Box-office Brendan Rodgers sells out Royal Concert Hall, here’s what might happen | OneFootball

Box-office Brendan Rodgers sells out Royal Concert hall for Celtic fan media event next June. Here’s what might happen…

Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, applauds prior to the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between FC Bayern München and Celtic FC at Allianz Arena on February 18, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

Yesterday morning ACSOM host Paul John Dykes announced that his Celtic fan media outlet would be staging an evening with the former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. It is certainly a major achievement for the popular Celtic podcast and events company and one that reflects well on the entire Celtic fan media.

The size of the venue, the Royal Concert Hall at the top of Buchanan Street in Glasgow, with a capacity of around 2000 may well have been seen as daunting for the ASCOM team but instead the tickets have sold out almost as fast as the Oasis tickets for Celtic Park.

Those concerts will take place just a few weeks before Brendan is back in town to have his say on his time at Celtic and in particular the final few months, his resignation and the controversial statement put out by minority shareholder and non-executive director Dermot Desmond.

Here’s a reminder what Dermot Desmond posted on the official Celtic FC website on just before 10pm on 27 October 2025…

Dermot Desmond during the ProAm ahead of The Senior Tour Open Championship played at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club on July 25, 2017 in Bridgend, Wales. (Photo by Phil Inglis/Getty Images)

Statement from Dermot Desmond to Celtic supporters

Brendan Rodgers has today tendered his resignation as manager of Celtic Football Club.

I want to acknowledge Brendan’s contribution across his two spells as Manager, during which he helped deliver success that forms part of the club’s modern history. However, I must also express my deep disappointment at the way the past several months have unfolded.

When we brought Brendan back to Celtic two years ago, it was done with complete trust and belief in his ability to lead the club into a new era of sustained success. Unfortunately, his conduct and communication in recent months have not reflected that trust.

In June, both Michael Nicholson and I expressed to Brendan that we were keen to offer him a contract extension, to reaffirm the club’s full backing and long-term commitment to him. He said he would need to think about it and revert. Yet in subsequent press conferences, Brendan implied that the club had made no commitment to offer him a contract. That was simply untrue.

We met with Brendan regularly, including in December last year and at the start of the summer, with regular dialogue in between, to discuss and agree our collective strategy, priorities, and approach. Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan’s full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false.

His later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely out of the blue. At no point prior to those remarks had he raised any such concerns with me, Michael, or any member of the Board or executive team. In reality, he was given final say over all football matters and was consistently backed in the recruitment process — including record investment in players he personally identified and approved.

When his comments were made publicly, I sought to address them directly. Brendan and I met for over three hours at his home in Scotland to discuss the issue. Despite ample opportunity, he was unable to identify a single instance where the club had obstructed or failed to support him. The facts did not match his public narrative.

Regrettably, his words and actions since then have been divisive, misleading, and self-serving. They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the Board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable.

Every member of the Board and executive team is deeply passionate about Celtic and acts at all times with professionalism, integrity, and a shared desire for success. What has failed recently was not due to our structure or model, but to one individual’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others.

Celtic’s structure — where the manager oversees football, the Chief Executive manages operations, and the Board provides oversight — has served the club with great success for more than two decades. We all share the same ambition: to ensure Celtic’s continued success domestically and to achieve further progress in Europe. Every pound generated by the club is reinvested towards those goals and the continuous improvement of Celtic Football Club.

Celtic is greater than any one person. Our focus now is on restoring harmony, strengthening the squad, and continuing to build a club worthy of its values, traditions, and supporters.

Dermot Desmond

Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, reacts during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between FC Bayern München and Celtic FC at Allianz Arena on February 18, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

Anonymous Celtic insider briefed against Rodgers in The Scottish Sun

Early in that season Brendan Rodgers was briefed against via the Scottish Sun newspaper by a so-called Celtic insider in what was a cowardly attack on a manager who had won seven trophies in his first and four in his second spell as Celtic manager and earlier that year had restored hope that Celtic could once again compete at the top table of European football in the Champions League.

Nicolas Kuehn of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between FC Bayern München and Celtic FC at Allianz Arena on February 18, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

That hope was effectively dashed by the inaction of the Celtic Board, led by Dermot Desmond, in the summer 2025 transfer window.

Rodgers continually stated that he would see out his three year contract but after defeats at Dens Park and Tynecastle he called a meeting with the club looking to build bridges and see out the season successfully while looking at adding some much needed new signings in the January window.

That seemingly didn’t go down well and his offer to resign was quickly accepted before Dermot Desmond rushed to release the statement shown above.

Arne Engels of West Ham United is challenged by Conor Coventry of Charlton Athletic during the Sky Bet Championship 2026/27 match between West Ham United and Charlton Athletic at London Stadium on August 22, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by James Fearn/Getty Images)

Rodgers simply wanted the best for Celtic

Brendan Rodgers simply wanted the best for Celtic on and off the park. He wanted to compete in the Champions League. One of the arguments used against him for that was that his record in the transfer market was suspect with the club record of £11m being spent on Arne Engels proof of that.

Engels subsequently joined West Ham for an initial £22m with significant adding believed to be worth another £5m.

Celtic FC coach Brendan Rodgers looks on before the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD3 match between Atalanta BC and Celtic FC at Stadio di Bergamo on October 23, 2024 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Rodgers has maintained his silence since leaving Celtic

There will be plenty of important questions for ACSOM to ask Brendan Rodgers and it is significant that he will be speaking directly to Celtic supporters, bypassing the control of the club completely.  Brendan walked away with dignity and his head held high and has remained silent ever since. There was always going to be a time when he had his say and this could be it.

The ACSOM event may be the one and only place where Rodgers goes to have say and if that is the case fair enough. However the Invincible Celtic manager may well be planning a series of media events around that time when a new Celtic manager will be incoming and the transfer window open.

Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hearts at Celtic Park on May 04, 2024 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

A new Celtic manager in the door and the summer transfer window open for business

Brendan may well point to this and note that Martin O’Neill was also let down the summer after him, saying as a result Martin’s LASK was his Kairat Almaty.  However he can reasonably note that the fault does not lie with the two hugely successful Celtic managers but by the man who released that rant of a statement on the official Celtic FC website last October.

Then Brendan can leave it to the Celtic supporter to decide and he can put it all behind him with his head held high and his reputation defended.

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Celtic in the Fifties by Matt Corr, in two volumes, both published on 4th September 2026 by Celtic Star Books. Click on image to order.

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