‘I don’t regret it one bit’ – Neil Lennon Explains £7.2m Man Snub

NEIL LENNON has given a bit more insight into why he didn’t play his new £7.2m (TransferMarkt) man against Cluj the first time around and chose to go with Ajer and Simunovic.

Celtic’s Champions League dream was extinguished back in August when the bhoys looked in control of their own destiny before half an hour of complete madness seen us drop out to Cluj.

At the time – both Boli Bolingoli and Christopher Jullien were benched and there was criticism over bringing in over £9m of talent then not playing them.

The matter came into sharp focus because the bhoys had failed to reach the Champions League and by the time the Europa League play-off round happened – both were back in the side.

Speaking to RecordSport, Neil Lennon explained he didn’t want to throw Jullien to the wolves when he first came in and admitted he was too much off the pace at that time to make a real impact on the game.

“Christopher wasn’t ready. He was still looking a bit off it. We felt that it was only after the window shut that we started to see the best of him.

“He did find his feet slowly but surely after that and with more game time he’s looking far more assured.

“He wasn’t ready that night against Cluj and I don’t think anyone could disagree with that.

“If we had thrown Christopher in to that game it might have killed him or dented his confidence if it hadn’t gone well for him.”

“You make those decisions as a manager and I don’t regret it one bit. We scored three goals and should have gone through, but we shot ourselves in the foot.

“But we’ve learned from it as the reaction since has been very positive.”