In the summer of 2023, Brendan Rodgers made a highly anticipated return to Celtic following Ange Postecoglou’s move to Tottenham.

Rodgers, hailing from Carnlough, had previously led Celtic to a clean sweep of seven trophies during his initial tenure in Glasgow. However, his sudden departure for Leicester City left many fans feeling betrayed.

While at Leicester, Rodgers achieved significant success, notably securing an FA Cup victory. Despite those triumphs, he harbored regrets about the manner of his abrupt exit from Celtic.

When Rodgers was reintroduced to the Glasgow faithful, the fanfare was more subdued than during his initial arrival. Nevertheless, the commitment to steer Celtic towards European success was as strong as ever.

Despite the assurances given to Rodgers upon his return, the reality of the situation soon proved to be quite different from what had been promised.

Brendan Rodgers has endured a poor start to the season as Celtic’s off-field troubles escalated

Desmond has come out fighting in defence of the Celtic board with an extraordinary statement

Celtic’s defence react in horror after Dane Murray’s own goal paved the way for Hearts’ victory

Whatever the 52-year-old was promised at that initial meeting, it proved to far removed from the reality.

In his first season, with Mark Lawwell in charge of recruitment, Rodgers was handed a raft of players who he clearly didn’t fancy. Odin Thiago Holm, Kwon Hyeok-kyu and Marco Tilio among them.

After exiting the League Cup to Kilmarnock, Celtic struggled to make an impact in a Champions League group containing Lazio, Atletico Madrid and Feyenoord.

Back-to-back defeats to Hearts and Killie ensured the dark clouds started the gather. It felt a long way removed from Rodgers’ first season, first time around when his side won the Treble while unbeaten.

In the January, the manager’s pleas for significant reinforcements saw him land only Adam Idah on loan and Nicolas Kuhn.

Rodgers said the board needed to be ‘braver’. They won the title after going on a spectacular run and the Scottish Cup yet there was an unmissable sense that he and his paymasters still weren’t on the same page.

Celtic’s Champions League play-off defeat to Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan was embarrassing

That summer saw the same play unfold. With the club again slow to deliver in the transfer market, the manager made emotional public demands for more quality players.

This time, he eventually got his way with £9m spent to sign Idah permanently and a record £11m lavished on Arne Engels.

Celtic were in a better place. In the 2024 calendar year, they lost just two matches — to Hearts and Borussia Dortmund. It seemed like everything had finally clicked into place.

When Celtic took Bayern Munich to the wire in the second leg of their Champions League knock-out tie, it felt like a new standard had been set.

This was what the fans had aspired to. This was why Rodgers had been brought back to the club. It felt like a launchpad. Instead, it was the moment when it all began to unravel.

While the destination of the title was never in doubt due to Rangers’ ongoing issues, Celtic lost to Hibs, St Johnstone and, for the second successive time, to their rivals from Ibrox.

The Celtic fans have been united in their contempt of the club’s board this season

Further draws against Rangers and St Mirren came before a Scottish Cup meeting with Aberdeen that, for many seemed a foregone conclusion.

Celtic failed to turn up at Hampden and lost on penalties to a team they beat 5-1 at Pittodrie just 10 days previously. Another Treble had slipped through Rodgers’ hands.

A couple of weeks into pre-season, it was clear that all was not well. On the back of Kyogo Furuhashi leaving for Rennes in the January, Kuhn became the latest star to move for big money when he signed for Como.

The days ticked by without Celtic signing adequate replacements. Shin Yamada and Hayato Inamura were evidently not what Rodgers had in mind.

When a tabloid newspaper claimed Rodgers was effectively stage managing his exit from the club ahead of his contract expiring next summer, he was apoplectic, describing the briefing as a ‘cowardly act’ and demanding that the club launched an investigation. It never materialised.

With the bulk of the fanbase then sympathetic to his plight, he was no loss to diplomacy. Claiming that he’d ‘never tell fans what to do’, he effectively sided with them as demonstrations began.

Alexandros Kyziridis scores Hearts’ second in what proved to be Rodgers’ last game in charge

As long as he could maintain results, he was beyond reproach. But his side slipped out of the Champions League and Celtic shipped 10 points in their opening nine league games. 

Sunday’s loss to Hearts came on the back of the previous weekend’s defeat to Dundee, the first at Dens since 1988, with the manager comparing his side to a Honda Civic — a clear dig at the hand he’d been dealt.

He leaves with the club adamant he resigned, but with powerbroker Dermot Desmond accusing him of being ‘divisive, misleading and self-serving’.

Remarkably, his second spell has ended almost as acrimoniously as his first.