MARTIN O’NEILL has fired a salvo at Brendan Rodgers after the Celtic manager’s comments following the miserable 2-0 loss to Dundee at Dens Park yesterday.
The defeat from Steven Pressley’s strugglers, who were just above Livingston in the Premiership basement at kick-off time, leaves the champions five points adrift of pacesetters Hearts at the pinnacle.
Both sides lock horns at Tynecastle in a midday confrontation on Sunday and the mood in both camps could be more starkly different.
The Edinburgh outfit are in high spirits and underlined their togetherness with a convincing 3-0 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Saturday night prior to the Hoops’ nosedive in Tayside.
LOOKING DOWN…Brendan Rodgers is pensive as he heads for the Dens Park tunnel at full-time.
Celtic, trailing at the interval after a header from Clark Robertson and an own goal from Cameron Carter-Vickers, had to wait until the 64th minute before rival keeper Jon McCracken was called upon to make a save, a block at his near post from Kelechi Iheanacho.
The only other time he was extended came in stoppage-time when he tipped over a neat lob from substitute Michel-Ange Balikwisha.
It’s clear Rodgers does not see eye to eye with the Parkhead powerbrokers and it’s equally obvious he feels let down by the lack of investment in his squad in the summer transfer market.
The Irishman made that plain with an ill-advised remark about being given “the keys to a Honda Civic” and expected to “drive it like a Ferrari.”
O’Neill, the Celtic manager for five years after arriving in June 2000 and leading the team to a domestic treble in his debut campaign, said: “That’s a big statement for Brendan to make. I have said a thousand of times, I have made a lot of statements in my time and I have come to regret loads of them.
“Probably all of them.
“But I don’t think you should be saying that at this minute. I am not one to be giving advice to managers and that.”
GRIM…Brendan Rodgers can’t disguise his disappointment at full-time.
O’Neill, speaking on talkSPORT, continued: “I have got an owner here (Simon Jordan), who has had managers he has liked and some he hasn’t liked, and I don’t think, and I am not going to speak for Simon, he might totally disagree.
“But if a manager is making that comment, you feel as if it’s directed at you. And you haven’t given him the tools to go and do what he is to do.
“Now, we all feel like this as managers, and owners feel differently. They feel as if: ‘Yeah, I have given them and he hasn’t blinking well done the job’.”
O’Neill added: “I don’t know why he said that, in all honesty. He will have his reasons for it.
“You just wouldn’t do that. This is a comment totally directed at the board for not supporting him.
“You wouldn’t do it. You wouldn’t publicly say this because it doesn’t go down well.
“Remarkably, believe it or not, after a while, it doesn’t go down well with the supporters.”
