Neil Lennon has squared up to the pundits who fall back on the ‘he brings it on himself’ excuse.
During his playing days everything from his fiery nature to his ‘cocky’ stance were offered up as reasons why the midfielder was a figure of hate.
The catcalls and verbal abuse that he once took have taken a more sinister turn with bombs and bullets sent in the post and a Hearts supporter charged with assault following last week’s match at Tynecastle.
Despite the escalation of abuse there are no shortage of people condoning the attacks only to add ‘but’ before trotting out tired cliches about how the Celtic boss brings it on to himself.
“It tells me a lot about those people who are saying these things in the first place,” Lennon replied answering the ‘he brings it on himself question. “It tells me what their mindset is like, what their views are, it’s not a slight on me, I think that it’s a slight on them.
“I’m here as a football manager to talk about football whether you like my views or not. I’m not here to hurt people or damage, I’m here to build a football club.
“I give answers to questions, There are people in your section of the game, people in the associations, definitely people in the media who make a really good living and all they ever do is seem to knock the game constantly, they criticise clubs, they criticise managers, they criticise boards they criticise players and they are not making any positive contribution whatsoever.”
Lennon can be assured of the backing of the Celtic support but after paying thanks for the backing he’s received wants attention to return to football.
“There was a show to the rest of Scotland of the magnificent support that we have,” he added. “I know that football is a very fickle, cynical game at times but we’ve been fairly consistent this season.
“Maybe after some of the stuff that has happened to me it was a show of defiance from our supporters.
“I don’t want it to be that way, I want them to come and support the team playing good football week in week out. I want a team that Celtic supporters all over the world can be proud of.”
CELTIC PLAYERS SALUTE BIGGEST EVER HUDDLE
ROD STEWART JOINS THE CELTIC HUDDLE
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Malcolm X
I agree completely with Lennon, the thing is, no matter how much he or others highlight it nothing will change until Celtic as a whole tackle it through actions, the board, management, players and supporters.
Until certain media outlets are actively banned from Celtic Park, banned from all press conferences, players refuse to talk to them, supporters boycott buying their rags and listening to their shows nothing will change.
We need to be more organised and co-ordinated, I’d even go as far as requesting Celtic’s famous supporters like Rod Stewart, Billy Connelly, John Higgins and Roy Keane start making it clear they will also shut out certain media groups if it continues.
I wouldn’t want these supporters affected in a big way financially, and I suppose they would be reluctant due to fear of threats, but personally I think even a suggestion these people were considering such actions would highlight the issue, I understand though, that these people have children and the last thing they want is a bomb in the post