Neil Lennon really does something to certain people, doesn’t he?
Even the most allegedly sedate, the most moderate, occasionally lose their minds when his name is dropped into conversation.
The folks at Club 1872 are not amongst that grouping.
Today they released a press release every bit as deranged as I had expected.
For a supporters organisation to launch scathing attacks on external foes is not exactly unheard of, but these folks go about it with a fury that is unsurpassed. You can tell there is spittle on their computer monitors by the time they’ve finished posting them.
They are an exercise in perma-rage.
They are also an embarrassment.
No sane fan group which represents shareholders would release such an appalling missive as the one that was put out today.
It meets the standard we’ve come to expect from them. It reaches up for the gutter, and finds it. When hate is your default emotion this is what happens … but it is shocking, and today’s attack veers into the territory of libel.
Neil Lennon should sue over it.
These people always boast of how much money is in their account; Lennon should go for every penny of it, to at the very least secure an apology.
What makes it all the more disturbing is that Club 1872’s James Blair sits on the board of the club.
As conflicts of interest go it’s a beauty, but here it points to something disturbing; this is an all-out attack on a named individual with the imprimatur of the club. And to think this is a statement that appears to suggest Lennon should be sanctioned.
Sevco should be sanctioned for the inflammatory tone they have taken since the full time whistle went yesterday. But of course that would require action from the SFA, an organisation so spineless, that it has yet to utter a word about the golf balls and other objects thrown at Celtic players on their last visit to Ibrox, or the vile racist abuse suffered by our winger Scott Sinclair. I won’t hold my breath waiting on condemnation here.
Except for that which will inevitably be directed at Neil, of course, who I would put money on being summoned before the beaks over this. You can see it a mile away. The naked hate for this guy, the bile that follows everywhere he goes, makes it certain.
The statement accuses Neil of “playing the victim card.”
Well those at Club 1872 can certainly recognise that when they see it.
I don’t know what the Latin for “no-one likes us and by God we do a lot of moaning about it” is but those blubbering bitches should have that inscribed on their official crest. Nobody plays the victim card quite like they do, and they always seem to do it after their wee bubble of supremacy has just been burst, as it was this weekend.
I’m not saying they do it to distract from the shite they have to watch on the park, but they certainly make a habit of finding something to complain about after they’ve just been beat.
Think for a moment on the total disconnect with reality it takes to make Neil Lennon the villain here when their fans spent the entire match – and, in fact, weeks before it – spewing poison at him. Their “feel sorry for us, we’re the real victims here” attitude is nauseating and pathetic.
In contrast, Neil Lennon is a guy who never feels sorry for himself.
He does not hide.
As I said yesterday, that guy puts up with stuff no-one in Scottish football has ever had to endure before, and he handles it with courage the gutless wonders who criticise him from behind a monitor would never be able to muster in their lives.
The bigoted yahoos who spent all day yesterday pouring their vile abuse on Lennon’s head are also the most offended that he got it right round them.
But the tone of this piece today is shocking, and if I were Lennon, reading it, I would be sending it on to a lawyer for his review.
This guy has endured bullets and bombs.
He’s been attacked by a fan standing on the touchline doing his job.
Neil Lennon doesn’t have to play the victim card; you can inspire lunacy in some people merely saying his name.
Today, as before, the whole Celtic Family should be united in its support for him.
Today, as before, we are all Neil Francis Lennon.