Chris Sutton reckons Brendan Rodgers made a "misstep" in his "good girl" comment in a BBC interview, but the former Celtic striker insists there was no malice in the remark.

The Celtic manager had come under scrutiny for his "good girl" comment to BBC reporter Jane Lewis during a post-match interview at Fir Park.

Rodgers had watched his side come from a goal down to win 3-1 against Motherwell and then blasted a narrative he felt had been written about his side this season.

When pushed to explain the meaning of his comment by experienced journalist Lewis, Rodgers refused stating: "No, no. You know exactly what I mean. No."

Lewis said: "Can you tell us anymore, you're the one who brought that up so can you not give us some more on it?"

And then Rodgers ended the conversation, saying: "Okay, are we done? Good girl, well done, cheers."

Calls have since come for Rodgers to apologise for the comment with "casual sexism" referenced in response to the manager's remarks.

But Sutton has insisted it was merely a "poor choice of words" from Rodgers as he cited being perplexed himself as the Celtic boss called him a good lad during an interview at the start of the season.

Sutton posted on X, formerly Twitter: "It may have been a poor choice of words but there is a huge difference between that and casual sexism as some have suggested… what is the world coming to??"

And discussing the matter on MailSport's It's All Kicking Off! podcast, Sutton explained: "I work up here a lot and I understand the environment up here. I think Brendan is a manager under pressure, there is a title race on at this moment in time.

"And I think he will maybe wake up this morning and accept that he may have made a misstep but some of the stuff I have seen online about it's casual sexism, I don't think that Jane Lewis who asked him the question - and actually it was a really good question about the narrative and I'll come to that - but she has not taken any offence.

"And just with that, I went to interview Brendan for Sky at the start of the season and on a couple of occasions called me lad. That's his terminology after most press conferences, you hear him say to some of the press guys good man, good lad, whatever. 

"I really think we are going down a dangerous route - if that's the way that Brendan speaks and he has always been very courteous with the press as far as I can see - if we are trying to pin things on him in a certain way.

"Was it condescending? I'm not going to argue with that but this is a guy who has gone back to Celtic, he left under a bit of a cloud, we all know that.

"I thought he was really ballsy to go back and take the job. He has taken the job and it has been a really difficult season, the Champions League hasn't gone well, second in Glasgow is last, the pressure is on him and he would have been a bit cranky in the interview."

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He added: "Come on, let's not start reading into things that aren't there because that's not fair if that's the way Brendan speaks. 

"I was taken aback when he patted me on the head and called me lad -he just about reached - at the start of the season. I thought, 'Oh, that's a bit odd'. 

"I don't like things like this where we are looking for things which simply aren't there."

In conclusion on the remark, Sutton said: "If he didn't use the terminology or ever use terminology like that I could sort of understand where they are going.

"He'll probably view it as a misstep but he calls everybody good man, good lad. You look at the Sky interviews he does with Luke Shanley, good man at the end. What are we doing?"