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I can’t divulge- Lennon teases with new excuse for Celtic’s title collapse

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Following last week’s James Forrest excuse Neil Lennon has revealed that there are secret excuses for Celtic’s miserable season. The winger has been a loss but he couldn’t do much about the defending that has cripped Celtic including the loss of 19 goals in six demoralising Europa League ties.

The lack of fans has been mentioned previously, players being in self isolation and a lack of pzazz in their play have been used in recent months.

While those factors will have had some sort of impact it is a manager’s job to manage them and get the most out of the players he works with every day.

None of those factors explain chronic defending such as Shane Duffy being stranded at the front post while Callum McGregor and Greg Taylor battle with six foot three Shaun Rooney for a header eight yards from goal.

Basic defending errors have allowed Aberdeen to score three in one match against Celtic, Hibs score twice at Easter Road and Livingston score two home and away against the hoops.

Lennon insisted on going to Dubai during a pandemic, on their return Celtic dropped nine points in five matches. A win over Aberdeen tonight would cut the gap at the top of the table to 15.

Most of Celtic’s problems have been self-inflicted by poor judgement but yesterday Lennon decided to tell the Daily Record of some factors that he can’t fully reveal:

Celtic host Aberdeen on Wednesday night in a bid to claw back more ground on their rivals and Lennon says fans who claim failure to deliver 10 In A Row should result in his sacking haven’t been privy to off-field issues which will be kept private.

The manager said: “I don’t think it’s unfair or unrealistic but we have had mitigating circumstances throughout the course of the campaign, some of which I can’t divulge publicly. But I’ve never shied away from the fact that it’s been massively disappointing and we could and should have performed better. That’s on me, my staff and the football department as well.

“It’s not a popularity contest. It’s about playing good football and winning, bringing players to the club, developing them and selling them on, which is what I’ve done over the piece. The 10 was the Holy Grail, really, and it may be beyond us but we won’t give it up just yet.”

During the summer transfer window Lennon was boosted by the £13m spent on Albian Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas and David Turnbull with loan fees spent on Diego Laxalt, Shane Duffy and Moi Elyounoussi.

Steven Gerrard is the only other SPFL boss that has been able to have a net spend on players, tonight’s opposition manager Derek McInnes has lost £5m worth of players in Sam Cosgrove and Scott McKenna while bringing in Jonny Hayes on a wage deferred deal alongside short term deals for Flo Kamberi, Callum Hendry and Fraser Hornby.

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