\n<\/p>\n
Brendan Rodgers has been confirmed as the head coach of the Saudi\u00a0\u00adArabian side Al-Qadsiah. Rodgers resigned from Celtic in October, a move thattriggered a stinging attack from the club\u2019s main shareholder Dermot Desmond. The 52-year-old is yet to address Desmond\u2019s sentiment but is known to have been attractive to Saudi clubs for some time. He turned down a move to the kingdom after leaving Leicester in 2023.<\/p>\n
Al-Qadsiah, who sacked their Spanish manager Michel at the \u00adweekend, have stolen a march on their domestic rivals by moving for Rodgers, who has been keen for a swift return to the dugout. The club are owned by Aramco, the state-owned Saudi oil company.<\/p>\n
James Bisgrove, Al-Qadsiah\u2019s chief executive officer, said: \u201cThis is a landmark moment for the club. The calibre of his experience and track record of winning reflects our ambition and long-term vision to establish Al Qadsiah as one of Asia\u2019s leading clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Qadsiah are fifth in the Saudi Pro League after nine matches, 10 points behind the leaders, Al-Nassr.<\/p>\n
Rodgers won back-to-back Scottish titles \u00adduring a second spell at Celtic, with\u00a0matters subsequently turning sour due to troubles in the transfer market.<\/p>\n
The former Liverpool manager\u2019s permanent replacement at Celtic, Wilfried Nancy, has lost his first three matches in office. Nancy\u2019s struggles have fuelled the theory that Celtic should have retained \u00adMartin O\u2019Neill, who took caretaker charge after Rodgers left, for a longer\u00a0period.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill said on Monday he would have remained in charge had\u00a0Celtic wanted him to stay. \u201cIf they had asked me to stay on, I would\u2019ve done so, but the \u00adminute that they said, \u2018No, that\u2019s your\u00a0time\u2019, that was fine by me,\u201d he told Talksport.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill called for Nancy to be shown patience. The Frenchman has endured a grim losing run, the most recent being Sunday\u2019s League Cup final against St\u00a0Mirren, and that has led to doubts about his suitability to the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to give managers chances,\u201d O\u2019Neill\u00a0said. \u201cI think back to my own time at Leicester City, where I eventually enjoyed nice \u00adsuccess. Can\u2019t win a game to save my\u00a0life, crowd baying for blood and after 10 games. How lucky I was to win a \u00adcouple of matches of real importance at a stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some excellent \u00adplayers at\u00a0the club. There\u2019s some boys\u00a0who have won big time as well.\u00a0Lean on some of the senior players. Lean on them and get them on your side.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is recoverable, of course. You\u2019re in the football club 10\u00a0or 12 days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brendan Rodgers has been confirmed as the head coach of the Saudi\u00a0\u00adArabian side Al-Qadsiah. Rodgers resigned from Celtic in October, a move thattriggered a stinging attack from the club\u2019s main shareholder Dermot Desmond. The 52-year-old is yet to address Desmond\u2019s sentiment but is known to have been attractive to Saudi clubs for some time. He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[20777,20776,339,3223,6659,3504,4382,10600,11191],"class_list":{"0":"post-37662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alqadsiah","9":"tag-brendan","10":"tag-club","11":"tag-coach","12":"tag-confirmed","13":"tag-league","14":"tag-pro","15":"tag-rodgers","16":"tag-saudi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}