San Francisco Frontiers - Rodgers calls out 'cowardly' leak amid Celtic civil war

Rodgers said Celtic's series of failures in the transfer window that have infuriated supporters left him feeling "empty".

The Hoops suffered an embarrassing defeat to Kazakh champions Kairat Almaty on penalties to miss out on the riches of the Champions League after neither side could score over 210 minutes of the qualifier.

That came after repeated calls from the former Liverpool manager to strengthen his forward line after the sales of Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicholas Kuhn in the past two transfer windows.

A story in The Sun newspaper, claiming to be from senior sources at the club, described Rodgers as "creating division" and trying to "engineer his way out".

"My honest take is I thought it was a cowardly action by whoever it is," said Rodgers, who backed calls for the source of the story to resign.

"It's not something you'd want. Certainly my relationships with the guys, I am close with here within the board, I would struggle to understand why.

"All I've tried to do is drive the club forward. Was I surprised by it? Not really."

Despite boasting huge cash revenues which sat at £77 million ($104 million) in the club's latest financial report, Celtic refused to meet the asking price for a number of transfer targets.

Supporter anger has festered in the two weeks since the club were last in action on the field with hundreds of fan groups calling for chief executive Michael Nicholson and chairman Peter Lawwell to resign.

Celtic fans are planning not to enter Sunday's trip to Kilmarnock until the 12th minute.

Rodgers, who is in his second spell at the Glasgow giants, said he will not resign despite the unrest.

"It didn't make me think to walk away. I just felt empty, if I'm honest," he added on the window.

"It was a long process and the weight is on your shoulders when you're here, carrying everything. When it doesn't quite go the way you want, then of course you have an empty feeling.

"But then you know as one of the leaders of the club and particularly the manager of the team, you've got to get your head around it and you've got to deal with it and then you've got to try and maximise what you have."

Z.Phillips--SFF