SPL a sideshow to the big circus below

THERE hasn’t been this much of a hullabaloo about the leaving of paradise since the Serpent tempted Eve and Eve in turn egged on Adam to sample the forbidden fruit.

A sizeable portion of Glasgow Celtic fans – probably a majority or if not a majority certainly a strong (and vocal) plurality – have reacted rather poorly to Brendan Rodgers’ decision to walk away from the Hoops mid-season to take up a new role with mid-table Leicester City in the English Premier League.

At their first game following Rogers’ departure, against Hearts, fans debuted a banner lambasting the Antrim man: “You traded immortality for mediocrity. Never a Celt, always a fraud.”

Harsh words, especially the part about him being a fraud and, to all intents and purposes, calling Rogers’ very identity into question. Out of order you’d have to say and Rogers, evidently, agrees. “I’d ask them, ‘What the f*** are you doing?’Bloody hell, I’m one of you!” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Record last week.

What then about the charge of him trading immortality for mediocrity? To our mind it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. True enough Rodgers could have added another three titles to his burgeoning CV had he remained at Parkhead for another four or five months before making the jump from Celtic.

The club are chasing a treble treble – league cup, league championship and Scottish cup success for the third successive season. In a way, yes, that’s a remarkable achievement, but once you’ve done two of them you’ve got to ask how much value is there in a third? Or a fourth?

Celtic’s domestic dominance is near absolute – after a few early stumbles they lead Rangers by eight points at the three quarter stage – is Rodgers going to get much more credit for winning another treble than for the two he already has? If he does it’ll be negligible.

He did the right thing in making the jump when he did, while his stock is high.