Ahead of his side’s campaign-changing draw at Atalanta last month, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers expressed the view that taking part in European competition was ‘an opportunity to beat you over the head with a stick’.
He claimed expectations at that level of football were disproportionate. That people — presumably journalists and pundits — spend months saving up beastly stories to write in anticipation of the club falling flat on their faces.
Errant nonsense, of course. Anyone who has any knowledge of the average newsgatherer can tell you that, for most, the level of forward planning in the multimedia maelstrom extends little further than just getting to the end of the day and settling on whether it should be grape or grain for late-night succour.
What’s more, given Celtic’s abysmal record in UEFA tournament play over the last decade or so, the idea anyone would have to wait months to lay the boot into them is ludicrous. Their failings have been far more frequent than that.
Even on Friday, though, in the wake of rose petals being scattered indiscriminately in his path in the wake of his side’s 3-1 win over RB Leipzig and plans for his eventual beatification resurrected after all that Leicester City unpleasantness a few years back, Rodgers was still at it.
Brendan Rodgers has been showered with praise this week but still managed to point to critics
Reo Hatate’s goal put the seal on a night for the ages in Celtic’s 3-1 win over RB Leipzig
Rodgers hails goalscorer Hatate after a thoroughly impressive night’s work at Celtic Park
Asked about that quite spellbinding Champions League victory over the side lying second in the Bundesliga making critics down south eat their words, the Northern Irishman replied: ‘And up north as well. Don’t worry about that. There was plenty up here too.
‘I’ve had (critics) since I started coaching and moved into management, so that won’t change until I retire — and, even then, it will probably continue.’
Look, part of the old Celtic schtick has always been that the world’s against them. A chunk of their fanbase would go into withdrawal-related shock if it somehow stopped.
A matter of months away from securing their 13th league title in 14 years — sorry, Aberdeen fans, but that is the hard truth — and everyone from referees to the SFA and the wider ‘establishment’ still have it in for them. Managers and players have always tapped into that and played to the gallery when appropriate.
Is it really necessary these days, though, particularly when it is as clear as a bell that Scottish football is well down the road to becoming a one-horse race in which the winning colours are almost always going to be green and white hoops?
Rodgers often claims not to pay any attention to the critics, but always seems to know what they are saying, what the buzzwords are. After digging in to get that goalless draw in Bergamo, he couldn’t resist speculating if the display was quite ‘pragmatic’ enough for those who took issue with his determination to keep going toe-to-toe with bigger teams despite a 7-1 tonking in Dortmund.
Hasn’t he taken note, then, of how positive the reaction was to that point against Atalanta and the way it has gone off-the-radar following events at home to Leipzig?
Celtic were brilliant against the German outfit. The atmosphere felt reminiscent of one of those old Martin O’Neill nights when the likes of Porto, Juventus, Stuttgart or Anderlecht would be put to the sword in the east end of Glasgow.
Celtic’s defiance in their goalless draw at Atalanta restored belief after the Dortmund defeat
Nicolas Kuhn puts Celtic in front against Leipzig and has been a revelation this season
The football, though, the standard of performance, was something not witnessed around these parts for a long, long time. It is hard to recall a game in recent history in which a Scottish club has exerted such control, pressed so effectively, been so technically impressive and tactically disciplined after coming through a bit of a sticky spell in the first half.
It was fantastic and Rodgers deserves to bathe deeply in the cascading waterfall of credit. Neutral observers — or even Rangers punters — watching on could not fail to have been impressed.
The plaudits given for certain individual performances have been more than merited too. Callum McGregor produced a captain’s innings. Nicolas Kuhn was that beautiful, heady mix of pure danger and pure delight. Reo Hatate showed he is moving steadily towards the player so many people have always believed he could be.
Daizen Maeda is always going to frustrate with some of his final contributions, but, goodness me, that irresistible energy makes a strong pressing game so much more possible. There were no failures at all.
And here’s the thing. Collectively, this is what we’ve been waiting for from Celtic at the highest level for way longer than is acceptable. A total, 90-minute performance that proved they can find a way to really punch above their weight and win.
What made it even better was that McGregor came out afterwards encouraging everyone to dream the dream that, with the wind blowing in the right direction and four more exhibitions of such quality, aiming for the top eight and the knockouts is possible rather than just hoping to make it into the play-offs.
If Rodgers really did view it as disproportionate that people from the outside might actually look for Celtic to escape from the shadow of muggings from Maribor, Cluj, AEK Athens and Sparta Prague reserves and do something remotely meaningful in Europe from time to time, what must he have made of that?
The manager has clearly been sensitive to criticism since coming back for a second spin on the merry-go-round at Parkhead.
