‘Listen’… Brendan Rodgers leaves BBC man in no doubt just how important the Celtic fans are to his players

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Celtic surged 16 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership after beating Dundee United at Celtic Park last night.

The buildup to the game was overshadowed with the fallout of Rodgers’ criticism of the Celtic support after the win over St Mirren.

The Celtic fans bit back at Rodgers last night as they sung songs of past heroes as the Parkhead crowd left the Hoops boss in no doubt that they will sing whatever songs they please.

Rodgers superbly addressed the Celtic Park songs as he drew a line under the controversy with a nice little quip about the support missing out the kitman in their renditions from the stand.

That should now be the end of the matter but it didn’t stop a BBC reporter from asking Rodgers how a nervous Parkhead support can negatively affect his players on the park.

Brendan Rodgers explains how Celtic fan criticism can affect his players

Speaking before Celtic beat Dundee United, Rodgers was asked what sort of impact an anxious Celtic Park crowd can have on his players when the Hoops boss pointed out that this isn’t just something that happens at Parkhead.

Rodgers told BBC Radio Scotland, “It happens in every ground, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t just Celtic Park. This happens in every stadium.

“But of course, the impact for players can be different when you get 60 odd thousand.”

Indeed, the size of the Parkhead crown means that any negativity, or positivity, is magnified as many voices makes much more noise.

But whilst Rodgers was recognised how that can negatively impact the team, the Celtic manager was at pains to point out just how important and brillaint the Parkhead support are at spurring his team on.

Brendan Rodgers hails ‘massive’ Celtic support

“But listen, I don’t want to put legs onto this story,” continued Rodgers, “This was something I mentioned after the St Mirren game. We won the game. The Celtic support is what makes Celtic a football club.

“The passion, enthusiasm, everything that we get here and this club status is built around the supporters.

“Okay, so let’s, let’s not put down too far down the route. We will come into a really busy period where sometimes the game might not be as what we would want, all of us, and that’s the players included.

“But that support is absolutely massive for us, and it will be tonight and it will be in the other games. So for me, it was something just to remind everyone of the feeling for the players that the importance of that backing and support, which it always has, is amazing. So we want to just stay with that.”

That should now, be the end of that as Celtic have important fixtures coming up over the next few weeks.

With Ross County and Dundee up next in the league, Celtic have fixtures against Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup and then Young Boys in the Champions Leauge as Rodgers looks to continue the club’s relentless charge to silverware and European qualification.

This sideshow will not help matters but it’s great that the Celtic manager and the supporters are now looking to put this behind them and continue their good progress across all competitions this season.