Neil Lennon handed out a lesson in dignity tonight after Rangers boss Walter Smith delivered a savage attack on Andreas Hinkel.
The mild mannered full-back’s view that Celtic are a better team than Rangers had clearly got under the skin of the Ibrox boss who nursed his grudge until after tonight’s defeat.
Amongst other things Smith suggested that there must be something wrong at Celtic if they hadn’t won more than Rangers over the last two seasons and that the players must be a poor set of professionals.
Diplomatically Lennon replied saying: “That’s not Walter’s place. He’s not the Celtic manager or affiliated with the club. Those comments should be best left for someone at the club to say.
“I asked the boys to prove me wrong (after the Ross County defeat) and they’ve gone a long way to doing that.
“I don’t comment on Rangers, certainly not as a manager anyway. I’ve been quite gracious towards Rangers, their performances and the way that they’ve dealt with things. Their mentality this season.
“I don’t think that it’s Walter’s place to criticise the Celtic players, leave that to people like myself.”
Without any prompting and rather than praising his own players efforts over the season Smith launched into his attack on Hinkel.
Previewing the game the Celtic defender had claimed: “When you see the three games we have had against them this season, then think about it. Even the game we lost in the last minute, we deserved a draw. We were very unlucky.
“I can’t say in a few words why we are the better team, but just watch the previous Old Firm games.
“I don’t want to talk about the decisions in the Old Firm matches but you can see them. We are frustrated about all three games against Rangers.”
Having experienced success at Stuttgart and Seville, two clubs that Rangers faced in Europe this season, Hinkel’s comments are those of an experienced footballer who has sampled the game in three different countries as well as earning 21 international caps for Germany.
Furious Smith responded with: “Andreas Hinkel said in the paper the other day that Celtic are the better team.
“If he sits down and he analyses what he said then you’ve got to say why does he think they are a better team than Rangers when Rangers have won six trophies over a three-year period and reached a European final and Celtic have won two.
“He must feel then, that if they are the better team, something is wrong. It might be if they had shown the same attitude as they showed in the first half of the game tonight, they might have been in a far better position.
“He has got to ask himself that question. If he sits down and says that Celtic are a better team than Rangers, he should ask himself if he’s proud of the way they have played over the last few seasons because I’m certainly proud of the way my team has played and my team has something tangible to show for it at the end.
“I can’t understand why any professional doesn’t take a good look at himself first before saying Celtic are a better team than Rangers because it’s patently obvious that they are not and haven’t been.
“Maybe it’s simply because of their approach and their attitude to the game, that Neil Lennon is now bringing out in them.
“But if it takes a manager to bring it out in you, then you are looking at a poor set of professionals.”
In this season’s Champions League campaign Rangers became the first British club to lose all three home matches and fail to win a single match, in the Europa League Celtic recorded one win and three draws whilst losing at home to Hamburg and away to Hapoel Tel Aviv under former manager Tony Mowbray.
