DAVIES: RESPECT IS KEY FOR BRENDAN
CHRIS DAVIES last night insisted Brendan Rodgers meant no disrespect when he spoke about Ian Cathro’s sacking and other issues at Hearts.
Rodgers’ comments on Friday about the set-up at Tynecastle and the nature of some of their summer signings drew heavy criticism from Hearts’ interim coach Jon Daly who felt the Northern Irishman’s words had been “disgusting” and “unsavoury”.
But Davis felt Rodgers had been merely trying to offer support to Cathro in light of his dismissal and meant no offence to Craig Levein, Hearts’ director of football, or anyone else at that club.
The Celtic No.2 said: “I read the comments Brendan made and then I’ve
seen the reaction. My interpretation of it, when I read it, was that Brendan was trying to show support for another manager.
“Ian Cathro is a young manager, who Brendan doesn’t even know in terms of being a friend or anything like that. He was just trying to show his support.
“I’ve worked with Brendan for a long, long time and he always bases his work around respect. Respect for opposition managers, opposition players.
“He certainly didn’t intend to offend anybody or anything like that. We’ll just carry on focusing on the important stuff which is Kilmarnock.”
Tonight’s Betfred Cup tie comes at a busy period for Celtic following the start of the SPFL Premiership season on Saturday and their forthcoming Champions League play-off tie against Astana.
Davies admitted Rodgers may take that schedule into consideration when he names his team this evening. He added: “It’s something we’ll need to look at.
“In the next 20 days we’ve got six games, so we’ll have to make sure we get the right balance between winning the next game, which is always the most important thing, and being ready for upcoming games as well. There might be one or two changes.”
This trophy was the first one by the Celtic management team on their way to an unprecedented invincible Treble last season and Davies insists they will continue to that the competition seriously.
“It was a really good competition for us last year – that set the wheels in motions,” he added.
“We didn’t concede a goal in the competition, we won it and it was a great day and night when we got the trophy.
“It was Brendan’s first trophy at the club and will always be a special one for that reason.
“So we want to do that again. We want to win every trophy we go in for and this is the first one, so it’s an important one.”