Brendan Rodgers hit out at a section of the Celtic support for “a total lack of respect” towards Greg Taylor by singing Kieran Tierney’s name near the end of the 3-0 win over St Mirren.
The Hoops boss also called out supporters at Parkhead for groaning at his side’s play before Nicolas Kuhn’s opener after 33 minutes, with the German winger completing his brace after defender Auston Trusty added a second with Celtic stretching their lead over Rangers at the top of the William Hill Premiership to 13 points.
Arsenal left-back Tierney has been strongly linked with a move back to Celtic where he was a hero and, while Rodgers refused to add to the speculation, he was far from pleased at those Hoops fans who showed their support for the Gunners defender in song while Taylor, who is out of contract at the end of the season, was still on the pitch.
He said: “A total lack of respect. Of course it is.
“Greg Taylor, he’s been absolutely amazing at this club. How does he feel?
“He nearly breaks his nose (today), bleeding for the club, for the cause.
“I’m more worried about the players that are here.
“It’s not very respectful to sing for another player, no matter what Kieran’s history is. I don’t like that.
“I have a young player who’s given so much to this club over a number of years, consistently.
“His robustness, ability, what he’s done for the club. So, that needs to be respected. He might decide to go elsewhere.
“But at this moment in time, he’s here, he’s very much a Celtic player and we want to support that.
“Hopefully we can get to some agreement to let him stay.
“I hear the stuff around, oh, maybe Champions League – but I’ve had hundreds of Celtic players that haven’t been good enough in the Champions League.
“What I know is this is a man who gives everything for this club.
“Hopefully we can keep him here because we’re trying to build a strong squad. “
Rodgers, whose side lost their first domestic game since March in the 3-0 defeat at Ibrox on Thursday, was also peeved about groans when, with the game goalless, Celtic went backwards with the ball.
He said: “I have a big respect for this group of players, especially on a day like today, because when it was 0-0 for the first 20 minutes, we’d make a backward pass and the crowd would be on to the team.
“That cannot happen. One, if you know about football, and two, if you can understand that when teams come here, they’re going to make it really difficult.
“You can’t turn up every single week and be 3-0, 4-0 up in 20 minutes.”
Celtic: Schmeichel, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Taylor, McCowan (Hatate 70), McGregor, Engels, Kuhn (Yang 71), Idah (Furuhashi 83), Maeda (Palma 83).
Unused subs: Sinisalo, Scales, Valle, Bernardo, Ralston.
St Mirren: Hemming, Fraser, Gogic, Taylor, Bwomono, Phillips, Boyd-Munce (Idowu 83), O’Hara (Smyth 62), Tanser (John 84), Kiltie (Oseni 62), Olusanya (Ayunga 62).
Unused subs: Urminsky, Iacovitti, Mooney, Mandron.
Referee: Grant Irvine
Man of the Match: Nicolas Kuhn
Match rating: 7/10