Thursday 28 February 2019 16:43, UK
Brendan Rodgers has left Celtic for Leicester - but how will he be remembered at Parkhead?
Rodgers led the club to a double-treble in his first two seasons, having won the Scottish Premiership without suffering defeat in his opening campaign. However, he has returned to the Premier League to join Leicester, despite Celtic being on course for an historic treble-treble.
Sky Sports News reporter Charles Paterson looks back over Rodgers' time in charge and considers his legacy in Scotland…
What state were Celtic in when Rodgers joined in 2016?
As a club, Celtic were drifting a bit when Rodgers arrived. Rangers were not in the top flight, but Celtic had lost to them in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup the previous season under Ronny Deila and that was a wake-up call for the board. They realised that if they did not act then they could soon be caught. That game was a tipping point when they realised that Deila was not going to be the long-term solution and they needed to get a bigger name in.
When the negotiations were going on and Celtic were trying to bring Rodgers in, there was a little bit of disquiet that they could actually get him, that the job was big enough for him. Rodgers obviously realised Celtic would be good for him to rebuild his credentials and his career, and the club knew they needed a big name manager to make a statement. So it was a perfect marriage in some respects.
He immediately changed a lot of things behind the scenes. The players, physically, were not fit. He's taken his strength and conditioning coach with him to Leicester and that is no coincidence because he is a great believer in his players being optimally fit. He immediately had to improve that. He improved the sports science, he was not afraid to make big decisions in terms of some players and he brought in players such as Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele.
There was this impression of a higher professionalism and mentality which was immediately apparent. Celtic went on this incredible domestic run and it became clear at the same time they were untouchable. He had made decent players better; he had lifted their levels.
He is the arguably the best coach to have worked in Scottish football in recent times, in terms of what he does on the training ground. He's got meticulous planning in terms of his strategy; as a result, the players were fitter, their roles seemed to be more defined and suddenly Celtic's players all seemed to be better.
It snowballed - an unstoppable wave. At the same time Rodgers was saying all the right things, telling the world he was a Celtic fan, this was his dream job… There was a joke he had come to preach about how Scottish football could all be improved with him here - but it was. No one has ever had an invincible season in Scotland and it will probably never happen again. So he has left a mark domestically, in that context.
From a European point of view he immediately created an improvement by getting into the Champions League group stages. Celtic had failed to do that previously under Deila. It helps when your main rival - Rangers - is in turmoil, but Celtic just stretched away and won the title by the end of March. The first season was total dominance.
After the initial success, how did he deliver the second treble?
Celtic were never going to have another invincible season, and their level inevitably dropped. But to win two trebles back to back had never been done. It was a hard slog for them at times and there was some disquiet they were not improving in Europe but domestically they achieved another clean sweep.
This time last year was almost Rodgers' peak, because to keep that continuity going was very challenging. It was an achievement to be able to do that. It helped the opposition had not moved forward and that Rangers were imploding last season. But the impact was still there.
But there was a key moment at the end of that 2017/18 season…
I think it was Gordon Strachan who said there's a shelf life to doing an Old Firm job and it is usually about three or four years. Strachan lasted four years. Martin O'Neill lasted five years. Neil Lennon did four years. So Rodgers gets to two years and he's already thinking: 'what's next?'
The big question at that stage was, what would Celtic do in the summer? How would they push on? They did not sign any of his targets.
Rodgers had been linked with the Arsenal job, which of course never came to fruition, then there was an offer on the table from China and he was interested in that. In hindsight, you look at it now and you think his head was turned.
The ambition of Celtic was not matching the ambition of the manager, and we have reached this point, with him leaving for Leicester. But that's where it began.
How have Celtic performed this season, with the increased competition from, among others, Steven Gerrard's Rangers?
Celtic have dropped their level this season. Rangers actually are not more than a few points better off than they were last season. You could argue Celtic have been distracted by Rodgers' situation, though they were never going to maintain the levels they showed in their first season.
Steven Gerrard has come in and revitalised Rangers as a club, but on the pitch they have dropped a lot of points. Celtic, though, have fallen back towards the pack. It's not that the challengers are catching up, it's that Celtic have been treading water and arguably slipping their standards from Rodgers' first season.
Rodgers wanted John McGinn. They didn not get him. He wanted Cristiano Piccini from Sporting Lisbon, he went to Valencia. They then went out of the Champions League qualifiers when they should not have lost to AEK Athens, and Rodgers was annoyed about the situation and went public about it.
At that point, he was already looking for a way out because he's thinking 'what more can I achieve?'
When Rangers were out of the league, there was a realisation at Celtic that they could dominate for many years and get close to winning 10 titles in a row. But Rodgers was not obsessed with 10 in a row. Rodgers was more concerned with his next challenge. He clearly did not regard 10 in a row as a priority.
What state does he leave Celtic in?
What happens in the summer is unclear, in terms of ins and outs. If Celtic get a bid for Kieran Tierney or Odsonne Edouard they may be unable to turn down, that would pretty much set up the transfer window. They do not know who the manager will be beyond the end of May, but Lennon has an audition to take it on long term. He is the safest pair of hands they could have entrusted and it is fortunate for Celtic he is available now.
He ensures continuity, as someone who knows and understands the club is in charge. As for the rest of the season, I would be very surprised if they do anything other but win the league. The cup is a lottery at times, but they have got to be favourites to win the treble.
Gerrard and Rangers have been good this season and they are not going away, but Celtic's investment level is so much higher. The question of who becomes the manager perhaps is not as important as what the club will do in terms of selling and buying players.
They are not going to go out and spend £10m on a player unless they think they can get double that back. Edouard was a club-record signing from PSG for £9m, and that appears about as far as Celtic will ever go in terms of splashing the cash.
For all his success, Rodgers critics will point to his struggles in Europe. Is that fair?
Rodgers never had a marquee result. Gordon Strachan beat AC Milan and Manchester United. Neil Lennon beat Barcelona and reached the last 16 of the Champions League. Rodgers never had that.
Celtic got smashed by PSG and Barcelona under Rodgers. There was justifiable criticism he was not prepared to change his tactics or be more pragmatic in Europe. Lennon is arguably more tactically flexible than Rodgers, and prepared to adapt; this vision Celtic could play the way he wanted them to was not realistic with regards to European competition.
Celtic had a chance against Valencia in the last fortnight in the Europa League to make a statement in Europe, and ended up producing a whimper of a performance. Rodgers said he was proud of them after the second leg, but they did not even score a goal in the tie. He will justifiably be criticised for his lack of impact in Europe.
He raked in a lot of money, though, because they got to the group stage of the Champions League twice and reached the knockouts of the Europa League twice. His problem was the gap between Celtic and the teams they were beating 10 years ago under Strachan is now astronomical.
Celtic have gone from buying £5m players to players who are worth £8m or £9m. The other clubs have gone from buying players who were worth £15m to players who are costing £40m and beyond. Celtic can't compete because they do not have the financial backing, and the board are not prepared to put the money in and risk the financial future of the club. So the remit of the club more than ever is to identify at a young age, develop and then sell.
So how will Rodgers' time at Celtic be remembered in years to come?
He is one of the best coaches to have worked in Scottish football, there's no doubt about it. He will not be regarded as the greatest Celtic manager of all time, but he achieved something no other Celtic manager has - an invincible season and a double-treble.
While Celtic fans presented a banner criticising him in the match with Hearts, I think, down the line, they will appreciate they had a coach who was right up there as one of the best in the country, if not the world. They were lucky to have him here. Rodgers' absence will be felt - but he's made his move away based on his own interests.
