Neil Lennon has gone public over the grief that a mole was causing during his second stint managing Celtic.
The Irishman came in as a caretaker in February 2019 when Brendan Rodgers left for Leicester and was made permanent boss three months later by Peter Lawwell following the 2-1 Scottish Cup win over Hearts.
Unlike his first term in charge Lennon didn’t bring in any of his own backroom staff. When Damien Duff left the club in the summer of 2020 Gavin Strachan was brought in from Peterborough with his brother Craig already at Celtic as a scout.
Two years after coming in on a caretaker basis Lennon resigned with Celtic in turmoil, looking back the issue of leaked team news seems to have troubled him throughout that spell.
Picking up on an interview on BBC radio, the Daily Record reports the Irishman saying:
Even at Celtic, in my second spell, we would pick the team a day before. Then the team would be out on the wires at like 7pm that night. You’re thinking ‘it’s coming from somewhere it’s coming from somewhere in the building’. Sometimes, even the players can do you in if they’re maybe out the team. It wouldn’t have happened 10-15 years ago but it’s such a common trend now. I am wary of naming a team a day before the game but it’s what the players like.
We played Jonny Hayes (September 2019), there’s absolutely no way anybody could have known we were going to play Jonny Hayes on the left wing. I swear, at 6.30pm (Saturday night before game) it’s all over Twitter.
CORRECTION (It was probably March 2019 when Hayes surprisingly started ahead of Scott Sinclair in a Glasgow Derby).
I was raging, you are just giving the opposition an advantage here. Because either someone is getting paid money for it or they are giving it to a betting company, or this guy is feeding them a few… I don’t know. It was just so wrong on so many levels.
It wasn’t leaked to the media, it was leaked to somebody and this guy would put it on Twitter. Even under Brendan, nine times out of 10 was bang on with the team.
Somebody in the dressing room or the building is doing this. We tried all sorts to stop it. I said we are bringing in forensic computer IT guys to check your phones and blah, blah.. And it stopped for a while. But then bang it started again
The leak seems to have left the club with the appointment of Ange Postecoglou, there was no hint anywhere that Jota would miss the match at Kilmarnock yesterday although Cameron Carter-Vickers’ absence could have been guessed at.
Team news seemed to appear on Twitter or message-boards, at one stage in the summer of 2019 pictures appeared of what looked very like a list of transfer targets including brief details on each player.
Lennon is full of excuses, the moment he was re-appointed was the biggest letdown in my Celtie supporting life. I knew from the second as did many others, He was a cheap option, a low cost patch up job to keep the fans happy. Such a huge mistake for the club, vital years wasted. Nothing since has changed my mind, I can’t even be bothered to listen to him on radio or TV
Yeah, very good “William”. Another one who “Knew” Lennon was a bad appointment, the second time.
It seems an awful lot of people knew what it was but never spoke up. They’re just as much to blame as the people who appointed him.
The Green Brigade voiced their concern with a banner which described Lawwell, Lennon and Desmond asleep at the wheel.
I pointed out that Lennon had taken the club as far as he could the first time around.
He’s a failed football manager. That is fact and nothing is going to change that.
He should probably preserve his dignity and shut up and forget about Celtic (at least for a very long time).
He is a disaster that happened to us and we lost the “Ten”.
Every time he opens his mouth now it is just further embarrassment.
He is responsible for losing Ten In A Row! He would have taken the accolades if he had won but he didn’t!
Nobody owes you a victory in sport. So to Neil, I would quote Roy Keane.
You are a loser!
“Get Over It”!