Rodgers v Desmond: Analysing the Celtic fallout

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In the meantime, it's worth a close examination of the precise words that came out of Celtic on Monday and how they sat with what we knew or what we thought we knew."Celtic Football Club can confirm that football manager Brendan Rodgers has today tendered his resignation."Nobody really expected Brendan Rodgers to be at Celtic next season, but equally nobody thought that he was about to resign. In August he said all three parties had a conversation "on where we were at and where it sits with myself and everything else and I said I'm very happy here."Rodgers pointed out to the media that "when the club feels there's that time to make an offer then they will do." In September, Rodgers said that hadn't "had an offer yet to think over and until that comes I am not going to be so arrogant to say I want to be here for another three years.

Until there's something serious on a piece of paper, I continue to do my job."Desmond is entitled to ask why Rodgers was publicly saying "the club might not want me here" when, as Desmond claims, Rodgers had already been told in June that he was wanted. It was the beginning - or the continuation - of the breakdown in trust between the board and Rodgers.Last month, an amalgam of Celtic fans' groups called the Celtic Fan Collective had a meeting with some key people at the club and they asked if Rodgers had the final say on all players.

Rodgers has yet to address this."His (Rodgers') later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely out of the blue."This is a curious one because Rodgers had been going on about transfers and club operations for the longest time. The blame is not a one-way street."We all share the same ambition: to ensure Celtic's continued success domestically and to achieve further progress in Europe."There's no doubt that Celtic is full of people who want the best for the club, but Desmond's line about "further progress in Europe" is highly debatable.