Enzo Maresca’s stunning success at Leicester City continues to show Celtic what they are missing as Brendan Rodgers comes under pressure at the Scottish Premiership giants.
Considering the manner in which he left Parkhead back in 2019, Brendan Rodgers will have known that sympathy would be in short supply if his shock return to Glasgow turned sour.
And as Celtic went down 2-0 at home to Hearts on Saturday, the reigning champions losing successive Premiership games for the first time in 10 years, the jeers betrayed a fanbase disillusioned, pining for Ange Postecoglou, and concerned about the rise of Rangers under Philippe Clement.
“Don’t think Brendan Rodgers has the stomach for the challenge at Celtic,” former Premiership defender Tam McManus wrote on X after that Hearts humiliation. “Just doesn’t feel right this time around.
“He had massive shoes to fill in Ange, and looks miles off getting near the previous two seasons.”
Celtic looked at Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca
According to Sky Sports, Enzo Maresca was one of the other candidates under consideration over the summer, after Postecoglou left for Tottenham Hotspur. Ironically enough, Maresca ended up following in Rodgers’ footsteps at Leicester City, jump-starting a side who stalled under the Northern Irishman and currently outperforming a man who is doing little to quell the notion that retracing his Parkhead steps was an idea destined to fail.
With 17 wins from their 21 games, and 52 points on the board, Leicester City have made the best start to a season of any team in England’s second tier since it was re-branded as ‘The Championship’ in 2004. Yet another victory, away to Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham City tonight, will extend The Foxes’ advantage over third-place Leeds United to 13 points, with promotion feeling like an inevitability before the wrapping is even done and the cranberry sauce is stocked up on.
“He’s been amazing,” Leicester midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, who was himself linked with Celtic over the summer, told the club’s website back in September.
“He’s helping the team to be more together. If you have a look at the team, the way we play, and also the guys on the bench, we’re all together. He tries to make everything simple with the philosophy.
“It’s going well, and we’ll see where it takes us. Everyone is gelling so quick. We all know what we want to do. We know what we have to do. Kudos to the Manager because he’s been brilliant since he arrived here.”
‘Amazing’ Maresca
Maresca, a former assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, was linked with the Celtic job back in 2021 too. Few would have any regrets about the club’s decision to hire Postecoglou at the time.
But handing the reigns to Brendan Rodgers after Maresca’s name appeared in the frame again two years on, that decision is starting to feel like a step backwards in more than one sense of the word.
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