Inside Brendan Rodgers’ ‘toxic’ Celtic exit: The moment it all started to unravel, clashes with the board over transfers – and why his departure was a storm of his own making

In the summer of 2023, following Ange Postecoglou’s departure to Tottenham, the stars aligned for Brendan Rodgers’ return to Celtic.

The man from Carnlough had won seven trophies out of seven in his first spell in Glasgow, but left under a cloud for Leicester City one February day.

He enjoyed notable success in the Midlands, winning the FA Cup, yet felt regret at the hurt his abrupt departure had caused.

Sacked by the Foxes, Rodgers was back on the shelf. When chief executive Michael Nicholson and finance director Chris McKay flew to meet the Northern Irishman in Spain, they were pushing at an open door.

When Rodgers was unveiled a few days later in Glasgow, there weren’t tens of thousands who greeted his first arrival.

But there were the same old promises. Under him, Celtic were set to make a serious go of it in Europe.

Whatever the 52-year-old promised at that initial meeting, it proved to be far removed from reality.

In his first season, with Mark Lawwell in charge of recruitment, Rodgers was handed a raft of players who he clearly didn’t fancy. Odin Thiago Holm, Kwon Hyeok-kyu and Marco Tilio among them.

After exiting the League Cup to Kilmarnock, Celtic struggled to make an impact in a Champions League group containing Lazio, Atletico Madrid and Feyenoord.

Back-to-back defeats to Hearts and Killie ensured the dark clouds began to gather. It felt a long way removed from Rodgers’ first season, the first time around when his side won the Treble while unbeaten.

In January, the manager’s pleas for significant reinforcements saw him land only Adam Idah on loan and Nicolas Kuhn.

Rodgers said the board needed to be ‘braver’. They won the title after going on a spectacular run and the Scottish Cup yet there was an unmissable sense that he and his paymasters still weren’t on the same page.

That summer saw the same play unfold. With the club again slow to deliver in the transfer market, the manager made emotional public demands for more quality players.

This time, he eventually got his way with £9m spent to sign Idah permanently and a record £11m lavished on Arne Engels.

Celtic were in a better place. In the 2024 calendar year, they lost just two matches — to Hearts and Borussia Dortmund. It seemed like everything had finally clicked into place.

When Celtic took Bayern Munich to the wire in the second leg of their Champions League knock-out tie, it felt like a new standard had been set.

This was what the fans had aspired to. This was why Rodgers had been brought back to the club. It felt like a launch pad. Instead, it was the moment when it all began to unravel.

While the destination of the title was never in doubt due to Rangers’ ongoing issues, Celtic lost to Hibs, St Johnstone and, for the second successive time, to their rivals from Ibrox.

Further draws against Rangers and St. Mirren came before a Scottish Cup meeting with Aberdeen that, for many seemed a foregone conclusion.

Celtic failed to turn up at Hampden and lost on penalties to a team they beat 5-1 at Pittodrie just 10 days previously. Another Treble had slipped through Rodgers’ hands.

A couple of weeks into pre-season, it was clear that all was not well. On the back of Kyogo Furuhashi leaving for Rennes in January, Kuhn became the latest star to move for big money when he signed for Como.

The days ticked by without Celtic signing adequate replacements. Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura were obviously not what Rodgers had in mind.

When a tabloid newspaper claimed Rodgers was effectively stage managing his exit from the club ahead of his contract expiring next summer, he was apoplectic, describing the briefing as a ‘cowardly act’ and demanding that the club launch an investigation. It never materialized.

With the bulk of the fanbase then sympathetic to his plight, he was no loss to diplomacy. Claiming that he’d ‘never tell fans what to do’, he effectively sided with them as demonstrations began.

As long as he could maintain results, he was beyond reproach. But his side slipped out of the Champions League and Celtic shipped 10 points in their opening nine league games.

Sunday’s loss to Hearts came on the back of the previous weekend’s defeat to Dundee, the first at Dens since 1988, with the manager comparing his side to a Honda Civic — a clear dig at the hand he’d been dealt.

He leaves with the club adamant he resigned, but with powerbroker Dermot Desmond accusing him of being ‘divisive, misleading and self-serving’.

Remarkably, his second spell has ended almost as acrimoniously as his first.