Bren backed over Hearts bust-up
CHRIS DAVIES last night defended Brendan Rodgers following the blistering attack from Hearts stand-in head coach Jon Daly. The Tynecastle man branded the Celtic boss’s assessment of
Ian Cathro’s sacking as disgusting, disgraceful and disrespectful after the sides clashed on Saturday.
Davies hit back and claimed Rodgers was within his rights to offer his opinion Cathro didn’t have the proper backing from within the Gorgie club.
The Hoops assistant insisted the manager shows opponents plenty of respect and is above getting dragged into bitter spats with rivals.
Davies is adamant Rodgers is only focused on Kilmarnock in the Betfred Cup tonight and said: “I’ve worked with Brendan for a long, long time and he always bases his work around respect – respect for opposition managers and opposition players.
“So it has been blown out of proportion a little bit. We have more important things to think about, as have Hearts.
“If you look into what he was saying, it was more related to showing support for another manager and – like we do with other teams – looking at where they are at and what their team has been like.
“He certainly didn’t intend to offend anybody or anything like that.
“Brendan has had a long management career – nearly 10 years – and isn’t one who has volatile public relations with other managers.
“He’s a respectful guy and will try to answer the media in an open, respectful way. It’s not something Brendan is worried about or has any issues about.
“We’ll just carry on focusing on the important stuff, which is Kilmarnock. It starts with Celtic for him – that’s what he’s looking at. Yes, he’s got his views on different situations and he has expressed them before – but that’s not his priority.
“We are here at Celtic and we have more important things to worry about than management teams and other clubs. We’ll move on, there’s no issue. We focus all our energies on Kilmarnock.
“He’s not someone who’s always sitting there thinking about the wider picture in football. He’s mostly thinking about how he can make Celtic the best we can be. That’s his driver. It’s always his focus. How can we get better? How can we keep this going?”
Rodgers is gearing up for the Parkhead cup clash tonight with skipper Scott Brown set to miss out through suspension for his crime count in last season’s competition.
But the Hoops boss will also be keeping tabs on Patrick Roberts as the attacker’s future moves a step closer to being resolved.
Celts are still in the frame to bring the Manchester City winger back to Scotland but are facing competition from Southampton.
French side Nice had been on the trail but their interest ended last night when they signed Monaco’s Allan Saint-Maximin.
Davies insisted the Hoops are still in the loop for the fans’ favourite.
He said: “There is constant dialogue. We rate him very highly as a player.
“There is a home for him here but ultimately he belongs to another club.
“It will be a collective decision by the player and the club as to where is best for him to go or whether he stays there.
“He did really well for us. We loved working with him and hopefully one day we can in the future but he belongs to another club.
“He has been coming on in games. He started against Man United in America, I watched that game. So he’s there, he’s working and we will see what happens.”