The Celtic boss was at his snarky, smug best with the hacks last night. It was glorious.

In the aftermath of last night’s game, Brendan Rodgers sat in front of the media, basking in the well-deserved praise like a seasoned professional.

He took his plaudits with a quiet confidence, but couldn’t resist firing back at his critics, especially those who were gloating after the Dortmund result.

“I’m not sure that was pragmatic enough for some of you,” he quipped, a line that landed perfectly in the room. They must hate our manager on nights like that—nights when he’s in his element, standing tall and unapologetically proud, commanding the stage.

We all know what Rodgers can be like at times.

One of my most vivid memories of him isn’t even from his time at Celtic but from when he was at Leicester City. After masterminding their FA Cup triumph—a success conveniently forgotten by many of his critics—he was asked about the achievement. Instead of focusing on the team, he immediately pivoted to his own record in cup finals. “I’ve won them all,” he said. I remember watching and thinking, “you smug git.”

So, I can only imagine how it must feel for the Brendan haters in the media, particularly the pro-Ibrox stooges, who see him as some kind of malevolent mastermind in Celtic’s history. For them, nights like that, when he’s at his strutting, arrogant best, must be infuriating.

There was a time when Rodgers would at least pretend to have a modicum of respect for these people. But if he hadn’t learned by the end of his first stint at Celtic, last season would have certainly done the trick.

The media had been on his case from the moment he returned—rewriting history, dissecting his record, and declaring it meaningless. At the first fan media conference, I asked him how he felt about the revisionism, and he famously replied, “I’ll see them in May.”

And he held to that promise, rubbing their noses in Celtic’s success long before May even arrived, as his revitalised team stormed back to the top of the league. Rodgers railed against the narratives concocted from day one. He told the assembled journalists that this Celtic side would write its own story, and he was right.

His arrogance and ego stem from a place of supreme self-confidence, backed up by achievements. He isn’t someone who talks for the sake of hearing his own voice. When Rodgers has a point to make, he makes it. And these people have irked him enough that now he’ll do it right to their faces. He doesn’t care how it looks, and why should he?

As long as he keeps winning, he can keep backing it up.

It’s not just empty talk—he delivers. Although I wasn’t particularly confident we’d get something out of the game last night, I knew how Rodgers would respond if we did. And why shouldn’t he respond like that? Why shouldn’t he tell the hacks a few home truths? Why shouldn’t he rub their noses in it? This man knows more about football than they ever will. He’s forgotten more about the game than these critics will ever know in their lifetimes.

When we’ve lost heavily in the Champions League, it hasn’t been to backwater teams. The clubs who have taken us apart are the best in the business—teams that can rip almost anyone to shreds with ease. Yes, we conceded five goals in one half against Dortmund. But just two nights ago, Dortmund themselves shipped five goals in a single half against Real Madrid. And we were slaughtered for losing heavily to the same Real Madrid team two years ago.

The truth is, when these sides are on their game, they can demolish anyone, even each other. Give a team like Madrid or Dortmund enough space, and they’ll punish you. Rodgers knows this, you know this, I know this. So why is it that some of these so-called pundits seem to forget it? The same ones who spent the last few weeks hammering us over the Dortmund result know exactly what elite football is like, but they choose to ignore it when it suits them.

To be fair, even Ewan Murray, who is often one of our harshest critics, admitted last night that Rodgers had earned his little jibe. While I criticised him recently for backing Steve Clarke while giving our manager a hard time, I also said that I respect him as a writer, and last night he conceded that it was a fine result and well-deserved.

He even suggested that Rodgers may yet have the last laugh.

But, in truth, Rodgers has been laughing at these people since the moment he came back. That he felt inclined to make his dig last night shows just how fed up he is with them, and how little regard he has for their nonsense these days.

And honestly? More power to him.