Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers hits back at recent Chris Sutton criticism

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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has defended one of his recent team selection decisions that drew criticism from high-profile pundit Chris Sutton.

The former Bhoys striker questioned Rodgers’ use of youngster Daniel Kelly in the recent defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle, writing in his Daily Record column that it was “no environment” for the emerging 18-year-old prospect.

Kelly got a further half an hour under his belt against Livingston in the Scottish Cup last week and, for Rodgers, criticism of his involvement is something to take issue with.

The Celtic boss is a big fan of the young midfielder and reckons it’s his responsibility to ensure the Bhoys are looking towards the future by giving Academy talents a chance to impress.

Brendan Rodgers on bringing through Daniel Kelly at Celtic

Rodgers didn’t mention Sutton specifically but did reference the media noise around his use of Kelly at Tynecastle, with the outspoken pundit the most high-profile person to raise it.

The Celtic boss said in a media conference today [Celtic YouTube]: “I think anywhere on the pitch, my focus is always first and foremost on the young players. I think it was one of the first things I said when I came into the club in terms of the overall vision, is obviously to win titles, to play attacking football, and that’s the demand for Celtic. But to do it with as many of the young players from our academy as we possibly can.

“That is very difficult to get nine and ten players but certainly, this club has consistently had lots of really young players. Then you are trying to balance that between this mentality that the team win every single game.

“I read somewhere the other week, that we were actually being criticised for bringing a young player into the team which I find incredible. We bring Daniel Kelly on against Hearts – it was supposedly not what should’ve been done.

“Thankfully I look after the short and the longer term of the club, and that’s bringing young players in to develop, to improve, give them that experience and then hopefully they become better players because they need to get that experience.

“Hopefully, we can do that in the coming years, get those players in to help support the team and eventually become first-team players. That’s something that I will always focus on.”

Kelly has only made four appearances for the Bhoys but has looked sharp and ready to push on to establish himself within the squad as a rotation option. Every player starts somewhere.

Sutton’s overall point was about squad depth at a critical time of the season, which is fair to an extent, but emerging talents do need to learn what it takes to win tense, pressurised matches at Celtic.

It’s better to invest minutes in Kelly for example than keep a David Turnbull around longer than he wants to be here, with no upside on long-term planning.