Former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan has jumped to the defence of current interim boss John Kennedy, in true Gordon Strachan style, hitting out at Rangers fullback Borna Barisic for his comments yesterday.
Barisic claimed that Kennedy’s comments suggesting his side were the best in the county, on their day were a ‘joke’ and that Rangers should be shown more respect. Kennedy rightfully came out and defended his comments, sticking to his belief’s that his Celtic side is the best team in the country on their day.
Writing in his column for the Glasgow Times, Strachan also came out in defence of these comments saying he thinks the Croatian defender has been ‘too many gangster films’, with Strachan believing Kennedy has a right to say this and that any manager in the league will similarly back their team.
“John Kennedy might know all there is to know about Celtic, but he will have learnt a lot recently about what it is like to be the manager of the club. Every thing you do and say has a knock-on effect.
“Let me say this, I must have heard a manager say their team is the best in the country, as John did last week, a million times. Which is absolutely fine. You have to reassure the fans, the players and everyone else that you are confident that your team is the best, even if they have come through a bad period.
“Logically, we know that the best team in Scotland at this moment in time and for the last however many months, has been Rangers. But as a manager, you have got to convince your players that they are the best. It’s one of the psychological weapons you use on your players, and with the other teams.
“It’s all been done, and I have to say, the reaction to his comments have been hysterical. I saw Borna Barisic say yesterday that it was disrespectful. I think he’s been watching too many gangster films. It’s only one man’s opinion, he’s not disrespecting anyone personally.
“What does he expect? John Kennedy to come out and say that he thinks Rangers are fabulous, they really do have some wonderful players and that he thinks Barisic is by far the best player that he’s ever seen? It’s just not going to happen.
“When you make statements like that, the downside of it is that if you get beat, it’s going to be cast up to you. But that’s the world you live in as a football manager, especially in the Old Firm arena. And let’s face it, there’s been far more outlandish things said down the years than what John said.”
Yesterday, Kennedy’s comments were taken completely out of context and Strachan hits the nail on the head in his defence of the temporary manager.
You would be extremely disappointed if you were to hear him come out and state that he thinks on their day his Celtic team are the 2nd best in the country, especially after so much success in recent years. Of course, he is going to show his belief in them.
From basically nothing, this throw away comment seems to have been made into more of a story than it truly is and we will likely be hearing about it up to kick-off, tomorrow afternoon.
