The‘girl’ that kicked the hornet’s nest
HOOPS BOSS STUNG BY SEXISM CHAT AFTER RADIO GAFFE
HAVING spent the last few weeks hinting at sinister forces undermining his club’s title defence, Brendan Rodgers has found himself at the bottom of a pile-on since fluffing his lines on national radio.
The albeit clumsily spoken closing line of a post-match interview with a female reporter have placed Celtic’s manager in the dock of public opinion, accused of being a narcissist, a misogynist, a sexist and a dinosaur.
“Good girl”. Bad choice of words. And so yesterday, at a time when the Carnlough man would have preferred to be focusing entirely on another must win league match at home to Dundee, he found himself at the centre of a different battleground. And a far less familiar one.
So an unusually uncomfortable Rodgers faced the cameras inside Celtic’s Lennoxtown HQ and attempted to tipe-toe through the minefield without treading on any more woke bombs.
Rodgers was asked if the controversy has come as a surprise.
He went on: “Listen, for me, my focus is purely on the football. But it saddens me really – it’s society. But, like I said, I’m here for the football.”
Having escaped from Lanarkshire with three points on Sunday, the heat will be back on again tonight when Dundee visit Glasgow east.
Rodgers admitted yesterday that Celtic’s form has been less than convincing since the start of the campaign and that his players struggled to get up to speed again at the weekend when they came from behind to finally overcome Motherwell.
Asked if this patchy form is a consequence of the situation at the top of the table he responded: “I’m not sure. I don’t think so. I’ve been up here before when we’ve gone to Ibrox knowing if we lost the game we were three points or six points behind. But we still played with freedom, quality and fight. But we cannot allow ourselves to overthink it. I think that’s what’s key. I think we just have to play our game and that’s the constant messaging. Hopefully you see the level grow.”
And Rodgers believes the return to full fitness of defensive stalwart Cameron Carter-vickers could turn out to be a key factor going into the final stretch.
He said: “He’s been very important for this team. He just knows football – he knows the game.
“When you see what he does when he comes in, he stabilises Liam Scales or whoever he’s been playing with.
“Having him back really solidifies that and gives confidence to the team. It’s really important for us to keep him fit.”