OPINION
Celtic attacker Oliver Burke claimed that he wouldn’t say he was disappointed that Brendan Rodgers was gone and he may live to regret those remarks.
While the 21-year-old winger was just trying to ensure Hoops fans that he was still happy being on loan at the club from West Bromwich Albion, he went about it the wrong way.
Burke’s comments can be viewed as a dig at Rodgers and for that reason they will get a lot of coverage.
“I don’t think it (Rodgers’ departure) changes anything. I’m very happy. As long as I’m playing football and enjoying myself I don’t care who the manager is,” Burke said, as quoted by the Express & Star.
“I wouldn’t say I was disappointed that Brendan has gone. I still feel I can learn a lot from the new manager and I’m looking forward to working under him.”
The attacker may not exactly get stick for suggesting he is not a fan of the now Leicester City manager, there’s many Celtic supporters who won’t be keen on him either at the moment, he has thrown away the only excuse he has for under-performing in the coming weeks.
A new manager can unsettled a player’s form and it would be understandable if Burke needed time to adjust to working with Neil Lennon and adapting to his playing style.
Yet by saying he’s not fussed who is in charge and hinting that he perhaps wasn’t keen on the previous regime, he only just cranked up the pressure for him to deliver the goods.
Burke has shown glimpses of his talent in his 13 outings for the Hoops but he was particularly woeful when featuring against Valencia.
The winger could have blamed Rodgers for playing him in the unfamiliar position of centre-forward but his comments imply that he doesn’t care what position he features in as long as he is playing, so he can’t cite that as a reason for struggling.
Also by making such public remarks Burke is surely set for intense scrutiny as everyone will want to see whether the player made the remarks because he didn’t think Rodgers got the best out of him.
If the 21-year-old doesn’t wow in the coming weeks then he has nowhere to hide or an excuse to use for his poor performances.