Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers quickly changes his tune as arrogant post-match comments made about Rangers in December linger over him.
The Parkhead manager is a man under pressure after bottling a seven point lead in the title race and sparking a Premiership battle not seen for the best part of 13 years.
Rangers, who continue to return to routine victories under the leadership of Philippe Clement, look an increasingly tough team to beat and are emerging as title favourites.
But for now it’s neck-and-neck and apparently, despite flippantly dismissing Philippe Clement as the fifth boss he’d swatted away at Parkhead, Brendan Rodgers expected no less.
Brendan Rodgers “expected” Rangers title challenge
Whilst Philippe Clement refused to be drawn on Brendan Rodgers or Celtic following the win over Livingston, Brendan Rodgers did give some soundbites about Rangers over the weekend.
You could almost see the Parkhead boss’s shirt tightening around his neck as he hailed Rangers and claimed he “expected nothing more” than a title race.
“I expected nothing more,” said Rodgers. “You come into every season and you expect that.
“I think some people will maybe feel it can be ten, fifteen points but any sort of competitive club and team will always make sure that they’re there to fight.
“But so are we. We have dropped points in too many games but you got to keep fighting and you got to keep working and very soon we’ll have our squad back.
“But all we can concentrate on ourselves. No other team’s dropped points today other than ourselves so we have to clearly focus on our own game.”
Celtic boss swatted away Rangers manager challenge
Contrast these comments with arrogant comments Rodgers made in the aftermath of the 2-1 Celtic Old Firm victory over Rangers in December.
Using that old ‘can you see the Rangers coming’ shtick of 2016 – where Rodgers faced a Rangers in recovery – the comments certainly looked capable of coming back to haunt the ex-Liverpool manager.
“Over my two spells here, Scott, I’ve worked against five Rangers managers,” said Rodgers. “And every time Rangers were coming.
“Every time at some point. So for me, it’s normal, I don’t you know, like I said the other day if I listen to the media and the press then we’d be in constant crisis mode and constant fear of Rangers.
“But it’s the fifth manager now. So for me my focus is only Celtic and concentrated very much on here and a lot of the stuff that maybe does go around thankfully I ignore it.”
The gleefulness, the arrogance, the overconfidence; it’s not so well placed now.
We had a sneaky suspicion the Celtic manager would live to rue these comments and Rangers fans have them bookmarked should Philippe Clement do the business this season.
There’s still plenty to do between now and the end of the season but it begs the question for Rodgers; can you see us now?
