SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

I think there was always going to be some fallout from our result at Ibrox last Thursday, but I didn’t expect it to be our manager falling out with the support! Although my suggestion to take over from Postecoglu was Andoni Iraola, now doing sterling work at Bournemouth, I’ve been supportive of Brendan Rodgers from the moment he was rehired. It probably helped that I hadn’t called him the rat or any of the other pejorative terms when he left us six years ago; as far as I was concerned, even though I wasn’t too happy (to put it mildly) with his timing,I felt that his position was being undermined by the CEO at the time, and therefore I had no real axe to grind when he walked back through the door. 

Since then, with three trophies out of four  and a healthy 13 point lead in the league, I’ve had little to complain about. Maybe his mild acceptance of that first transfer window eighteen months ago. Maybe the occasional poor performance. Most definitely his rigid adherence to “the system”, something which I feel is a huge negative in certain games which are crying out for a different approach. Certainly at Ibrox, where his record reads WDL, with four goals scored and six lost. But in general, he has my support, and I think that is now the case for the majority of the fans. 

Or it was. I certainly didn’t agree with his outburst criticising the fans on Sunday. Apart from implying that there is a sense of entitlement amongst the support-not wise,that one-because of our reaction last week, he had a right pop at the fans for singing in praise of a prospective signing at the expense of the current incumbent. That the current incumbent in question is Greg Taylor calls his judgement, in my opinion, on this matter into question.

Taylor signed for us in 2019, and will shortly reach 200 games for the club. That’s proof enough that the manager rates him-all three of them! He was probably best for us under AP, when as in inverted left back he was told to stay on that side. Neil Lennon played him as an orthodox left back, but to say he had trouble settling in is an understatement. His performances under BR have been much better, but by not sticking to the left side, nowhere near as good as previously. And with his contract expiring in June and no apparent intention of signing a new one, is he really the player that BR wants to go into battle for? 

Surely there are better ideas. Better battles to fight, if he must. Certainly wiser ones. I’ve no real problem with playing him while he is still our player, but I wouldn’t be picking a fight over him. Or over the fact that the fans were showing their approval of a potential new signing, because that is something we have done for decades. Even for Maurice Johnston while he was at both Watford and Nantes and before he was Judas! And I certainly remember “Johnny Doyle on the wing” being sung while he was still at Ayr United. 

Brendan Rodgers knows more about football than I ever will. He also knows more about using the various media to get his message across. His comments on Sunday will have been made quite deliberately and with aforethought. So he knew what he was doing,and he is smart enough to have second-guessed the reaction. More importantly, it is a storm in a teacup, and will be forgotten about before very long. 

Until the next time there are grumbles, and grumbles have a habit of festering and multiplying. A wise general chooses his battles. Hopefully a good result tomorrow night will put things right. 

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Above article by BMCUWP