Brendan Rodgers is no Celtic mug and there's 2 explanations behind acquiesce that's difficult to process – Keith Jackson

Let's nail one thing straight away – there is no bad blood simmering between Brendan Rodgers and Celtic’s boardroom.

The Parkhead manager has been surprisingly amenable – maybe even bordering on acquiescent –where the recent coming and goings from his dressing room have been concerned. Perhaps even to his own detriment as well as that of his starting XI. Let’s not forget, this is a man who reached the end of his tether with the club’s business model before he upped sticks for Leicester almost five years ago.

It all became a bit too much like hard work for a manager who felt his own ambitions for Celtic were not being matched by the men with their hands on the tiller. Which is why it seems so difficult to process now that Rodgers has returned to the job, while apparently accepting even less autonomy than he had at the end of his first spell in charge. It’s almost as if he still feels the need to keep on apologising for jumping ship when the truth of the matter is Celtic are extremely lucky to have him back on board and at the helm, as was showcased so perfectly on Saturday when he led 10 men to a comprehensive win at Livingston.

Certainly, there has been a softening of his position in terms of the transfer market and his own role in the big-money business of player recruitment. But Rodgers seems perfectly content with the set-up even if he let it slip the other day that he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the business that was done during the summer market.

Rodgers was perfectly correct in what he said. There’s hardly a manager in football who doesn’t want more than he’s got at his disposal. And he went to some length at the weekend to trash any suggestion this may have been a coded message, like a man blinking his eyes