NEIL LENNON has come out swinging and believes the majority of the Celtic support are still behind him. He also shut down any conspiracy theories about players being unhappy and his work on the training ground.
It was a fiery conference from Neil Lennon today who appears to be sick of the hysteria surrounding the club given there’s everything still to play for – not to mention a quadruple.
Asked if he thought supporters were angry with him and his team Lennon replied:”Possibly, but not all. I’ve seen two polls from newspapers up here, asking if I should be sacked or not, so who’s driving that? It’s not the Celtic fans
“There’s a minority of our support have to calm down, let the players settle, it’s been very disruptive the last few weeks.
“Fans might not want to buy into that, I can’t agree with them, it’s far too early to cast aspersions on the team. If they can’t enjoy this season, then what season can they enjoy?
“I think the majority of supporters are behind the team and behind the club.”
“There’s no spotlight on me, you guys are creating a spotlight, this is again driven by people coming up with conspiracy theories about my role, what I bring to the club, my record speaks for itself.”
“I do my job as professionally as I possibly can. Am I unhappy with this week’s work? Yes, because we like to play well and win.
“I think we’re getting better again, I think we’re getting stronger and I think we’ve got a lot to look forward to, and I think I should be the man in charge of it.”
“People who are saying ‘I don’t do this, or I don’t do that on the training ground’. Nobody knows what I do on the training ground, nobody sees what I do. I’m here 8:30am in the morning to maybe 6 o’clock at night, I work with my coaches and players day in, day out”
So you har all these rumours, that’s what happens when you go through a bad spell. All the conspiracy theories come out; fall outs, dressing room break-ups, all that nonsense, but that’s all that it is – fake news, I sound like Donald Trump now.
“Players are great, players ar bubbly, they can’t be brilliant all the time, the atmosphere in the camp is very good.”
The notion the players aren’t behind Neil Lennon is something which can’t be peddled given their fight back at Aberdeen at the weekend. The bhoys could have tucked their tails between their legs and succumbed to a defeat when they trailed twice.
Instead, they dug in and kept going until they were leading. If not for a lapse in the last minute, it would have been billed as a superb comeback from the bhoys.
There is tension around this season but as we say, there’s a long way to go and the manager believes he is the man to bring success to the club again.
There is a lot of noise on social media but it does go beyond criticism into personal abuse more than it ever needs to. Supporters should always be measured, there’s nothing wrong with debate but personal abuse towards anybody at Celtic should not be something which is accepted.
Celtic roll onto the Europa League game with Lille on Thursday before the Semi-Final of the Scottish Cup against Aberdeen next on Sunday.
Quotes attributed to 90minuteCynic audio, transcribed by CeltsAreHere.com
