Brendan Rodgers resigned as manager of Celtic on Monday night, with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond condemning his recent actions as “divisive, misleading and self-serving” in an unprecedented statement. The Hoops have won five of nine league games and are eight points off the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Rodgers was appointed as Celtic manager for the second time in July 2023, following a successful spell with the club between 2016 and 2019. He led Celtic to back-to-back league titles and qualification for the last two Champions Leagues. But Desmond now hints that there is a “toxic atmosphere around the club”. Parkhead Giants have appointed 73-year-old Martin O’Neill as interim manager. Express Sport looks at his top three priorities.
sign a free agent
Celtic spent money to support Rodgers in the summer transfer window, signing Sebastian Tunekuti, Michel-Ange Balikwisha, Makoto Yamada, Benjamin Nygren and Hayato Inamura.
The club is also targeting players who are leaving other clubs when their contracts expire, and two of their biggest stars, Kieran Tierney and Kelechi Iheanacho, have joined on free.
O’Neal will need to make a diligent effort to improve quality. And the interim manager, who was Celtic’s permanent manager from 2000 to 2005, could persuade Takehiro Tomiyasu to move to Scotland to strengthen the defense.
Tomiyasu has not played for his club since leaving Arsenal in the summer. And if he proves himself fit, his arrival could be a game-changer for the Scottish team. Renan Lodi, Diego Laxalt and Juan Bernat are also options on a free transfer.
Overcoming team physical challenges
If O’Neill wants to be any more successful than the former Liverpool manager he was in charge of earlier in the season, he will need to scrap Rodgers’ plans and start fresh.
And the veteran manager will need to immediately improve the physical aspects of his squad after identifying key issues hours before replacing Rodgers.
“Celtic can still play beautiful football, but they have to add a bit of physicality to it,” O’Neill told talkSPORT on Monday. “When your team is going against you physically, you have to be able to do that.
“Previously they looked invincible in games, but Celtic are not that strong physically and sometimes they actually lose games.”
Inspiring a sense of togetherness at Parkhead
Desmond’s comments about Rodgers were so damning that the 75-year-old even appeared to question the former manager’s integrity, claiming that “the facts did not match his public story.”
Regardless of who is at fault, it is clear that things are difficult behind the scenes at Parkhead.
And if Celtic want to make progress on and off the pitch, O’Neill will urgently need to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
