It was one of the most shocking nights of news in Celtic’s modern history.

Brendan Rodgers stunned Scottish football by stepping down as Parkhead boss less than a week after saying that he had ‘never been more committed’ to delivering his ‘categoric’ promise of seeing out his contract. It was the first resignation of his managerial career.

It was coupled with the stunning news that Martin O’Neill would replace him, over 20 years on from his legendary first spell in charge. If that wasn’t enough, an explosive statement from Dermot Desmond dropped at 10PM, labelling Rodgers ‘self-serving’, ‘misleading’ and contributing to a ‘toxic atmosphere’ at the club.

Despite many anticipating some kind of public response from Rodgers since, nothing has been forthcoming — leaving his reputation at the club as mixed as ever.

Brendan Rodgers and a mixed Celtic reputation

Rodgers is the most decorated living Celtic manager. His immediate impact upon arrival in 2016 transformed the domestic status quo in Scotland.

By winning a treble in both of his first two seasons, including a historic invincible domestic campaign unprecedented in Scottish football history, he immediately matched Jock Stein’s total.

Just months away from making it a Treble Treble in 2019, he made the shock decision to leave the club for Leicester City mid-season. This took a sledgehammer to his reputation among many in the Parkhead fanbase.

A large section of the Hoops support struggled to forgive Rodgers for his perceived blindsiding of the club. When news emerged that he was in talks to return four years later, this complicated matters.

Rodgers openly said upon his return that whilst he didn’t regret his decision to leave, he did regret the ‘hurt that it caused’. He infamously vowed at his first press conference that he could ‘guarantee’ that he would see out his three-year contract, unless he was ’emptied’ by the board.

The Irishman oversaw another successful period, winning the league and Scottish Cup double in his first campaign back. Much more significant was the following season, which saw Rodgers finally overcome a hurdle he had previously struggled with by making an impact in Europe.

Celtic went unbeaten at home in the League Phase of the Champions League to book their place in the knockout stage for the first time in 12 years. There, they competed neck-and-neck with Bayern Munich for 180 minutes, being eliminated by an injury-time winner in Bavaria.

Simultaneously on the domestic front, Celtic played some outrageously good football and won the title at a canter, coming within a penalty shootout of winning a fifth treble in eight years.

Ahead of a 2025-26 season which promised so much, things came crashing down spectacularly. Internal disputes over transfers were amplified by Rodgers’ comments about feeling ’empty’ and working with a ‘Honda Civic’, and a disastrous Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty constituted the biggest crisis moment of either of his two tenures.

Things only got uglier as the manager was briefed against in the media by senior club sources, publicly slamming the individuals as ‘cowardly’ and calling on them to resign. The emergence of the Celtic Fans Collective represented the biggest mobilisation of disgruntled Hoops supporters since the club’s near-extinction in the 1990s, and Rodgers refused to toe the club’s line in denouncing them.

The central motivation behind Rodgers’ return to Parkhead in 2023 was to decomplicate his reputation among the support. By going back on his word with a sudden resignation amid internal tensions, he made it more complicated than ever.

Some in the support have firmly sided with Rodgers in a dispute with an increasingly-unpopular hierarchy. Others see him as a successful if dishonest manager who ended both of his spells with acts of dishonesty.

Whichever side you land on depends on your wider opinion on what it means to be a Celtic supporter or manager. Rodgers lived and died by this sword.