“You can't understand someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes.” That famous quote is why football managers often take exception to pundits who haven’t been involved in the game making comment on such a high pressure job.
But what about when it’s a former player who is passing judgement? That seems to infuriate gaffers even more. Certainly, Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton provoked a reaction after Rangers boss Michael Beale’s savage response to the ex-Celtic striker posing the question of whether he would have been so sporting as to allow the opposition to score a goal the way he did with Partick Thistle if they had been playing against their rivals.
Beale hit back at Sutton, describing him as Chelsea’s worst ever player after revealing he grew up supporting the Blues. Beale isn’t the first, certainly not in the pressure environment of managing one of the Old Firm, to bite back at a former player who picked up the pen after hanging up his boots. Neil Lennon said he was stabbed "in the front, not the back" by former team-mates who criticised him during a disastrous final season at Celtic. Here, in the wake of the Sutton v Beale showdown, we look at other examples where Old Firm managers have bitten back at players turned pundits over criticism in the media.
Martin O’Neill v Stewart Kerr
Kerr spent a decade at Parkhead and was blasted by O’Neill in 2005 after he described Rab Douglas as a “bag of nerves” after a howler from the former Hoops shot-stopper during a game against Rangers in which he allowed a Gregory Vignal shot to squirm through him in a derby defeat for Celtic. Kerr’s comments didn’t go down well with O’Neill who said: “If you are going to ask someone about Rab, ask someone with a bit of pedigree. If Pat Jennings or Peter Shilton, who I had the fantastic privilege of playing with, said someone was a bag of nerves, fair enough. Stewart Kerr? He played about 15 times for Celtic, then discovered crisps when he was 18.” Ouch!
Kerr said some years later: “It wasn’t anything directed at Martin O’Neill, it was just my opinion that I was asked for and I thought it was the correct thing to say. I didn’t think I was out of order. I actually called him and it started to become a really feisty phone call and I just put my point across saying ‘I don’t think what you are doing is the right decision and that’s my opinion.’ He would go on to say, ‘ah you don’t know what you’re talking about!’ I said, ‘I played in that position, I played in Old Firm games, I know the sort of pressure these guys are under.’ So he basically hung up on me. My phone rings again 20 minutes later and he says ‘Stewart, I’m sorry for that I just got worked up and I shouldn’t have said that, I was out of order.”
Mark Warburton v Neil McCann
The Englishman was unhappy after the ex Light Blues winger, working for Sky Sports at the time, urged the then Rangers boss to change his philosophy and singled out Joe Garner when he said the struggling striker was “in the wrong movie”. But Warburton defended his new signing as he tried to get the club back to adjust to life back in the top flight. In response to Garner in particular, Warburton blasted: “To judge him after ten or 11 games is, for me, so short-sighted and it is also ill- informed in my opinion.” And he added on McCann: “If you want my honest opinion, I’m disappointed when ex-players take cheap shots.”
Neil Lennon v Charlie Nicholas
It often didn’t take much to get a reaction from Irishman Lennon and when he did bite back, the Irishman certainly didn’t miss his target. On one occasion it was former Hoops striker - a pundit who is never afraid to speak his mind. And the fact he was one a darling of the Parkhead support has never stopped him having an opinion on his old club.
But Lennon felt he singled Celtic out and was constantly negative about them. Nicholas was critical of their transfer activity in what proved to be a disastrous final season in charge for Lennon but the former Hoops boss said: “"If we had signed Messi and Ronaldo, Charlie still would have found fault with it. He’s been negative about the club for years. Charlie doesn't think for me, he doesn't speak for me.”
Steven Gerrard v Chris Sutton
Maybe Michael Beale’s response to Sutton is partly down to the fact his old boss also had to take him to task, although Steven Gerrard wasn’t nearly quite as brutal as Beale. However when Sutton branded Rangers skipper James Tavernier a “serial loser” on the eve of the League Cup final in the ex England and Liverpool captain’s second season in charge. When asked about Sutton, he said: “I don’t think that person deserves the airtime. We are in a game where there are a lot of constructive opinions about players collectively and individually and we are also in an era where there are people that want to make unnecessary headlines.”
Brendan Rodgers v Kris Commons
Commons was still at Celtic as a player when Rodgers arrived although didn’t feature much and moved out to Hibs on loan during the Irishman’s first season in charge before hanging up his boots and moving into the media where he has a column in the Daily Mail. And Rodgers didn’t appreciate his former squad man scrutinising his transfer activity during the 2018 January transfer window. Celtic had a big Euro tie against Zenit St Petersburg coming up and when told that Commons felt there would be a particular scrutiny on Celtic in the transfer window with their European tie in mind, Rodgers was uncharacteristically brusque. He said: “By whom? Scrutiny by whom? Okay, move on.” Under his breath and with a contemptuous wave of the hand, he murmured: “Kris Commons…. I’m about deeds, not words. I’ve heard some s**t since I’ve been up here. I’m worried about deeds. That’s the part of your industry that I don’t like. I don’t want to stand here and waste my time. I have a mountain of things to do rather than talk about speculation, or what Kris Commons or other guys think. Everyone has an opinion but the opinions are not always the reality.”
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