Glasgow being Glasgow- Chris Sutton’s verdict on Celtic’s ‘canteen controversy’

Chris Sutton didn’t read Matt O’Riley’s midweek comments comparing two managers as a slight on Ange Postecoglou.

Hard news and comment has been thin on the ground since Celtic returned for pre-season training with the former MK Dons man put up for the briefest of interviews with Celtic TV.

It was the first training ground comments since Brendan Rodgers took over with supporters interested to see what, if anything, has changed since the iconic We Never Stop phrase was introduced to the training ground.

O’Riley isn’t the type of player that courts headlines, he is laid back, honest and sincere in his assessments with one canteen comment generating reaction among pundits and on social media among fans.

Not to do with tactics, formations or the comparison of training ground drills but eating habits! The new manager might be at your table for lunch, the previous one kept his distance.

In the Daily Record Sutton writes:

I was interested to read the comments this week from Matt O’Riley about a freshness and openness now around the camp at Lennoxtown.

There was always this underlying suggestion the Aussie wasn’t really one for mixing with the group on a day-to-day basis. John Kennedy’s interview during the week said as much when he commented on how Rodgers’ approach involved “being around people more socially.”

It got me thinking about how some of my managers from the past approached things. The most obvious one for me to refer to when talking about Celtic would be Martin O’Neill.

Now the situation would have been slightly different back then because we didn’t have Lennoxtown in those days. We’d get changed at Celtic Park and then jump in the cars for training at Barrowfield. Martin was a bit like Ange. He would hardly be around the lads doling out the brown sauce when it was lunchtime back at the ground.

He kept his distance. It was John Robertson and Steve Walford who were around the boys most of the time and I used to like the fact Martin wasn’t matey-matey with all the players. To be honest, no manager I ever played with really sat and had lunch with the players.

We’d have meals in the same room at Blackburn as staff and management Kenny Dalglish and the coaching team on Friday nights before games, for example. I wasn’t fussed either way.

The O’Riley line was a throwaway. Glasgow being Glasgow, some folk cooked it up into something it really wasn’t.

They tried to claim it was a dig at Postecoglou. I didn’t think so. If it was, I’d be disappointed. But I didn’t read it that way. I thought it was just him being honest. This always happens when a new manager takes over.

Sutton managed to complete his entire column in the Record with constant references to food, meals and eating!