Dedryk Boyata has told a podcast he knew he was finished at Celtic after the altercation with Brendan Rodgers after the Irishman spoke about him in front of the media.
The news about the place before the Athens qualifier back in 2018 was Boyata was looking for a move away and refused to fly out with the club to play in the qualifier, claiming he was injured.
Rodgers put it out there it might not be the case and after that, Celtic fans turned on Dedryk.
He remembers sitting at home and the manager speaking about him, Dedryk got angry and wrote down Rodgers words to confront him.
“Brendan Rodgers had an interview where he said ‘it’s difficult to win games when we have fit players at home, who don’t want to help the team.’ Boyata told the kickback with Nedum podcast.
“From this interview, Chris Sutton was so hurtful. Honestly, he was so hurtful that I wrote down everything he said.
“He said something like ‘you need to kick him out of the team!’
“At that moment, I just felt… I spoke to every single player about my situation. The captain, the goalkeeper… these guys were affected by the situation.
“They wanted to go to the Champions League. They said “we need to find the best situation for Dedryk!”.
“From that moment, I was finished. I came back the day after and went to speak to [Rodgers]. “How can you do this to me? How can you put me in the situation? You know everything that was going on, you were aware of everything”.
“He protected himself, he protected the team, and I was the bad guy.
“From [then] on, it [was] finished.”
In a strange turn of events that season, Rodgers would leave the club before Boyata left the building.
Rodgers chose to keep the Belgian that term and he became a first team player again, scoring some vital goals along the way.
Brendan Rodgers was the man to bring Boyata in from the cold at Celtic. The defender was exiled under Ronny Deila and it was Rodgers who gave him a chance.
Boyata was part of the invincible side and ultimately had a successful period at the club.
He moved to Hertha Berlin at the end of his contract and has been there since. Dedryck recently upset his club by playing on international duty against their wishes and getting injured.
