Exclusive Interview! “Brendan Rodgers is an exceptional manager and Celtic are lucky to have him,” Willie Wallace

WILLIE WALLACE is up in the North East of Scotland at the moment with his wife Olive. They are visiting Hazel and her family. Hazel is Olive’s sister. Both are lovely ladies.

Their wee brother is Alex who is married to my big sister Ann, who sent us a photograph of the semi-final ticket queues outside Tynecastle earlier in the week. Back in 2013 I published Willie’s autobiography Wille Wallace Heart of a Lion and have got to know Willie very well over the years. I have spoken to him about Celtic – on and off the record – often and have done the same with other Lisbon Lions, including Jim Craig, who writes for The Celtic Star, the late Tommy Gemmell, Charlie Gallagher and Big Yogi – every single one of them will have been critical of Celtic during these conversations. Ronny Deila and his team took pelters from them!

Willie called me last Sunday morning when he was in Kirkintilloch and I tried to get him to travel up to McDiarmid Park that afternoon to see Celtic take on St Johnstone. Unfortunately other things were arranged and Willie couldn’t go to the game.

I called him last night to discuss the fall-out to the rather controversial press interviews that had appeared in yesterday’s media and extensively reported across the Celtic fans media. We covered Willie’s comments on The Celtic Star, gave some context and background to explain the comments while stating that we could not agree with much of what Willie was saying.

That call went to voicemail so I left a message for Willie, asking him to call me back. He called earlier this morning, explaining that he had no signal where he was last night. He hasn’t seen any of the newspapers from yesterday and is not on social media so is entirely unaware of the backlash to his comments. He was more than surprised, he was shocked.

I talked through the reported comments and Willie couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

On Tom Rogic being slow and Willie being able to beat him in a race, the Lisbon Lion asked why I didn’t mention what he said about Rogic having magic feet, and the delight that he felt watching the big Australian dance past those Aberdeen defenders to score that sensational goal in the Scottish Cup Final to conclude an Invincible treble?

“Yeah I made a joke about Tom Rogic’s lack of pace but only after singing his praises. The goal he scored in the Scottish Cup final was one few Celtic players could have scored. He may lack pace but he has brilliantly quick feet, I rate him very highly,” Willie said today.

“And if Rogic did have more pace he’d be at one of the top Spanish or English sides and not at Celtic, in the Scottish Premiership, so it’s a blessing in disguise really,” Willie added.

We moved on to discuss his Daniel Arzani comments, the controversial bit being this:

“If I was the board at Celtic, I’d have kicked the manager’s arse out the door.

“Why would you take Arzani for two years if he isn’t going to play in your team? The kid, for me, will finish up a better player than James Forrest.”

“Yeah that doesn’t read too well and it is NOT what I meant. Look, I live in Australia and have done so for a very long time. You forget what the Scottish press are like.

“What I was saying was IF the manager had signed a player and then didn’t plan to play him for 2 years then what’s the point, especially as we have seen that this Celtic side has been crying out for quality additions to the squad.

“I said IF the manager had signed him, I don’t know if he has or not but I do know that the manager should be deciding on players coming in and no-one else,” Willie said, adding “If that’s not the case, then that’s not right.”

The Lisbon Lion has watched Arzani’s career progress and was delighted that he was heading to Parkhead where he was sure he’d make an immediate impact.

“I know enough about Daniel Arzani and have seen him play more that most Celtic supporters. I know he is a genuine talent and I believe he will do very well at Celtic if he gets his chance.

“James Forrest is a player I have always rated highly and who I encouraged the Celtic support to get behind when he was getting some stick a 3 or 4 years ago, he scored 4 goals last weekend. I believe that Arzani can be an even better player for Celtic. That’s what I saw saying. The boy is a good player.

“In Australia people were surprised that Arzani did not get named in the Celtic squad for Europe and that has resulted in many asking why is he at Celtic. It would have been a bigger story in Australia than in Scotland I suspect.

“And as I said, I live over there, I don’t see the Scottish papers and don’t use the internet so I am unaware of the politics of it all. I’ve got a better idea now though,” Willie stated.

Moving on to his comments about Brendan Rodgers and in particular the manager’s decision to rotate the squad ahead of the two European

“Brendan Rodgers has nothing to prove to me. He has been an excellent Celtic manager and the two trebles he has won speak for themselves.

“The game is all about opinions though and I don’t think that it is the way to go to rule Celtic out of winning a European trophy again. It’s hard, we won the European Cup in 1967 when we were the underdogs, and we could possibly have won it a couple of time more.

“Jock Stein never told us we couldn’t win it. Martin O’Neill got his team to Seville and was unlucky to lose the UEFA Cup Final to a team that went on to win the Champions League the next season. We can’t stop believing.

“Maybe Brendan made the remarks when he was frustrated at the failure to sign one or two players over the summer,” Willie said.

On the squad rotation that has cost Celtic points at Tynecastle and again at Rugby Park, Willie has this to say.

“When I played for Celtic the most important game was always the next one. I played for Hearts too and I know what it means to them to beat Celtic. They would have been rubbing their hands with delight seeing the Celtic team sheet back in August and they went on to win that game.

“That set up their excellent start to the season and they are still sitting top of the table. The team selection that day was a error in my view and all I was doing was expressing my opinion. And what happened next? Celtic went to Athens and lost so went out of the Champions League.

“We’ll never know if I’m right but if you treat the next game as the most important that will stand you in good stead. That’s how Jock Stein operated.

“We’ll never know but a full strength Celtic side might have won at Tynecastle and taken that momentum to Athens and got a better result there too – that’s the point I was making,” Willie continued.

Wille was genuinely surprised at yesterday’s backlash to his interview and until this morning knew nothing whatsoever about it.

“I’m a Celtic supporter first and foremost, since the day I signed for the club and until my dying day. I’ve never kicked Celtic – except when I played against them! I’ll have a word with Brendan to put matters right with him, as I said I rate him very highly, but we all make mistakes,” Willie continued, “I played the game in an era when you were given criticism when you deserved it and plenty of praise when you had earned it. Brendan, like everyone else in the game, makes mistakes but as I said I think he’s been an excellent Celtic manager.”

You get the feeling that Willie will be bending Brendan’s ears about one or two things when they speak and Brendan will be delighted to chat to the Lisbon Lion who at 78 remains as passionate about Celtic as the rest of us.