'Very good manager': Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers reacts to Philippe Clement Rangers axe and admits sadness

The 50-year-old Belgian was relieved of his duties on Sunday, 16 months after being appointed following stints in charge of Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco.

Rodgers, who has never failed to win the Premiership title across his two spells in charge of Celtic, acknowledged that Clement had ultimately paid the price for being unable to get Rangers ahead of his own side during his time in the Ibrox hot seat.

“Like it is for any manager, I’m always disappointed when a manager loses his job,” Rodgers said on Monday. “Obviously, Philippe has been in there for the period of time that he has. I’m disappointed for him as a coach. I think we all know the conditions up here. You have to be winning and show that consistency to win.

“I’m always sad when another manager loses his job. Philippe has shown previous to coming into Rangers that he’s a very good manager. He’s won titles. He’s not just a good coach, he’s a winning coach and has won. Like I say, we know the conditions up here.

“There’s relentless pressure on you to win at Celtic and Rangers. Expectation is there. That doesn’t stop on a daily basis. You have to then come out and be a consistent winner.”

Rodgers admitted he did not get a chance to know Clement particularly well on a personal level during their time as adversaries.

“You don’t really, no, that’s the honest answer,” he said. “You play enough times, you come up against each other quite a lot, of course.

“But in terms of the interaction, there isn’t so much. But like I say, I’ve seen his work outside of Rangers as well. You only need to look at that in his CV to show that Rangers employed a very good manager. That’s what they felt at the time and that’s why they gave him the job.”

There was a period last spring, following a strong start to Clement’s reign, when Rangers briefly hauled themselves into title contention.

However, Rodgers said it was testament to how his side had “dealt with pressure” that they snuffed out that threat and managed to reassert themselves at the top, both at the end of last season and throughout this campaign. The Belgian departed with Gers trailing the Hoops by 13 points.

“I think we didn’t get off to the best of starts last season when I came in, certainly in terms of consistency and performance level,” he acknowledged. “I think when Philippe came in, obviously, they had that bounce and had a really good run.

“But then once we started to find our feet and get our rhythm, then I think how we dealt with pressure, we dealt with it really, really well. From that moment, we’ve continued to grow and improve. It’s a great credit to the players and how they’ve coped with that and how they’ve consistently performed.”

Rangers have placed former captain Barry Ferguson in charge of first-team affairs until the end of the season.

Celtic are looking to get back on track at home to Aberdeen on Tuesday after their agonising Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich last Tuesday was followed by only a second domestic defeat of the campaign away to Hibernian on Saturday.

“We obviously need to bounce back from the weekend,” said Rodgers. “The weekend was another opportunity for us to show that if you’re not quite on it, then teams can hurt you. But it’s also a great measure of how focused and professional the team have been that we’ve had very few slip-ups over the course of the season.

“We did at the weekend but we’re hungry to respond now.”