BHOYS IN THE MOOD
Celtic savour a Dens Park stroll but Bellamy insists big English clubs won’t rate Rodgers’ success
CELTIC extended their unbeaten domestic run to 56 games last night but former Bhoys favourite Craig Bellamy claimed England’s top clubs will take no notice of what Brendan Rodgers achieves with the Parkhead side — because they couldn’t care less about Scottish football.
On the day when the club announced a near 75-per-cent increase in turnover thanks to Champions League involvement, Celtic cruised into the last four of the Betfred Cup thanks to a Scott Sinclair penalty, two goals from James Forrest and one from Callum McGregor. Rodgers claimed a domestic Treble in his first season in Glasgow, racking up the first unbeaten league campaign since 1897. The Celtic boss has also taken the Parkhead club to the Champions League
group stage for a second successive year. Claiming that will not impress chairmen in the English Premier League when the time comes to return south, however, former Celtic loan star Bellamy claimed: ‘Brendan Rodgers couldn’t have done any more than he did with Celtic last season. His reputation as a great coach is there, but getting one of the top jobs again in the Premier League might be difficult for him. ‘Mainly because, and I found this out during my time in Scotland, it doesn’t matter what you do up there — no one cares. ‘I had more offers in January, before I went to Celtic, than I did when I finished my time up there the following summer. ‘That’s because once you went up to Scotland nobody in England gave a damn what you did up there. If you do well up there, it’s a case of: “So you should”. ‘I just didn’t feel it mattered to anyone down south.’ Rodgers last night declared his rampant Celtic team ready and refreshed for Saturday’s Old Firm clash — after they got a ‘rest’ in last night’s Betfred Cup cruise at Dens Park. Rodgers, who confirmed that Jozo Simunovic is an injury doubt for the weekend trip to Ibrox, was full of praise for his side’s professional performance in last night’s quarter-final. The Celtic boss, who has seen his team rattle in 20 goals in their opening half-dozen domestic fixtures of the season, said: ‘What we did very well tonight was we had a rest with the ball. ‘We are always hungry to get the ball and the counter-pressing was good. And, if we are to have any rest in the game, it has to be with the ball. I thought we controlled the tempo and that element of it very, very well. ‘Then obviously that tires the opponent, you break through — and we then have good speed and technique. ‘If you are going to rest in a game, rest with the football. ‘It’s a lot harder when you don’t have the ball and you need to chase it. ‘We were able to drop our lines out and Dundee then had to press. We had good numbers in our half to keep it. ‘If they did press, we were able to get out of it. We conserved the ball very well and that opened it up for us later on.’ Centre-half Simunovic and striker Moussa Dembele both missed the match as central defender Dedryck Boyata made his first appearance of the season. Rodgers admitted: ‘We will see how Jozo is. He had a bit of swelling on his knee. ‘The medics tell me he should be fine but we didn’t want to aggravate it any more. ‘I would have no doubts about putting Dedryck in. He’s been working hard. ‘He got a good hour in and it’s nice to see him back, because he’s a big presence in the team and very dominant. He came through very well. ‘Moussa will be back on Saturday. Sometimes when you have midweek games, you play and then recover and don’t do a lot of physical work in between. That’s what we did. ‘Moussa has had a good week and will be ready for Saturday.’ Dundee boss Neil McCann said: ‘Celtic were worthy winners. ‘But I do have a complaint over the third goal. ‘We should have had a free-kick but there was no clear advantage and Celtic quickly got men behind the ball and broke for their goal.’