Chris Sutton has had another rant against Brendan Rodgers this morning in his newspaper column, curiously having a rant about the Celtic manager’s strange decision this week to allow Alexandro Bernabei to leave on loan despite having failed to bring in a left-back replacement in the January transfer window.
Most Celtic supporters though will probably see the manager’s point, after Bernabei sold the jerseys with some woeful defending in the closing stages of the recent match against Kilmarnock at Celtic Park that cost Celtic two points. That was enough to convince the Celtic manager that he could not trust Bernabei as he informed the player that his game-time going forward would be limited. A move therefore suits all parties as the boy wants to play.
Sutton also considers the events at Tynecastle last Sunday and took the chance to hit out at ex-EPL ref Dermot Gallagher for his assessment of the penalty awarded to Hearts on the say-so of the Rangers supporter John Beaton.
“Rodgers has now landed in hot water for his post-match comments and could be forced to sit in the stands for the Rangers game at Ibrox,” Sutton noted in his Daily Record column this morning.
“Apparently you can’t question the competence of the officials – even if they have been incompetent. I can’t help but think Rodgers’ rant would have been more powerful if he mentioned Celtic’s penalty.
“That was a terrible call as well. If anything, that was the one time ref Don Robertson should have been called to the monitor. It was arguably a foul by Yang rather than against him. And as for the Celtic winger’s red card, that incident is something I just hate about the modern game.
“A sending off? Do me a favour. Was his boot high? Yes. Was it reckless, dangerous, did it have excessive force? No chance. I know it’s the letter of the law these days but come on. Some people will bleat Alex Cochrane could have been hurt. But he wasn’t. And you could get injured at any tackle. You could get injured getting out of the bath, for goodness sake.
“Once Robertson was called over it was only going the one way – even though he had the best view in the place. No one would have batted an eyelid if he stuck with the yellow card and a free kick.
“Likewise with the Hearts penalty. I saw ex-EPL ref Dermot Gallagher praising the officials for being consistent with these kind of handball calls in Scotland. Give me strength. Are we meant to congratulate them for consistently getting them wrong? So with all that went on I don’t blame Rodgers for being raging.
“But would he have gone so far with his criticism if Celtic were still eight points clear at the top? I very much doubt it,” Chris Sutton stated.
Sutton talking ballocks as usual !
It should not matter if you win the game or are 8 points clear at the top. A bad call is a bad call and should be challenged every time. That is the only way these calls that constantly hurt the team on the receiving end and can end up costing the teams points needlessly can be delt with in the future.
As for the SFA where was the call to have the rangers coach up for a meeting when he actually asked for a referee to be banned from all further activities at any game concerning the rangers.
To me that should have been dealt with very harshly but I do not recall any missed games or special meeting then.