Brendan Rodgers cuts down Celtic critics after 'going through motions' complaint

Brendan Rodgers reckons he's been treated like a NOVICE since he returned to Celtic as he sniped at critics for previously suggesting he was "going through the motions".

The Hoops took a massive step towards the title with a 2-1 win over Rangers earlier this afternoon to go six points clear with just two games remaining on the fixtures list. Rodgers knows how close to the trophy he and his players are and he insists that's been down to their mentality when the going got tough earlier.

The manager, though, was far from happy when thinking back to previous criticism when things weren't looking so rosy and his side had surrendered a lead at the summit.

Chris Sutton had previously levelled the accusation at the manager and now the Northern Irishman has waited for his chance to react and launched into a spiky rant.

"I heard someone saying 'Brendan Rodgers is going through the motions', earlier on in the season," he began. "I get into work between 7.30am and 8am every day of my life. I leave the training ground every night between 6.30pm and 7pm at night. When I get home I have my dinner and flip open my computer and look at more football.

"If that's going through the motions, I want to know what every other manager is doing. What is every other manager doing if I'm going through the motions?

"So from a personal level, I've been treated like a novice since I've come back here, like it's my first job. However, my principle objective is to make sure Celtic win. Part of that is the criticism and I understand that, but it's the mentality of the team that's most important to me.

"That mentality you can see from where we were with injuries, how we've progressed, stayed together, unified, and how we then get to this point where we're nearly crossing the finish line. We don't just want to cross it we want to sprint over it, we've got two games to go plus the final. That is our mentality."