‘Clearly sensitive’ ‘Errant nonsense’ ‘Rodgers still at it’ Gary Keown can’t hold back as Celtic boss calls out the Scottish snipers

Celtic’s win over RB Leipzig and the manner in which it was achieved seems to have tipped Gary Keown towards the very edge.

When the Irishman returned to Celtic last summer the Daily Mail reporter described his first spell as manager as a failure.

The sort of failure that Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha, Graham Murty and Steven Gerrard could only dream of.

Rodgers won seven trophies out of seven with Neil Lennon taking his handover to a third successive treble.

Since Charles Green took his Tribute Act to Brechin City in 2012 the Gullible & Deluded have celebrated three trophy wins with current boss Phil Clement too expensive to be sacked, 10 games into this season A Proper Manager trails Jimmy Thelin by 12 points.

Beating RB Leipzig with such style was painful enough for Keown but on Friday Rodgers had the cheek to remind his media conference that most of those putting the boot in after losing to Borussia Dortmund were located within the SCOTTISH media.

After the doing in Dortmund a winter of discontent was expected, perhaps with renewed hope across the city but resurgent Celtic are now hitting new heights while anger levels at Ibrox have turned James Tavernier into public enemy number 1.

It is a very unhealthy mix to deal with, spilling out his anger and frustration in the Daily Mail Keown writes:

Ahead of his side’s campaign-changing draw at Atalanta last month, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers expressed the view that taking part in European competition was ‘an opportunity to beat you over the head with a stick’.

He claimed expectations at that level of football were disproportionate. That people — presumably journalists and pundits — spend months saving up beastly stories to write in anticipation of the club falling flat on their faces.

Errant nonsense, of course. Anyone who has any knowledge of the average newsgatherer can tell you that, for most, the level of forward planning in the multimedia maelstrom extends little further than just getting to the end of the day and settling on whether it should be grape or grain for late-night succour.

What’s more, given Celtic’s abysmal record in UEFA tournament play over the last decade or so, the idea anyone would have to wait months to lay the boot into them is ludicrous. Their failings have been far more frequent than that.

Even on Friday, though, in the wake of rose petals being scattered indiscriminately in his path in the wake of his side’s 3-1 win over RB Leipzig and plans for his eventual beatification resurrected after all that Leicester City unpleasantness a few years back, Rodgers was still at it.

Asked about that quite spellbinding Champions League victory over the side lying second in the Bundesliga making critics down south eat their words, the Northern Irishman replied: ‘And up north as well. Don’t worry about that. There was plenty up here too.

‘I’ve had (critics) since I started coaching and moved into management, so that won’t change until I retire — and, even then, it will probably continue.’

Look, part of the old Celtic schtick has always been that the world’s against them. A chunk of their fanbase would go into withdrawal-related shock if it somehow stopped.

A matter of months away from securing their 13th league title in 14 years — sorry, Aberdeen fans, but that is the hard truth — and everyone from referees to the SFA and the wider ‘establishment’ still have it in for them. Managers and players have always tapped into that and played to the gallery when appropriate.

Correct Gary. Already this season Greg Aitken denied Celtic a penalty at home to Kilmarnock, Alan Muir did the same at Motherwell, even the SFA owned up to it.

Add in Andrew Dallas and the squinty lines to deny Kyogo Furuhashi a goal in the Glasgow Derby and you have a full house of ‘honest mistakes’ going one way from the three elite level VAR’s employed full time by the SFA.

Keown added:

The manager has clearly been sensitive to criticism since coming back for a second spin on the merry-go-round at Parkhead.

Last season, most of it came from his own fans. The football was largely awful until his team stepped up a gear in the closing stages as Rangers came down with the collywobbles. Rodgers did look and feel, at times, like a guy who had lost his mojo.

Yes, at the end of the campaign, he expressed the view he had been treated ‘like a novice’ and took great exception to suggestions he looked like he was going through the motions. But he has to know that this level of examination is part and parcel of his job.

Harsh questions were always going to be present — and necessary — until he offered proof of his ability to find a way of getting big results at that level.

Well, he has now. And with that, it has become clearer to see why he is back in Glasgow. Much more of it and he might have someone else asking if he fancies another crack at the English Premiership too.

For now, though, in the same way Celtic supporters have learned to make peace with him post-Leicester, the Brodge ought to let the red mist clear and accept that people are not actively sitting around waiting for him to fail.

‘Brodge’ will outlast Baldy across the city, by Christmas time he could have taken Celtic past the combined trophy tally of both Ibrox clubs, the last crumb of comfort could be trampled into the ground.

If that comes alongside a Champions League campaign extending beyond January there will be much more pain for the Scottish based critics to grit their teeth and smile through. It could go off the radar.

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