The Silent Saboteur: Who’s Betraying Celtic from Inside?
The anonymous 'coward' who ran to the media to brief against Brendan Rodgers is an enemy within our club. Looking to serve his own agenda while stabbing Celtic in the back and trying to stoke division
Brendan Rodgers has openly condemned the ‘faceless coward’ within Celtic’s own ranks who had been leaking information to the newspapers in an attempt to undermine the Celtic manager.
Rodgers described the insider’s behaviour as cowardly and dishonest, criticising the damage the leaks were to the club and to the unity that is required within the club after a summer that saw the squad weakened, a humiliating failure to qualify for the Champions League, fans protesting & now in full on ‘overthrow the board’ mode, and a board that has remained silent throughout.
But who is this anonymous coward? Who is choosing disloyalty and secrecy over transparency and support at a critical time for Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic team? Who is this silent saboteur who is choosing his own agenda rather than that of Celtic Football Club?
Likewise, as Rodgers and captain Callum McGregor face the media onslaught and fan anger - where is the Celtic board in all of this? They have remained silent throughout. Choosing to hide behind the walls of the boardroom, sending out a uncredited statement that lacked accountability and transparency which poured more fuel onto the fire. Their refusal to publicly address the mounting fan unrest to clear the air after a summer of failure is not only a betrayal of the manager and the players, but to the supporters themselves. The life blood of the club.
And while fans demand clarity, responsibility, and proper leadership from the hierarchy at the club - the silence, the secrecy, and above all the cowardly acts must come to an end if the club are to recover from its most damning period since the club was close to entering administration in 1994.
As we face Kilmarnock this weekend, and Celtic fans are set to hold a protest at Rugby Park, the players and the manager remain vulnerable to distraction on the pitch and must somehow focus on the job at hand - putting Kilmarnock to the sword and remaining top of the league.
So who is the Coward & the Silent Saboteur?
If you listen to Rodgers’ comments and even read back through the transcript and the quotes - there is a not so subtle clue as to who the Celtic manager believes or knows is behind this cowardly act. In what I believe is going to be Rodgers’ last season at the club.
Despite no name being checked in the report by the Scottish Sun, Rodgers name checked a number of board members and the relationship he has with them.
Rodgers said: "My honest take is I thought it was a cowardly action by whoever it is. It's not something you'd want. Certainly my relationships with the guys, I am close with here within the board, I would struggle to understand why.
"All I've tried to do is drive the club forward. Was I surprised by it? Not really. I'm thick skinned and it's because I want to do so well here. I'm determined.
"I know Dermot [Desmond], Michael [Nicholson], the guys I work with on a daily basis, certainly communicate on a daily basis, feel the same."
Following up his comments, Rodgers was asked if the person who was trying to sabotage him should resign. The Celtic manager added: "I don't think there's any doubt.
"If you're sat in the position that I'm in with the weight of the club on your shoulders to be the spokesperson, to be the manager, be the psychologist and be everything, it's so important you feel supported.
"I'm pretty sure there will be some questioned asked on it as, like I said, there was quite a bit of detail in there - and wrong I may add."
Clearly the person who ran to the Scottish Sun, has to be in a position of power at the club. Even more so to pull the veil of secrecy and anonymity over his identity down on the newspaper’s Head of Sport, Roger Hannah.
Hannah, who is a frequent panellist of Clyde Superscoreboard, isn’t coy about his links to members of the hierarchy of clubs across Scottish Football. So who has enough power and standing to force Roger Hannah to remain tight lipped on his ‘Celtic insider’? Who did Rodgers fail to name check in his presser? Who was at the club during Rodgers’ first stint and who has helped to sow division before for his own ends?
It is quite clear in my mind that the silent saboteur, that the coward who ran to the Scottish Sun, the man who wields enough power at the club to influence things despite his position, is none other than former CEO and current Chairman Peter Lawwell.
Lawwell is the man that Rodgers failed to name check. Lawwell is the only man - other than Dermot Desmond [the man who Rodgers credits for his return to the club] - who holds enough power at Celtic Park and standing withing the Scottish game to make sure that Roger Hannah keeps quiet. Lawwell is one of only two men who holds enough power over CEO Michael Nicholson - a man he mentored and moulded for the role that he vacated in 2021 after Celtic blew 10-in-a-row under Neil Lennon.
This Celtic board must be removed from the club, but Peter Lawwell must be the first whose head must roll. Only then can we start to have a board whose ambitions, whose leadership, whose backing is 100?% about Celtic Football Club and not to fuel their own ego, their own agenda.