Brendan Rodgers has hit out at his Celtic critics - insisting he's been treated like a 'novice' since returning to Scotland.
Who exactly he's referring to with that remark is unclear.
However, speaking after watching his team take a major step towards retaining the Scottish Premiership title, he insists he's not been going through the motions.
Celtic defeated arch-Glasgow rivals Rangers 2-1 at Parkhead. Matt O'Riley got the first, while John Lundstram put the ball into his own net moments later.
Cyriel Dessers did get one back and provided a much-needed lifeline for Philippe Clement's men.
Lundstram completed a nightmare first half though by receiving a red card for a horrible challenge on Celtic's Alistair Johnston.
Rodgers was delighted with his team's output, despite not taking their multiple second-half chances to add some more gloss to the scoreline.
Although, the Northern Irishman couldn't help but aim a dig at his doubters from across the 2023/24 campaign.
He told the media: "What is every other manager doing if I'm going through the motions?
"From a personal level, I've been treated like a novice since I've come back here, like it's my first job.
READ MORE: Brendan Rodgers hails 'brilliant day' for Celtic supporters all over the world
"However, my principal objective is to make sure that Celtic win. Part of that is a part of the criticism and I understand that, but it's the mentality of the team that's most important to me.
"And you can see from where we were, with injuries, how we've progressed, how we stayed unified, how we stayed together, and how we then get to this point where we're nearly crossing the finish line.
"We don't just want to cross it, we want to sprint over it. We've got two games to go, plus a final, and that is our mentality."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel