Brendan Rodgers today gave the perfect answer when the hacks asked him about the crass, ridiculous, highly personal comments from Joey Barton whilst on TalkSport the other day. He dismissed it as “noise”, and said his focus was on the football.
Brendan is a class act. I knew he’d respond with something like that, refusing even to discuss is, deeming it a media issue and not one about which he’s even remotely concerned. If one of the symptoms of midlife crisis is having self-esteem issues then clearly Brendan’s not as affected by it as some have suggested he might be.
““It is irrelevant to me,” Brendan said. “In modern football there is lots of noise, lots of things that are said, it is something that doesn’t bother me. My focus is purely on football and doing the very best I possibly can for my club and that’s all I will ever concentrate on. I don’t think it’s a topic, it might be for you media guys but it is nothing to me. I just get on with my work, focus on my job and do the very best for my club.”
This isn’t the first time the media’s tried to rattle his self-confidence; the “David Moyes was first choice for your job” stories, about which he was asked to comment, were just last month and he handled them in an equally deft fashion.
This is a guy who doesn’t need conventional reinforcement; he has quite a strong sense of self, and if he did need a wee pick me up he only has to think back to the tens of thousands of Celtic fans who turned up to see him unveiled as boss.
Celtic are now doing their talking where it matters; out on the park. The whole club is focussed on what counts now, and Scott Brown’s decision to retire from international football is another positive step; he looks revitalised under Brendan, and so does James Forrest, who I’ve been extremely harsh on in recent months but looks determined to make me eat every single word of it. I have loved watching him in recent games.
There’s a sense that everyone at Celtic Park is now zeroed in on doing the business and that nothing is going to get in the way of it.
Long may this continue, and long may the other mob mouth off and make bold predictions which, sooner or later, they’re going to have to back up on the pitch.
I’d bet on how that particular story will end.
In Brendan We Trust.
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