Grim-faced Celtic stars applaud the travelling support after their hammering in Dortmund
Rodgers and McGregor consult during the win over Leipzig and will now be resetting targets
Last season, most of it came from his own fans. The football was largely awful until his team stepped up a gear in the closing stages as Rangers came down with the collywobbles. Rodgers did look and feel, at times, like a guy who had lost his mojo.
Yes, at the end of the campaign, he expressed the view he had been treated ‘like a novice’ and took great exception to suggestions he looked like he was going through the motions. But he has to know that this level of examination is part and parcel of his job.
He’s the highest-paid manager in the club’s history, reported to be on £3million-a-year. Europe, by his own admission, has always been viewed as the big incentive to come back.
Now clearly in control of the wheel again after those early, glazed-eyed days of stating he’d accept whoever Peter Lawwell’s boy signed and just get on with it, he spent the summer telling the board they couldn’t snooze — and saw them spend £11million on Engels, £8.5m on Adam Idah, £6m on Auston Trusty, and more.
That level of investment has to deliver a return outwith domestic baubles. Rodgers had to come into this term and record the kind of landmark win on the European stage that his first spell in charge never served up.
Harsh questions were always going to be present — and necessary — until he offered proof of his ability to find a way of getting big results at that level.
Well, he has now. And with that, it has become clearer to see why he is back in Glasgow. Much more of it and he might have someone else asking if he fancies another crack at the English Premiership too.
Rodgers orchestrated something wonderful on Tuesday and Scottish football wants more
For now, though, in the same way Celtic supporters have learned to make peace with him post-Leicester, the Brodge ought to let the red mist clear and accept that people are not actively sitting around waiting for him to fail.
He orchestrated something wonderful and uplifting last Tuesday night. He has a Celtic team representing Scotland — and, most crucially, themselves — in the top half of the Champions League table.
That’s brilliant. And after what happened with Leipzig, we want more. More electricity, more fireworks, more bloodying of big clubs’ noses. That’s what football is about. And when it’s done well, hitting people with the big stick is the last thing on anyone’s mind.
The justified abundance of acclaim and appreciation over the past five days should make that crystal-clear.
Tavernier has become Ibrox nowhere man
Cyriel Dessers could have picked a better time, with his side miles off the pace in the Premiership, to offer the quip that he wouldn’t be at Rangers if he was able to take three chances every game.
In any case, it is the fact he is a centre-forward who never seems able to score when he is clean through on goal that is a bigger problem. Along with movement and link-up play, of course.
Despite his equaliser against Olympiacos, he certainly exhibited his tendency to freeze when having just the goalie to beat in Greece during the week.
Sure, there is some truth in his post-match words. Folk have said similar about James Tavernier. Namely, that if he could defend as well as he delivers goals and assists, he would be turning out for Barcelona and up there for the Ballon d’Or.
Now that those goals and assists look, though, to have pretty much dried up — he’s had one of the former and three of the latter in 19 outings this term — it is becoming clearer why punters wanted him replaced in the summer.
James Tavernier wasn’t missed as Rangers battled to an impressive point against Olympiacos
Dujon Sterling should remain at right-back if fit, with Nana Kasanwirjo a fall-back option, and it all leaves Rangers in a rather awkward position with captain Tavernier being talked up for a testimonial in the final year of his contract next term.
It’s always tricky when long-serving players have reached their best-before date. Treating someone with respect while phasing them out of the picture is a fiendish balancing act. Yet, the truth is this. Professional football is brutal. Results dictate all and that, eventually, extends to players as well as managers.
Hard as it might be for Tavernier to deal with, the Ibrox outfit, on current form, can’t let their captain stay a first-pick now and certainly not into next season, when he will turn 34. It’s not nice. It’s not graceful. But it’s the nature of the beast.
And at the end of the day, Tavernier will have all those millions he’s earned for delivering one Premiership title and two cups in nearly 10 years to offer some comfort. He’s been a committed servant to Rangers, but fitba’ waits for no man.
Hibs need to look deeper than the dugout
Talk of making chances, individual errors proving costly and, now, goals chalked off in time added on doesn’t cut the mustard when you’ve won one in 13 and sit bottom of the Premiership.
That’s why it looks odds-on David Gray will go as manager of Hibs during the international break. Late rally against St Mirren or not, being routinely turned over at home by the likes of Motherwell and the Buddies won’t do.
David Gray wore the look of a man condemned as Stephen Robinson spoke to him at full-time
If Bill Foley and his Black Knight group, who paid £6m for a 25-per-cent shareholding, weren’t listened to when Gray was appointed, you’d reckon they’ll be much more vocal now — and put others at the club under the microscope.
Sporting director Malky Mackay must be one. Although, given the fact he was up for being Scotland boss after Gordon Strachan’s departure, despite serving as SFA performance chief, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility he’ll be thinking of himself as a candidate to be Gray’s successor.
