For the first time under the tenure of Brendan Rodgers, Celtic feel challenged and threatened. The team has lost some crucial players, missed out on Champions League qualification and have struggled to score goals freely. Their opposition also took this opportunity to land some scathing attacks on them.
Kilmarnock’s veteran striker Kris Boyd earlier claimed that it was quite evident that there was a dressing room divide (At Celtic Park). Rodgers refuted those claims but as they say, there is no smoke without fire so the speculations continued doing the rounds.
Boyd said last month,”Are they really that bothered to be playing in a Celtic jersey right now? Not for me. And, when you look at that, there is a divide in the dressing-room, there is no doubt about it. It was quite clear.”
However, club captain Scott Brown who is currently injured wasn’t going to take such talks silently decided to hit back recently. Brown was quoted as saying,”I don’t read it(News about dressing room divide) so it doesn’t bother me. I was told about it. People can have their own opinion and I think people can say what they want but they don’t know what happens daily in the dressing-room. We play with a smile on our faces as we have done under this manager and we’ll continue to do it. There are a load of pundits who just want to say something but that’s just people keeping themselves in a job. We stick together and we have a great bunch of lads. We do our talking on the field.”
One cannot deny that some players have been a disruptive force to the team as it is never ideal for a player to make himself unavailable for selection even though he is a hundred per cent fit. We are talking about Dedryck Boyata but to be fair to the defender, he has done well for his side after the window closed. But one can understand how the news of dressing room disruptions came about in the aftermath of this situation.
It’s good to see such comments from the club captain. Rodgers and the players looked committed for the time being even though the manager was one of the favourites for the top job at Aston Villa. This is the first time in the last few years they seem to be challenged and people are going out making all kind of speculations regarding the downfall of the Hoops. One cannot expect to dominate at the top level for so long as other teams are also trying their best to match the Glaswegian giants.
However, it’s still not as bad as some people suggest as the Bhoys sit three points adrift from the top of the table. Missing out on the Champions League qualification was a significant setback but the Europa League gives them a more realistic chance to move out of the group.
