Neil Lennon is on a six month rolling contract as Celtic manager.
Contract details about the Celtic boss have taken a backseat to the revelations about the shameful circumstances that Lennon has been working under.
The contract information emerged last night during a surprise feature on Radio Scotland that involved top QC Paul McBride and Lennon’s agent Martin Reilly.
After leading the verbal attacks aimed at the Celtic manager the state broadcaster performed a 180 degree turn as they presented some of the facts around Lennon with McBride and Reilly giving an insight into the real world.
It was difficult to realise that less than a week ago the chattering pundits of the state broadcaster were happy to let former Rangers captain Richard Gough promote the claim: “Alan Shearer doesn’t go around kicking anyone on the head but he kicked Neil Lennon in the head,” without being brought to task.
Some overdue balance was finally brought to the airwaves last night with Reilly confident that Lennon will be at Celtic for the long term.
“He was a winner as a player and he’s a winner as a manager,” he said. “As far as quitting as a manager goes, it’s not in his nature.
“We will have these discussions at the end of the season, but all Neil wants to do at the moment is concentrate on his job.
“He’s got a contract to fight for, a six-month rolling contract, so he’s got things like that to sort out in his life but he’s got to put up with all this stuff off the park as well.
“He certainly hasn’t spoken about quitting or walking out on the club, but I dare say it must have gone through his mind because it’s certainly gone through mine.”
Internet threats to Lennon were highlighted at Tuesday’s Scottish Government summit with McBride issuing a clear warning that online threats will no longer be overlooked.
The QC revealed: “One had his address on it and pictures of his partner and his young child. That is disgraceful.
“Some of them say kill him, some of them say stab him, some of them say shoot him. He’s had bullets sent to him, he’s had a nail bomb sent to him.
“He has a panic button in the house and he is the subject of 24-hour surveillance with a Celtic security guard accompanying him during the day.
“He’s under the kind of supervision the American president has.”
“If the police are quickly able to catch paedophiles on the internet and extremists threatening to blow up things why can’t these people be identified?”
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Aye, don’t hold your breath waiting for prosecutions for the hate crime that the hounding on Neil Lennon actually is.
Only in Scotland and the north of Ireland is this sort of bitter festering behaviour some how tolerated.
Just imagine the same sort of abuse directed at Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger – there would be a massive media outcry and a very real attempt to bring these lowlifes to book.
That there has not been such a reaction in Scotland says it all – where are the rest of the SPL managers and the players, the politicians in all of this? Why is there no concerted campaign of unity behind Neil Lennon?
A damn shame on Scotland, all exposed by their relative silence… there should be a campaign by the Celtic support and the club to insist that someone is held to account for the threats.
Keep The Faith Neil.
Once the Police have investigated, arrested and charged the originators of these death threats…
The next thing the police should do is interview the 200 lip-reading Huns that made mailicious and false claims about what Lennon said to Diouf and charge them with wasiting police time. I’d start with the ones who used a template provider by one of their websites.
I’m amazed that none of the press have been reporting on our First Miniter’s backing for Lennon! The First Minister having to take time out of running the country to offer his personal backing of a victim of sectarian abuse and death threats! If that’s not news, I don’t know what is…
It bewilders me that the very people who are apoplectic with rage over what they see as the prejudice and hatred in men’s hearts are entering into entirely self defeating arguments when addressing the issue
If I ever saw comments like the ones addressed to Margo McDonald on the following link left by Celtic fans, I would be embarassed and ashamed. They though, just don’t seem to get it.
http://home.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php/component/content/article/41-finances/1051-margo-macdonald-msp-condones-racism-at-celtic-park-apparently.html
And by the way, the very worst comments have already been removed