There Have Been Serious Attacks On Brendan, From Multiple Avenues.
Over the last seven days, the Scottish media has asked if the “Brendan Bubble” has burst.
They have promoted a suggestion that he should resign before he is shamed by inevitable failure because “Sevco are coming.”
His record as a manager has been questioned again, casting back to his days at Liverpool.
And at the same time he’s been linked with English clubs.
They need to make their minds up; is Brendan Rodgers a dud or is he a genius who simply can’t take Celtic forward and is simply marking time until he returns to England?
Some of the coverage of this been unbelievable.
Some of it has been disgraceful.
This week, the national press attacked him via his wife’s former husband, by publishing lurid details from the inquest into his suicide. Some of the publications shamefully sought to suggest that it was Brendan himself who was responsible for it. Of all the low-order tactics, it was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t even going to write about it, but it fits a pattern.
On top of that, his shrieking stalker in The Daily Star continues to look for any negative story he can find so he can blow it up into a hysterical headline. If he was the only one I would ignore him, but the press smells blood and is now making Brendan the target.
It was good to hear him at the press conference today, telling the hacks that he continues to believe in himself and the team and that he continues to see his future at Celtic in spite of the European setbacks. He is preaching realism, pragmatism, calm.
This is all to the good. The media must hate it.
They will not stop putting him under the spotlight though. In fact, they will increase the pressure.