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Demonisation Of Neil Lennon Part 4

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Early this month Stuart McCall left Hampden after being found not guilty of breaching Scottish FA rule 203, which covers offensive, insulting or abusive and calling into question an official’s integrity and aggressive behaviour towards officials.

This was after he was sent to the stand at half time in Motherwell’s 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup when Craig Thomson wrongly awarded Aberdeen a corner which they scored from.

It wasn’t a good week for Thomson. He sent off a Schalke 04 player for a professional foul and awarded FC Twente a penalty after the FC Twente player tripped over his own feet.

McCall said: “For them to stop me doing my job is totally wrong”.

The decision basically called Craig Thomson a liar.

Today our manager was up at Hampden facing charges over comments directed at Willie Collum after the League Cup Final and when he was sent to the stand at Ibrox one week later after an incident in the tunnel.

He was found guilty of both counts. He was in clear breach of Rule 68 as he made comments criticising the performance of a match official and has received a two match ban for this.

The Ibrox tunnel incident comes under the aforementioned Rule 203. Though found guilty the SFA decided that his half game ban from the dugout was sanction enough though their own guidelines state that anyone found guilty of breaking this rule faces a minimum 2 match ban.

“I got called in [to the referee’s room] and he said, ‘you’re not going out’, so he has deprived me of doing my job,” commented Lennon after the game.

Rumours have been abound all week that Calum Murray (Ref), Iain Brines (4th Official) and Wullie Conquer (linesman) and the match delegates reports on the incident didn’t match. The FACT that another 2 game ban wasn’t dished out is conclusive proof of this. Also credible reports have surfaced that the SFA Compliance Officer, Vincent Lunny and Celtic’s QC, Derek Ogg, done a deal after the evidence was heard.

A Celtic statement reads: “ We can confirm that we are satisfied with the fairness and spirit of the hearing and that no appeal will be made against the findings or sanctions.” and for me confirms that the club feel vindicated.

The McCall and Lennon decisions have seen the SFA call the integrity of their own officials into question. I fully expect a strike.

For the second year in a row we have seen clear evidence that officials have lied in connection to decisions made during games involving us.

Personal? Well we have the evidence.

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  • justshatered says:

    Now lets just see what line the media take regarding this latest episode.
    Will they;

    a. Start asking questions about why the referree and his assistants story’s did not tally and the fact that one or both of them could be lying.
    or

    b. Solely look at the fact that Lennon was found guilty and say that the SFA have let the refs down, that our game is on the edge of anarchy, Celtic are ruining the game, Celtic should be closed down yada yada yada.

    Will the refs threaten to strike again now that another story has been found to be a tissue of lies.
    I can hardly wait for the next episode of the soap opera that is ‘Cheating is a way of life in Scotland’.
    If you are correct and a deal was struck I think the club have let us down.
    The fact that officials lied should be in the public domain and not kept within the corridors of Parkhead and Hampden.
    How many times did the Hearts fans sing ‘Its a conspiracy’ on Sunday?
    As long as these deals are done and kept from public scrutiny then we will continue to hear these chants.
    Worse than that the officials will feel emboldened by the fact they got away with it and what is the chances of them being impartial when we are stuck with them the next time. They also know the extent their employers will go to to cover up their dubious doings and more importantly that Celtic will cut a deal.
    I’m reminded of a line from the fugitive; ‘I don’t negotiate!’. Celtic should adopt this strategy asap.

    • lordofthewing says:

      Been thinking about the club has let us down line.

      You are probably correct but what I’m thinking is that while the evidence has been called into question maybe it isn’t as dubious as we want it to be. Maybe it’s a technicality or maybe we got cast iron guarantees regarding the fate of Brines.

      The fate of the three officials and Lennon in his future appearances – I will say just now he will get a 4 game ban – will tell us if a deal was struck.

  • John says:

    Am I the only Celtic fan fed up with Lennon’s constant run ins with the SFA, SPL, Referees etc. Decisions go against us ok, keep your feelings in house and fire the team up enough to win the next big game. As for Twitter, Why ?. Why the hell is a Celtic manager going on to a social network site arguing with fans, Surely we are bigger than that. Could you imagine Ferguson, Wenger, O’Neil or even my local Junior team’s manager doing such a thing, of course not, they are to busy working on how to win football games. Please, please Neil no more Twitter while you are employed as the manager of the best club on the planet.

    • lordofthewing says:

      Aye. You probably are.

      So you want to not say anything about the disease (one that is promoted and fully backed by the powers at be) that sees poor officials get BIG games and always call BIG decisions incorrectly?

      Not say anything about amended match reports that tell lies about incidents so the officials can justify their incorrect actions?

