Brendan Rodgers took time out after today’s Glasgow Derby to reference comments from Chris Sutton six months ago!
Managers often say that they ignore comments from media and newspapers but that has always been a fairly flimsy claim.
Not so long ago a huge bundle of newspapers would be waiting on the manager’s desk before he would get down to work, setting the mood and scene.
More recently as club’s take control of all content selective clips will be fed to the manager such as Philippe Clement being informed of Rodgers’ comments about having fun following last week’s win over Hearts.
Among today’s post match comments The Sun reports the Celtic boss saying:
I head somebody saying about Brendan Rodgers going through the motions early in the season. I get to work between half seven and eight o’clock every day of my life. I leave the training ground between 6.30 and 7pm at night.
Then when I got home I have my dinner and I probably flip on the computer and look at more football. If that is going through the motions I want to know what every other manager is doing.
The comment ‘going through the motions’ seems to have jarred a nerve with Rodgers, something going below the belt, further than the usual comment about tactics, team selection and transfer activity.
There has been plenty of criticism of Rodgers this season, before he had met the media Tom English was spilling out his anger on an Irish podcast, this season BBC Scotland have been off the invite list for Celtic’s pre-match media conferences.
Google is forever your friend, strangely it was Sutton that came up with the comments that Rodgers has been harbouring for six months.
On December 21 the Daily Record reported Sutton saying:
At the moment this Celtic team are disjointed and going through the motions and there’s a fair argument to suggest Brendan Rodgers has been going through the motions this season. I also think the words which he used after the Hearts game in his interview about players lacking passion and desire – is that now his responsibility as manager to put out a motivated team? I think it is and he has to take a far greater share of the blame and far greater responsibility than he has done.
There’s a lot of mud flying around at the board and a certain section of the support haven’t been allowed into the stadium. People can use those as excuses but the fact of the matter is that the team hasn’t performed on the pitch this season as well as they should have done. He’s taken over a different situation because Ange Postecoglou’s team were fast and furious and this season under Brendan Rodgers it has been flat.
Those comments came after back to back defeats in the SPFL to Kilmarnock and Hearts, results that opened the door just as Phil Clement was getting results out of his side.
With The Green Brigade banned by the club and an underwhelming Champions League campaign there wasn’t much festive cheer to be had around Celtic Park.
Sutton made his comments on the Daily Mail It’s All Kicking Off podcast with Ian Ladyman which is aimed at an English audience with Scottish content an after thought.
Rodgers still has a profile in the English game, it is debateable whether he will ever return to manage in the EPL but reputation is something that manager’s guard closely with Sutton clearly crossing a line with his December comments on the Celtic boss.
CLICK HERE for Celtic fans celebrate in Santa Ponsa.
🔊 LISTEN: “I heard somebody say about Brendan Rodgers going through the motions… if I’m going through the motions, I want to know what every other manager is doing!”.
🍀 Brendan Rodgers says he has been treated like a “novice” manager since returning to Celtic. pic.twitter.com/QBHSl9nOcT
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) May 11, 2024
