Brendan Rodgers has fired back at the media for their criticism of Celtic in the Champions League this season.
Celtic suffered a heavy 7-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on matchday two which sparked an avalanche of negativity towards the Hoops boss and his players.
With Celtic now preparing to face Atlalanta, Rodgers was asked if he felt the criticism aimed at Celtic after the Dortmund defeat was unjust, especially from the media in England, due to the gulf in budgets between both clubs.
Rodgers took aim at opportunistic media criticism of Celtic
The Hoops boss pulled no punches as he answered the question and said that some of the media actually save up criticism for ‘months’ just to take a potshot at Celtic.
Rodgers said at Celtic’s pre-match Atalanta press conference, “I’m not going to comment on that. I think that if you’ve got any sort of common sense and logic, you would see that, but at Celtic, it doesn’t count. You don’t get the leeway.
“That’s the reality of it. It’s an opportunity for people to beat you over the head with a stick. And that’s clear.
“So I’m not going to get too emotional about it. I don’t listen to it much. It’s absolutely a perfect storm for some people when Celtic lose, or especially when we come into Europe, that they will write a great piece on how poor and actually been saving it for probably a number of months.
“So that’s the opportunity to do it. So I can’t change that and I’m not even going to be bothered to try to be honest, there’s no leeway given.
“So, we just have to concentrate on our own club. Keep trying to improve and see what it takes us.”
What the media have said about Celtic in the Champions League
That night in Dortmund is one that the Celtic fans will want to forget but the barrage of criticism the club got is clearly something Rodgers has never forgotten.
Robbie Savage was pulled up by Chris Sutton for his ‘easy’ attack on Celtic as the Hoops hero highlighted the failures of Man United in Europe considering their vast resources.
Owen Hargreaves and Martin Keown also criticised Celtic for not changing their tactical approach in Europe with the former Arsenal man telling the Parkhead club that they ‘can’t pretend’ in the Champions League.
However whilst the majority of media coverage was stinging, Celtic were defended by Jamie Carragher who pointed out the disparity in quality between the Scottish league and the rest of Europe.
And even Allan Pardew was realistic about Celtic after their heavy Champions Leauge loss in Dortmund pointing out that even though they are a huge club, the financial state of Scottish football means that the Bhoys struggle to compete in the transfer market with English Championship clubs.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
