In one of the more bizarre events to occur yesterday was David Tanner’s criticism of how Celtic dealt with Jack Hendry.
The former Sky Sports presenter had a few words to say on Hendry’s lack of development at Parkhead. Indeed, he actually seemed to point the finger at Celtic for Hendry’s failure in making it here. Instead of putting any responsibility on the player, he tried to state that Brendan Rodgers “failed” the centre-back.
Hendry, of course, sealed a move to Melbourne City earlier this week in a bid to kick-start his career. He hasn’t played for Celtic since a 36-minute cameo role back in February, and has most recently been playing with the development squad.
However, to say that it’s Celtic’s fault in any way, shape or form is absolutely staggering.
Hendry had his chances and he didn’t take them
Tanner offers absolutely no base for his argument here. He simply says that it was poor player development because he was in the Scotland team a year ago? It might have escaped Tanner’s memory, but Hendry wasn’t exactly popular at Celtic a year ago either.
He makes it out as if he was one of Scotland’s first-choice centre-backs for the Euro 2020 qualifiers. Nah, he was given a friendly against Portugal whilst the nation was experimenting with reserves. Let’s not big it up to be a bigger deal than what it was.
If Tanner can remember, Celtic gave Hendry his chances in the spotlight. He was part of some crucial Champions League qualifiers as Rodgers placed firm trust in him at the start of the 2018/19 season. Hendry was extremely poor, yet still Rodgers kept him in the side for a while before it was clear he wasn’t up to it.
Yes, it’s ultimately down to the club to help their players get better. But you can’t do that for everyone. If certain players don’t have the talent then what can the club do? I take it Tanner would agree that Rangers were responsible for the likes of Kevin Kyle and Fransisco Sandaza not making it? It’s totally baseless.
Hendry arrived at Parkhead with apparent potential. But in the vast majority of the 27 appearances he’s made for Celtic he’s looked shaky (Transfermarkt). This isn’t a football club where you get as much time as you want before you decide to cut out the errors. Celtic also can’t be blamed for not loaning him out sooner – clubs clearly weren’t interested.
To say Celtic failed Hendry is laughable and most likely mischievous from former Sky Sports presenter Tanner. If he was looking for a reaction then he got one. His comments, at the end of the day, have nothing to back them up.
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