For the day that’s in it, two things CAN be true at once.
One year ago today, Celtic’s golfing oligarch defenestrated the Celtic manager’s reputation.
It is worth remembering that Brendan Redux was all Desmond.
A few in the Grey Brigade temporarily woke from their collective cryogenic sleep to back other candidates to replace treble winner Ange.
Indeed, some of them actually warned Desmond about the wisdom of bringing Rodgers back.
However, the man who really DOES have wealth off the radar would hear none of it.
Therefore, something DID happen between Rodgers coming back and THAT statement on the club website.
If things were spotty at the start of season 2025-26, then after Brendan left, it spiralled into mayhem.
It was the season of self-harming for the Hoops, but the club formed by immigrants is no stranger to adversity.
Finally, on May 16th, Hearts fell apart, sending nativists in Fair Caledonia into despair.
When the Desmond statement was made a year ago, I consulted a lawyer here who specialised in defamation cases and asked whether it could be actionable.
The answer I received was that unless the defence was veritas, it almost certainly would be.
Since then, a very well-placed source confirmed to me that this was no stream-of-consciousness rant from Desmond.
Rather, it had been parsed and legaled.
In the statement on the club website, we could see what Don Dermot really thought, unlike at the AGM, when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paradise booed Fredo and let Chairman Lawwell call a halt.
It was a serious own goal as performance art.
Amateur hour.
My information is that the statement Wee Ross was reading was lengthy and grew more incendiary toward the end.
Of course, that isn’t in the public domain, as the booing allowed Lawwell to call a halt ot the proceedings.
Rodgers is back in town next June for an ACSOM event.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a sell-out.
In his head, he might imagine that he is like Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus returning after the Second Punic War.
Or Brendan of Arabia, a quixotic hero after taking Aqaba, preparing to storm the Kerrydale Suite.
What IS clear is that Rodgers was not the source of all of Celtic’s problems.
One year on, my questions remain:
Are the allegations regarding Brendan Rodgers contained within the Desmond statement true?
If they are false, they are undoubtedly defamatory.
Therefore, why has the ex-Celtic manager not sought recourse in law?
Did Brendan Rodgers sign an NDA when he left Celtic a year ago?
If he has, does it have a sunset clause?
Since he left, has Brendan Rodgers been in direct contact with any Celtic player with a view to taking them to his new club?
Those seem pertinent interrogatives.
Meanwhile, one year on, stability and, crucially, unity still elude Celtic.
Moreover, the power structures that hired and then fired Rodgers remain extant.
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