Charlie Nicholas has hit back at criticism from Neil Lennon telling the Celtic boss that he won’t become a glove puppet.
Over the last 20 years the former hoops striker has barely had a positive word to say about his old club in his various media outlets.
Close friendships with Jim White and James Traynor appear to have coloured Nicholas’ view with last week’s claims about a cut-price transfer policy prompting a response from Neil Lennon.
While collecting the September Manager of the Month award the Celtic boss claimed that the former Sky Sports pundit wouldn’t be happy if Messi and Ronaldo had rocked up London Road on Transfer Deadline Day.
There was a ferocious backlash against Nicholas on Social Media with the Celtic Twitter account and Chris Sutton both digging him up over his infamous ‘I’m sitting here thinking’ line.
Picking up on his column in The Express, The Sun reports Nicholas saying:
I will make no apologies for having a go. I have never been one of these social media sheep. Neil is quite happy to tell all the fans and his social media that Charlie has been slagging Celtic off for years.
Last week’s piece had complimentary issues towards Neil and I have been supportive of him since he has come back. I thought his adaptation of Brendan Rodgers’ team was exceptional and he did a good job.
The bottom line is that we will fall out. We have always done that but we have always shown respect to each other when we meet. I don’t take anything personally. It is the job.
I would love to be more warmly welcomed by Celtic fans but I accept my opinion is one that has been portrayed by some elements of the club as the enemy because they feel that my criticism is harsher than any of the others.
Over the years, it has been and it has been the same for my other former club, Arsenal. Arsenal have got it far worse than Celtic through the years. I don’t get any kickback from Arsenal.
It was a shambolic attempt by Neil to have a go by saying I would not be happy if we signed Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Yes, I have been slagging Celtic for years but so have most other pundits worth their salt, while we all know who their glove puppet pundits are!
Celtic are champions and deserve all the credit that comes their way domestically. My judgment comes down to this: Is the team improving every season and how are they performing in Europe?
My viewpoint was: What have Celtic brought in and is it an improvement on last season? In my opinion, things are not better.
As I said, my judgment is in Europe. They are out of the Champions League and in the Europa League away to Riga and Sarajevo the performances were bog-standard average and Lennon will know that!
Neil has tried to get back at me by playing the old card, Charlie is the negative man of Celtic and I should show more respect! You play well and get the results, then you – and Celtic – will get total respect from me.
During the summer Sky Sports decided against renewing Nicholas’ contract.