever finished top 4, in recent times anyway (say the last 20 years) and then been relegated tbh and that's Kilmarnock.

It was in the rules before Covid hit that in this situation, where greater than 75% of the fixtures were completed then the league table would be stand as is. If it was less than that in terms of fixtures fulfilled then it would be null and void. If the shoe was on the other foot and Rangers were at the top of the league they wouldn't have complained or given up the title. It was an unfortunate situation of course but to say a side who is 13 points clear and with only 20% of fixtures still remaining were "handed" the league is a bit ridiculous. What's the point in establishing rules in the first place if they are just going to be disregarded. It did matter a lot but we've done 9 in a row twice to Rangers once and we've won the European cup and they haven't so we have enough to hold over them. We're also close to overtaking them in total number of league titles and if the ratio since the year 2000 continues (leaving out the 9 in a row years) to play out we'll do that soon enough. The quadruple treble was completely unprecedented and will never happen again so that's why most Celtic fans wouldn't swap it, even in the previous 100 odd years no side had even won a back to back treble. For over 1000 days no other side in Scotland won a trophy but Celtic. Although our league is poor, one treble is difficult to do, as Rangers would testify to last season when they had an open goal at one and never managed to win even one of the cups. Same with Celtic, we failed to win a single treble the whole team Rangers were out of the top flight. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if one of the sides done 9 in a row again or pretty close to it.

The 9 season you reference we were 13 points clear with 8 games to play. Rangers at the same time were imploding, their final game before the season was halted they were beaten 1-0 at home by Hamilton (yes Hamilton) and half the Rangers fans were calling for Gerrard's head and the other half held a minute's applause in the 8th minute of the very same match to try and give him a confidence boost such was the terrible run of form they were in. The same night Rangers' captain publicly said in an interview the players struggled under the pressure of playing in front of their own fans. You need to be pretty deranged in the head to think Rangers were going to overturn a 13 point deficit in 8 games and win the league, but if the cap fits. I wouldn't for a second have swapped the quadruple treble for 10 in a row, as gutting as it was to miss out on the ten and the majority of Celtic fans would say the same.

Nonsense but to humour you that still makes it 5-1!

Davidson would be a very good appointment as he'd be the ideal candidate to work with little money as it seems the well has run dry and that will continue to be the case until they ever start selling players. Can see Rangers being far more entitled and going for another "name", box office type appointment again, someone like GVB or Gattuso like you mention. Problem with these guys is though you'd imagine they'll want a chunk of cash to spend on the team.

Some truth in that and I was quite vocal about this when he first joined Leicester, he won a watch joining a club that had a very strong and forward thinking recruitment model already in place. History shows when recruitment is left to Rodgers himself (and his sidekick Congerton) it's an area of the job he's not particularly good at and again this is evident across several jobs he's had.

Rodgers and all top managers won't and can't think that way though, they'll always back themselves to go and do a good job, they won't think about being a failure, it's that single mindedness that makes these guys top coaches/managers in the first place. Furthermore, the ask initially is to do a better job than OGS which he'll know and we all know he could do in his sleep. Man Utd being a shambles is probably the perfect opportunity for him as to an extent the only way is up. Had Man Utd been a well oiled machine on and off the park and competing for trophies they would probably have their sights set higher than Rodgers. It pains me to say it but it's hard to knock back the Man Utd job whatever the context, it's one of the biggest job's in world football.

No idea tbh. It depends what your definition of "further" is. If it's to break into the top 4 then I reckon we've unfortunately missed the chance for that, in the short term anyway. That said, consolidating a place in the top 6 and starting to make a dent on Europe would be taking the club further imo. For all Rodgers is a great manager he has a huge black mark hanging over him in terms of how all his teams have performed in Europe.

Yeah good point.

The way the big clubs are trying to carve things up even further for themselves I don't see the remote chance of it ever happening again, for any provincial club unfortunately. Leicester winning the league captured the imagination of fans throughout the world but I think it rocked the elite clubs and served as a warning as something they want to avoid happening again.