BRENDAN RODGERS‘ ego has been bruised and reputation battered in latest months as Celtic cartwheel thru a sequence of unconvincing performances to vacate pole role in the Premiership.
This is new – and unwelcome – territory for the 51-year-old Northern Irishman after his first stint as manager of the Parkhead membership yielded seven successive domestic trophies along with two back-to-back trebles.
The shine has come off the veneer in his 2nd coming after being catapulted into the warm seat in June following Ange Postecoglou’s hasty departure to Spurs in the instantaneous aftermath of the 3-1 Scottish Cup Final triumph over Inverness Caley Thistle.
As the solar kissed Hampden on an afternoon of blue skies, the Greek-Australian additionally kissed goodbye to Glasgow and his adoring followers after two wonderful years and five honours.
The bloke who inherited the shambles of the previous trophyless marketing campaign was always going to be a hard act to follow.
The Hoops hierarchy moved rapidly to replace him with an “elite manager” and Rodgers used to be greater than delighted to signal a cast-iron three-year contract in the hope of selecting up where he left off first time-around.
Cracks started out to show up in solely his third time out when the holders have been disregarded from the League Cup via Kilmarnock after a mystifyingly low-key overall performance from an admittedly new-look Hoops line-up with the likes of Odin Holm, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Maik Nawrocki and Yang Hyun-jun all making an appearance on the plastic pitch at Rugby Park.
The drab 1-1 draw with the equal membership at Parkhead on Saturday saw the champions open the door to lose the No.1 spot in the league 24 hours later to their nearest challengers from Ibrox who beat St Johnstone 3-0 in Perth to go two factors clear with 12 video games to go.
Rodgers is now in direct line of fireplace after failing to preserve a constant hand on the tiller and former Celtic goal hero Chris Sutton used to be speedy to have his say.
In the aftermatch of the stalemate against Killie, the outspoken pundit didn’t hold again as he said: “Let’s get it proper – the end result didn’t come as a excellent shock. Celtic have been bang common all season.
“I understand Brendan was once talking about the recent form and winning eight of the final nine.
“The wins have papered over the cracks, really. Performances haven’t been there. Celtic aren’t kidding everyone – they aren’t a desirable group this season.
“Everyone talks about stuff about the board and signings and this second being a lengthy time in the making. But Brendan Rodgers has to take responsibility.”
Sutton, speaking to Sky Sports, added: “I can’t think of one player this season at Celtic who he has multiplied and that’s on the manager.
“You look at the factors Celtic have dropped domestically. Forget about the Champions League campaign which used to be a disaster. If you simply look at Celtic domestically in isolation, they have been poor.
“I can’t take into account the final time a Celtic crew had been outplayed in halves of football through so many teams as they have been this season. And that’s on Brendan.
“Why is that? We’ve touched on the broad players. It was speedy and livid underneath Ange Postecoglou. The manufacturer of football they are taking part in is slow and predictable.
“There isn’t a fear component at this moment in time. Teams fancy getting a result in opposition to them so the Kilmarnock result wasn’t a great surprise to absolutely everyone and that’s it.”
Rodgers is now experiencing a backlash to a season the place his crew have failed to impress on any type of consistent basis.
He nonetheless has time to regroup and go once more and the boss and his players will come beneath the microscope as soon as more towards Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday.
If Philippe Clement’s aspect beat Hearts at Ibrox the previous day, the champions will begin that recreation five points adrift with no room for error.
Rodgers admitted he appreciated “a challenge”, as CQNreported yesterday.
The Celtic manager in reality has one on his arms now.
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