Chris Sutton admits Brendan Rodgers’ exit from Celtic seemed ‘inevitable’

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton described Brendan Rodgers’ departure as “inevitable” amid a breakdown in relations with the club hierarchy.

Celtic announced their manager had resigned on Monday night, while principal shareholder Dermot Desmond delivered a scathing assessment of a man who guided the club to 11 trophies over two spells in charge.

Rodgers had clearly infuriated Desmond with public comments over the club’s transfer dealings and the Irish businessman unleashed his thoughts in a lengthy statement on Celtic’s official website.

Sutton told Sky Sports News: “It’s probably the best thing for the club if the relationship was that bad. It seemed to be that bad.

“It all really stems from before the start of the season when Brendan went public and was critical about the lack of quality coming into the club. And I think he felt let down by that.

“Celtic get knocked out of the Champions League qualifier, it’s been a really slow start to the season, they’ve lost quality players in the recent past and haven’t replaced them. And I think he felt he wasn’t backed.

“When there’s a relationship breakdown, which there clearly has been between Brendan and the club hierarchy, then it’s inevitable something would have to give and Brendan has ended up walking away.

“I think everybody suspected that things weren’t right. But look, I mean, let’s also get it right – the board are not blameless in this whole situation because Celtic were in a really strong position when you go back to the earlier part of this year.

“Celtic nearly knocked Bayern Munich out of the Champions League and the club was on a bit of a high competing at Champions League level.

“And then I think that everybody expected the club, albeit losing quality players, to go quite strong in the summer in terms of player recruitment. That didn’t happen.

“Brendan Rodgers was unhappy about that and the start of the season has been really woeful. Celtic are in a position where their front line is a shadow of what it was in the recent past. Eight points behind Hearts, the club is in a bit of a pickle.”

Sutton backed his former manager, Martin O’Neill, to deliver some form of togetherness after the 73-year-old was handed the reins on an interim basis alongside Shaun Maloney.

“I understand the appointment of Martin because he’s a very popular manager,” said Sutton.

“He is loved by the supporters. They’ve got a figurehead. He will go in and try and do what he did first time round of trying to galvanise the club and he’ll try and bring the support and everybody, the staff at the club and the club hierarchy, pulling in the same direction.”

Sutton, who backed Ange Postecoglou as a “smart appointment” for a long-term basis, added: “But there will still be a large undercurrent amongst the fan base who will still not be happy about the situation with regards to what has happened in the summer. And I think they felt let down by the board themselves.”

Kilmarnock manager Stuart Kettlewell was “genuinely shocked” to hear of Rodgers’ departure.

The former Motherwell boss added: “All I can say is it’s a man in Brendan Rodgers that has been nothing but absolute class any time I’ve crossed paths with him. Be it exchanging the odd message here and there, be it coming in and properly giving you his time after games of football.

“He’s a first-class manager and he’s always come across a first-class human being.”