Just a few months after a double-winning season, making it four titles in a row and taking Bayern Munich all the way in the Champions League knockouts, the club ended up in crisis. Manager Brendan Rodgers walked out on the club after a row with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond, sending shockwaves across world football. Club legend Martin O'Neill, who had been a pundit for the last six years and is now 74 years old, took the reins temporarily in yet another surprise development to this incredible story.
But how did Celtic get into such a situation, and what happened next? It was at 9.44pm on Monday, October 27, 2025, that Celtic released a statement on their website entitled, 'Brendan Rodgers leaves Celtic Football Club'. It was just five paragraphs long, announcing that Rodgers had handed in his resignation and the club had accepted it.
It also revealed that former boss O'Neill was taking over on an interim basis with Shaun Maloney, while they began the process to appoint a permanent manager. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player This shock news came on the back of Celtic's 3-1 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle the day before, which meant they trailed the Edinburgh club by eight points in the title race. Rodgers had become increasingly frustrated with the board and had been very vocal about it.
The Irishman had hoped the club would build on the success of the previous season which saw them go toe-to-toe with Europe's elite in the Champions League - making it out of the league phase and then very nearly knocking Bayern Munich out in the play-offs. This time, Celtic had a qualifying play-off against Kairat Almaty to negotiate to reach the Champions League. The club had made £75m from the previous season's Champions League exploits.
There was plenty of cash and Rodgers was expecting investment. The fans demanded investment. But Celtic went into the tie with Kairat still without replacements for Kyogo Furuhashi, who was sold to Rennes in January 2025 for £10m, and Nicolas Kuhn, who left for Como that summer for £16.5m.
They were beaten by the Kazakh side on penalties. They then also sold Adam Idah, leaving them with just one first team striker - Daizen Maeda - at the club after the summer transfer window. This sparked mass protests against the board at games and Rodgers appeared to feel vindicated to speak out also about his frustrations with the lack of reinforcements in key areas, where players had departed.
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