BRENDAN RODGERS took time off from preparing for tomorrow night’s visit of Aberdeen during Celtic’s unremitting pursuit of the title to express sympathy with Philippe Clement following his Rangers sacking.
The Belgian was fired 16 months into his tenure just 24 hours after his side’s home 2-0 loss to St Mirren with the Govan outfit trailing the champions by 13 points with 11 games to go.
The axe has been hovering over Clement for some considerable time, but the Scottish Cup exit to second-tier Queen’s Park followed a fortnight later by the league loss to the Paisley club have hastened the 50-year-old coach’s exit, as CQN reported last night.
THE EYES HAVE IT…Brendan Rodgers discusses Philippe Clement’s sacking with the media.
The former Monaco head coach, who was dismissed by the Ligue 1 club in the summer of 2023 after 18 months in charge, has suffered the same fate as predecessors Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty and Michael Beale as they failed to keep pace with Rodgers.
The Hoops gaffer said: “Like it is for any manager, I’m always disappointed when a manager loses his job.
“Obviously, Philippe has been in there for the period of time that he has and I’m disappointed for him as a coach. I think we all know the conditions up here.
“You have to be winning and show that consistency to win.
“Philippe has shown previously, coming into the Rangers, that he’s a very good manager. He’s won titles. He’s not just a good coach, he’s a winning coach.
“Like I say, we know the conditions up here. There’s relentless pressure on you to win at Celtic and Rangers. Expectation is there. That doesn’t stop on a daily basis. You have to then come out and be a consistent winner.”
EAR EAR…Brendan Rodgers is prepared for the visit of Aberdeen. Images courtesy of Celtic TV.
The challenge to match and overcome Celtic proved to be too much for Clement to deal with and he lost two Hampden Finals to Celtic in seven months last year.
The lack of success was too much for the fanbase to accept and the board felt they had to react.
Rodgers, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “I think that’s been key, too. We didn’t get off to the best of starts last season when I came in, certainly in terms of consistency and performance level.
“When Philippe came in, obviously, they had that bounce and had a really good run.
“But then once we started to find our rhythm, then I think how we dealt with pressure, we dealt with it really, really well.
“From that moment, we’ve continued to grow and improve. It’s a great credit to the players and how they’ve coped with that and how they’ve consistently performed.”
Reflecting on the disappointment of a 2-1 loss to Hibs at Easter Road and the controversial decision by VAR official Alan Muir to rule out Daizen Maeda’s second goal that would have drawn the visitors level, Rodgers confirmed the club had contacted the SFA for an explanation.
The Irishman added: “I don’t think there’s any more footage on it. The club go through the process. We don’t make statements and do all sorts of things.
A BIG HAND…Brendan Rodgers acknowledges the Celtic fans at Easter Road.
“We just go through the procedure and the process which is the club to speak to the SFA and just get a feeling of what they think.
“Obviously, we haven’t had anything back yet.
“My feeling is still the same having watched it and seeing the various images. There are a couple of images that you see where the illusion is that it’s out, but then there are others that will look like it’s clearly in.
“I saw one right on the actual goal-line which was an incredible shot, so that looked in.
“I was disappointed for the guys in the game, Steven [McLean] the referee and the linesman because they actually got it correct in the game and I didn’t feel that then they should have been overruled on that without a definitive answer, which is what I said at the time.”
Rodgers also revealed he has no fresh injuries to content with and the squad against the Dons will be the same that travelled to Edinburgh at the weekend.
