Yesterday Rodgers showed that the Celtic boss has the class Ferguson does not.

Yesterday morning, Brendan Rodgers held his Saturday press conference at Celtic Park and once again echoed sentiments expressed by this website just a short time before. Rodgers has an amazing ability to articulate what’s on everyone else’s mind.

This is not a small gift. There have been Celtic managers before him who would not have been so clear in echoing the thoughts of supporters. But he does.

In the fortnight since the game at Celtic Park, where Cerny sprayed Celtic fans with water to celebrate his side’s third goal, there has been stony silence from Hampden. There has been stony silence from Celtic Park as well. The only comment out of Ibrox came from the manager defending his player, saying he wants to see them get emotional, get excited, and celebrate.

Yes, even if that causes trouble in the stands.

What amazed me most is that Ferguson was allowed to sit in front of the media and trot out that line without anyone contradicting him and suggesting that, perhaps, there was a time and a place for such celebrations—and just maybe, a late goal in a Glasgow derby wasn’t one of them. At least it would have been some form of criticism of what came out of Ferguson’s dumb mouth.

Of course, it was left to our manager yesterday to set the record straight. He once again notified us of what the club won’t; that Celtic are busy on this issue and are not letting it go. Nor should they. It is a scandal that there have been no SFA sanctions already, and if our club is pressing them to impose some, then it’s entirely justified.

I don’t know if there’s still a police investigation ongoing. Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. But it’s not a stretch to say that this was conduct liable to cause a breach of the peace at the very least.

But the media decided to defend the player on one hand and they refused to hold the Ibrox boss to account on the other.

So, of course, it was down to Rodgers to take this issue on, and he did. He said he believed the conduct showed disrespect and a disregard for public safety.

“I think it’s a lack of respect if somehow a player runs up a touchline and he’s squirting a water bottle in a supporter’s face,” he said, before adding the most important words anyone has spoken on the whole issue. “I certainly wouldn’t want my players to do it.”

Sure, he elaborated a little, saying there were lines players shouldn’t cross and that people should keep their heads, consider the fixture, the circumstances, and the environment in which they’re doing these things.

But none of that was quite as crucial as his confirmation of what every single one of us already knew the moment it happened—Rodgers would never have tolerated that. Rodgers would never have let a Celtic player do that.

We have a manager here who knows this fixture too well. We have a manager with a sense of responsibility, and after this is all done, I hope there are people who will acknowledge that. We have a manager who sees the bigger picture. They don’t.

Rodgers is capable of detaching himself from personal feelings about things. Ferguson and his coaching team loathe Celtic so much that their first instinct was probably to act out. In some ways they are fortunate that they got to live vicariously through their player, and that’s what Ferguson confirmed while sitting in front of the media.

This is a poisonous and reckless Ibrox regime. The more we hear from the takeover talk, the more interested I become in what the consequences will be for the club’s so-called cultural ethos.

As far as I’m concerned, conduct like Ferguson’s puts a big black mark beside his name as far as the Americans are concerned. If they’ve got any sense, they’ll have read those remarks and thought to themselves, well, you’ll not do.

Anyone who defends that kind of conduct won’t do.

The irony, of course, is that Ferguson is defending that kind of behaviour at exactly the time when his club is cracking down on misbehaviour in the stands. I’m going to write more about that tomorrow morning.

But for now, it’s enough to know that in the past 24 hours, both managers have sat in front of the press. One has behaved in a crass, infantile manner, trying to defend something indefensible. The other has acted like a professional and laid it out there for people to see the difference. Rodgers would never have let a Celtic player do what Cerny did. Ferguson thinks it’s okay.

And that’s a difference not just in philosophy but in their overall mindsets. One of these men is a serious professional. The other is still just a corner boy.

The latest Trinity Tims podcast is out now.