      You basically want the club to be like the guy in The Full Monty who lost his job months previously but canny tell his wife that he has and keeps up the pretence that everything is fine and dandy.

      Aye, it’s all twitters fault. While I would rather he doesn’t re-tweet daft requests from fanboys or get into ‘banter’ with trolls I love the fact that he is willing to tell us stuff via that medium rather than the tired old and universally hated by us THE CELETIC SUPPORT though a vast majority claim not to read it by can quote it line for line and engage in mockrage about it.

      In truth I would rather he spoke to us via new media. Cut out the middle man.

      But, I’m sure he really is taking 30 seconds to tweet some random nonsense instead off looking Motherwells scoring record from set plays.

      I’m sure the telly takes his eye of the ball as well. Also probably reading a bedtime story to his son.

      • John says:

        Ok, I will jump on the Lennon Bandwagon also. It’s not his fault we’ve only won 2 out of the 7 domestic trophies he’s tried for, while our main rivals have been on their knees, it’s not his fault our European record has been very poor, and it’s not his fault he is the only Celtic manager in history to have refereeing decisions go against him. Is Neil Lennon above criticism from the Celtic support, I honestly believe we should have won at least 5 trophies since he has been at Celtic, anything less than the treble next season will be a failure. When we were down, Rangers punished us, all I want is for us to do the same. I said after the John Barnes tenure that we should never employ a man without managerial experience again in the role of Celtic manager, and I stand by it.

        • John says:

          lordofthewing, you remind me of the smart intelligent lawyer from the film Primal Fear, who defends his client vigorously, and is so convinced of his innocence, only to find out in the end he’d been wrong all along. 😉

  • lordofthewing says:

    John,

    Thanks for the smart lawyer compliment, though rather than being Richard Gere, Mrs LoTW would rather I was a lawyer like Matthew McConaughey in a Time To Kill or The Lincoln Lawyer. Though, why she wants me to have a deep american south accent is beyond me.

    But…..to business.

    Off course NL is not the only manager ever to have decisions go against him. I remember Tony Mowbray getting buggered left, right and centre with decisions but he took it on the chin. David Hay threatened to take his team of the park in a major cup final and stated the following day that Celtic should leave Scotland. McNeill? Aye, he was an alterboy and never challenged the ref. Hell, I even remember the cluster fuck that was Liam Brady stating that he thought the Paranoia (it’s deserving of a capital letter) was a myht but turned out to be true.

    Big Jock? Aye, he came out with the statement that we need to beat 12 men week in week out. That still rings true. We still need to be 2 goals better than our oppenents.

    Lennon is not the only manager who has challenged authority he is just the one that is doing it just now.

    Rangers on their knees is another myth. Lennon faced a Smith side expensively assembled with money they didn’t have. He spent close to 36m to win 3 in a row and reach a European final in the biggest spend in scotland not seen since the days of saint martin and little dick.

    Another myth that the r8ngers team he faced was pretty shit. They weren’t. They were a needle in the eye pain to watch but they got the job done. I would rather have wallowed in my own shit than support them or go to watch them but they were annoyingly impressive.

    The only reason they won the league last year was Jelavic. A player they haven’t paid for and have no intention to pay for.

    5 trophies? Lets have a look.

    Las season league? A missed pen and a horrible performance at Inverness. That cost us. But….against Walter and the amount of changes that out club went through – 16 plyers left in the summer and 13 came in – it was a phenomenal run.

    League Cup Final? Aye, we didn’t play well but the aforementioned Jelavic was the difference.

    League Cup this season? Poor performance in the final. There goalie still got MOTM.

    Scottish Cup last week? Dominated the game, missed chances and were done by cuntery of the highest order.

    Europe? Beaten from Braga who reached that seasons Europa League Final then a sickening defeat to Utretch, which was a throw back to the auld 90’s. In context, that was a brand new team, a team still being built. I don’t think any of the back line that night apart from Cha and Zulaska are still at the club. The result while hurt like a kick in the gonads was understandable.

    Sion this year? Big Dan throws that game in the air after 30 seconds. Then an individual mistake from Ki ended all hope when we had just dragged ourself back into the contest.

    Our flukely entry into the Europa League only saw Athletico Madrid beat us. Hey. Arnt they in the semi finals of the thing?

    Look at the starting point and were we are now. Disappointed we haven’t won a treble or a double. We are in the fucking ludicrous mindset that winning the league is a disappointment. Aye..really, a disappointment. The last time I saw a league title JVOH was fit and Nakamura wasn’t hitting buses with footballs.

    The team has proved it still needs improved. Our manager still needs to learn. Aye, we are exactly were I would want to be after the turd that was WGS last season and the clownshoe restructuring attempted by Mowbray.

    Looking forward to building on success then trying to find answers to failure.

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