The emerging sleekit myth that Brendan Rodgers doesn’t develop players

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The Celtic Star

·22 septembre 2025

The emerging sleekit myth that Brendan Rodgers doesn’t develop players

Whether you want evolution or revolution there is disruption at Celtic right now. We all know it. We all see it. The protests against the board and the emergence of the Celtic Fans Collective, after the straw from Kairat that finally broke the camel’s back after years of incredible patience from the Celtic support.

Celtic fan protest. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

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And as that storm brews, there’s a vocal minority who seem determined to direct the ire elsewhere, sniping from the socials and the comment sections, deriding Brendan Rodgers, by fair means at times, but also by foul. Some of it has merit. Some of it is a convenient squirrel, a distraction, perhaps shifting direction from those watching their phones in the soft seats while the protests grow louder.

The Celtic Board. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

By all means question the manager’s tactics. Rodgers himself, along with his captain, has admitted that the latest Champions League exit owed as much to those on the pitch as those tasked with drawing the plan. That’s fair game. You may not like how he airs our dirty linen in public. Again fair enough, that’s understandable. The 2025 record against the latest club out of Ibrox, certainly worth debating.

However, one charge is getting tired, the claim that Brendan Rodgers does not improve players. That he is a plug-and-play coach who needs finished articles to make his football work. Whilst other criticisms are all part of the debate that surrounds Celtic, that one lacks substance.

Daizen Maeda poses with his Scottish Premiership winners medal after the season s final league match against St. Mirren on May 17, 2025. Photo IMAGO

Did Daizen Maeda ever look capable of a thirty-goal season, or becoming a £20m plus Bundesliga target before Rodgers returned? Did Liam Scales look like anything more than heading for the exit, never mind a starter, until this manager got to grips with him?

Under which manager has James Forrest flourished across two different eras, proving it isn’t just the kids that Rodgers can coax more from? Who helped turn Matt O’Riley from a creative assister into a £25m midfielder with a taste for goals?

Nicolas Kuhn scores 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)

Who added the edge to Nicolas Kühn, a player who six months in looked worth far less than the £2.5m Celtic paid, but twelve months later was Serie A-bound for £17m after a Champions League season of real renown?

Then there’s Reo Hatate, the perfect example of Rodgers’ subtle touch. Always talented but often running on empty too soon, unable to last ninety minutes and blowing hard by the hour mark. Last season, until injury at Pittodrie, he played every game. Resilience and stamina built in. But that’s not the manager, right?

Colby Donovan in action during Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup tie. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

And what of the youngsters? Colby Donovan didn’t look like a kid merely filling gaps caused by injuries yesterday, he looked like a player progressing. Dane Murray, once hampered by injuries and low confidence, now stands as an all-too-rare academy success story, a physical specimen and now looking first team ready.

Dane Murray of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s third goal during the Premier Sports League Cup match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on August 15, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Viljami Sinisalo, signed for £1m as a back-up after a loan spell in the boon-docks at Exeter City, now looks prepared, probably a season or more ahead of schedule, to challenge Kasper Schmeichel and save the club a fortune on a new number one.

Of course, there are cases where the magic doesn’t sparkle. With Adam Idah he couldn’t quite smooth the edges, Kyogo arguably regressed, Arne Engels – he”s younger than Dane Murray – has been somewhat static, but to claim Rodgers doesn’t improve players is blatantly inaccurate.

He has his failings, all coaches do. No one is perfect. If you want to criticise the manager, there are fair and balanced targets, some of which he’s held his hand up to. But this? This is unfair.

Stuart Armstrong of Celtic celebrates scoring during the Scottish Premiership match between Hearts and Celtic at Tynecastle on April 2, 2017. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Because just as he did with Stuart Armstrong, revitalising Scott Sinclair, turning Dedryck Boyata from bomb-scare to international defender starring at the World Cup, and more besides in his first spell, Rodgers is once again making players better in his second. If he occasionally asks for a finished article, it’s probably because he feels he’s earned it—earned it with the transfer fees he’s generated, with the Champions League progression that filled last season’s coffers.

Sebastian Tounekti during the Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

And he’s not finished. Already you can see the next wave. Kelechi Iheanacho is being brought up to speed. Seb Tounekti is already adding the end product the scouts said he lacked, fuelled by Rodgers’ trademark arm-around-the-shoulder and touchline interview encouragements. Man manager and coach in equal measure.

It’s not all Brendan Rodgers, of course. His coaching staff play their huge part, the players themselves too, with their dedication to improve. But there is a common denominator here, the man in the dug-out.

If the basics are there, he will use those foundations and build. Give him a promising league talent and he will turn a significant percentage into a Europa League player. Give him a Europa League player and he’ll strive to lift him to Champions League level.

Arne Engels with Brendan Rodgers at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Yes, there will be misses, but the hits will outnumber them, if the foundation level is there and the buy-in too.

If Celtic can simply get the base level of recruitment right, the profit will pour in, alongside the footballing progression and on filed success. The churn of dross will also drop away markedly.

And if Rodgers asks for the odd experienced head to help finish his coaching work on the pitch, players who teach the youngsters how to hang in, how to dig each other out of a hole, then how about we give him that instead of using such demands as a stick to beat him? He’s earned it, far more than he’s earned the misplaced and questionable criticism for a charge he shouldn’t even have to answer.

Kelechi Iheanacho celebrates with Brendan Rodgers at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

To borrow a quote from Good Will Hunting – “You’re not perfect, sport, and let me save you the suspense, this girl you’ve met, she’s not perfect either. But the question is whether or not you’re perfect for each other”.

Brendan Rodgers is not perfect, nor is he a miracle worker. But he is a coach who invests in those who invest in him, a manager who turns potential into performance, a builder of players and of teams. There are however some who would rather we didn’t recognise that, who want us to believe he is a chequebook manager. And that’s where the real problem lies.

Niall J

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