Former Celtic midfielder has gone public with criticism of Brendan Rodgers, which has come as a surprise. Benyu was signed in 2017 by Rodgers as a project signing with his only appearances coming in the National League. The move for the English born Zimbabwean was a bizarre one but even more surprising is the fact that the player blames Rodgers for his poor career trajectory.
Benyu was brought into the club with the promise of being one to watch for the future but potentially being in and around the first team. His debut came against Linfield in the Champions League qualifier, which Celtic won 4-0. As reported by Sun Sport, Benyu moaned about Rodgers, appearing to blame him for taking him to Celtic.
“When he (Rodgers) called me, I was happy because he is a big manager, who had managed (Philippe) Coutinho, (Raheem) Sterling and others.
“As an 18-year-old teenager, I couldn’t resist that.
“At first, I was involved in playing games but all of a sudden I was banished from the first team.
“I was made to train with the reserves and (was) kicked out of the changing room as well.
“It was a horrible experience but I will say that it helped me to grow.
“For all these years, I have been asking myself the question why he did that to me.
“I was not given a season and I remember several times I went to his (Rodgers’) office asking why I was being treated as if I was not liked in the building.
“I was ignored all the time I made those efforts, so in the end I accepted (it) and moved on.
“Until now, I always think about it, asking myself what I really did wrong, and I can’t think of anything because this is the same team that lured me there at first.”
The reality was that Benju wasn’t good enough for Celtic. After being handed a surprise first start in a youthful side to play Lee McCulloch’s Killie at Rugby Park. Celtic won the game but
Benyu was never going to get in the team ahead of Stuart Armstrong, Callum McGregor, Scott Brown, Tom Rogic, Nir Bitton and the recently signed Olivier Ntcham. The ex-Ipswich kid’s career trajectory shows that he wasn’t good enough to be at Celtic. The player was loaned out to Aldershot and Oldham in an attempt to get game time and also had some time over in Sweden working with Henrik Larsson. He was subsequently released by Celtic.
Boy he has a big mouth. That’s part of his problem.
Seems to forget one of his first statements on arrival was something like ” being here will put me in the shop window for bigger clubs in the EPL”.
So even if he was good enough as a player, which history and his career show he was not. There was no chance the fans were going to embrace him.
History would have forgotten him by now if he didn’t whinge like a bitch at how hard done by he is.