Boyata left Rodgers in the lurch
SAYS PAT BONNER
CELTIC legend Pat Bonner last night told Dedryck Boyata he had badly let Brendan Rodgers down after failing to remember what his manager had done for him.
The Belgian claimed on Tuesday that he wasn’t fit to travel to Greece for Celtic’s Champions League qualifier with AEK Athens — a version of events Rodgers flatly rejected after the aggregate defeat.
Coming four days after his agent, Jacques Lichtenstein, had stormed Lennoxtown — on the back of the club’s refusal to sell him — to claim his client had effectively downed tools, Boyata took to social media to claim he was, in fact, injured.
But as his ham-fisted attempt to engineer a move away from the club continues, former goalkeeper Bonner believes his conduct is simply out of order for a player who was the forgotten man of Parkhead until Rodgers threw him a lifebelt.
‘He owes the manager,’ said Bonner. ‘So let things happen. You have still got to go and play your games.
‘There are always things going on in the background. But from a player’s point of view, you just get on with the job and let everything take its course.
‘You just keep playing as that’s what you are contracted to do. You get on with it. That’s the disappointment.
‘If he’s saying he’s injured and Brendan is saying he’s not, there’s obviously a conflict. ‘It should never get to that.’ Rodgers could not conceal his dismay at Boyata’s conduct after the 3-2 aggregate defeat, claiming the player’s presence in Greece may have made a critical difference.
Bonner believes Boyata will now find himself on the end of some sharp words from his team-mates after seeing their Champions League dream die in his absence.
Asked if he would have called a player out in such circumstances, Bonner added: ‘It would depend on the relationship I had with him. He’s a young boy still. I’m sure Scott Brown will probably say a few things to him.
‘If I had a relationship with the guy, I’d be giving him advice. He’s broken that little bit of loyalty that Celtic fans always like.
‘That’s difficult. If I was a betting man — would he be here (next month)? Probably not.’
For the 800 Celtic fans who watched their side go out to a decent but hardly dynamic AEK side, it all felt like the most painful, self-inflicted wound.
Whatever the internal politics, a failure to recruit an experienced, dependable defender to partner and educate one of the emerging talents of Kristoffer Ajer and Jack Hendry was key to the concession of two dreadful goals and the loss of a potential £40million cheque.
‘The defending wasn’t good enough and I think everybody knows that,’ continued Bonner.
‘It’s been evident for the last number of years.
‘Brendan did say he was missing his two best defenders — Ajer and Boyata.
‘Will Boyata be here in the next while? I don’t know. But I’ve always said they need to bring in someone with experience to help the young guys.
‘It’s not just about helping them during games. It’s in training and just talking to them. For me, the lack of that has been evident.
‘Defending is a unique thing. You have to use your experience and communicate. You have to organise things before things happen in front of you.
‘When you are young and inexperienced, you allow things to develop and then you have to defend at the last moment.
‘Good defenders organise and that’s what is needed.’
On the back of the Boyata saga, a failure to sign John McGinn, Rodgers’ disquiet and untimely injuries to Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard, Celtic ran into the perfect storm in Greece.
It would be plainly wrong to suggest they were poor over the two games. They created sufficient chances to progress but were ultimately undone by a glass jaw of a defence.
Coming on the back of a league defeat to Hearts, for truly the first time in Rodgers’ reign there is an air of despondency around the club.
‘The result in Athens was a big one,’ added Bonner. ‘Had they got through, it would have killed a lot of speculation and everyone would have got on with the job at hand.
‘You’ve got to take these disappointments and use them. It can’t always be plain sailing.
‘Listen, I thought they played quite well over the two legs. But the defending was the Achilles heel.
‘It was a decent AEK team. But not one that they couldn’t compete with. That’s the biggest disappointment.
‘Celtic will be kicking themselves over the two legs.’