Sky Sports pundit Ryan Mason has argued that Brendan Rodgers was right to take the Leicester City job, because it is a bigger role than the one he had at Celtic.
The Northern Irishman has incurred the wrath of many Hoops fans for walking away from the club in the middle of a season, but former Tottenham midfielder Mason has argued that he made the right call.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “No disrespect to Celtic but if you’re a player and Leicester come in for you or Celtic, I’m going Leicester all day purely because they’re a Premier League club.
“Not many players in their prime go up north to Scotland and play. Like I said, they are a big club, they’re huge, but if you’re a player you want to play in the Premier League.
“I can understand why Rodgers has done it, 100 per cent. I know he’s got a little bit of stick, but in my eyes, Leicester is a bigger job than Celtic.”
"Leicester is a bigger job than Celtic because it's in the Premier League."
"Not many players in their prime go up north to Scotland to play." ???????@RyanMason says he fully understands why Brendan Rodgers went to #LCFC pic.twitter.com/8d8sWE4tzs
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) March 3, 2019
OPINION
Celtic fans will not want to hear this. This is exactly the kind of attitude that has infuriated them this past week or so, but honestly, it is quite hard to argue with Mason. Ultimately, Rodgers had taken the Hoops as far as he could domestically, and for any significant gain to have been made on the European stage, an eye-watering level of investment that the board have not been willing to commit to would have had to have been made. As such, you can see why, for a manager with Rodgers’ ambition, the opportunity to move to club that are keen to make strides in the Premier League, with a good young squad and a brilliant infrastructure, was so hard to turn down. Yes, his timing has left a lot to be desired, and many Bhoys supporters will taken exception to that more than anything else, but from a purely pragmatic point of view, Rodgers going to England makes a lot of sense.