Brendan Rodgers’ potential Celtic return DOESN’T make sense, claims Simon Jordan

Simon Jordan feels that a proposed return to Celtic for Brendan Rodgers doesn’t make sense for either party.

Out of football since being sacked by Leicester in April, the Northern Irishman intended to take a prolonged break from the game with a view to eventually managing abroad.

But Mail Sport’s revelation on Monday that a Celtic delegation flew by private jet to meet the 50-year-old at his home in Mallorca has dramatically shortened the odds on him returning to the club where he won seven straight domestic trophies prior to abruptly leaving for the Foxes in early 2019.

Rodgers guided Leicester to successive fifth-place finishes as well as the 2021 FA Cup only to struggle this season before departing.

But, given Leicester’s subsequent relegation and the acrimonious nature of his sudden exit from Celtic, Mail Sport columnist Jordan fails to see why either party would look to work together again.

Celtic have held talks with former manager Brendan Rodgers over a stunning return to the club

‘Rodgers did a great job at Celtic and in recent times hasn’t done a great job,’ he told talkSPORT. ‘Depends what Brendan Rodgers you’re getting. I would be surprised if that was a route either party wanted to go down.

‘Rodgers was responsible, in part, for Leicester being relegated. Is that good enough for Celtic? You have to be judged on your last job. I don’t think it’s a good fit.’

Questioning the wisdom of Celtic returning for a manager who never replicated the heights of his first season in Glasgow, the ex-Crystal Palace owner added: ‘I don’t think there’s a benefit in going back and you need to move on.

‘It’ll be interesting to see what’s on offer because, after the last 12 months, I don’t think he’ll be a highly sought after commodity for the high echelon clubs.

‘At best for Rodgers, it will be a sideways move from what Leicester were, not what he turned them into.

‘I just think going back to Celtic would create more challenges than solutions. 

Rodgers (left) was sacked by Leicester in April and talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan (right) is unconvinced that a return to Celtic this summer makes sense for either party

Rodgers will sit down with Celtic’s major shareholder Dermot Desmond to discuss a return

‘Winning things makes people happy but I’d be surprised economically. It doesn’t seem to be a fit in terms of salary and where he thinks he should be managing.

‘He went to Scotland to come back to the Premier League. It’s a very strange dynamic to say: “I’ll skulk back to Scotland to give myself another opportunity to come back to the league that I actually want to manage in”.’

Jordan doesn’t doubt that Celtic’s interest in hiring Rodgers again is genuine. Given that chief executive Michael Nicholson and finance director Chris McKay took the trouble to fly to the Spanish island for talks, he feels an agreement between the club and its former manager can’t be out of the question.

‘If these guys have got a private jet… no one is that narcissistic that they want someone to get on a private jet and fly out so they can tell them what they could’ve told them on the phone,’ he said.