The Daily Record was at it again today, with a headline that appears to suggest that our manager is being kept awake at night with the fear of going to Ibrox.
It long ago ceased to be shocking what our national titles get up to; what is shocking is that our club continues to let them get away it.
You could feel like you’re listening to a broken record here.
Believe me, I am aware I sound like one.
It is only the club which act to put a stop to this nonsense. They appear to be absolutely unwilling to do so, and because of that these little attacks, these little nibbles away at us, are going to continue unabated, and even increase in power.
The Record headline screams “Neil Lennon admits ‘excruciating’ Rangers and Celtic derby fear as he insists he’s not contemplating losing.”
I read that and I immediately thought “Surely Neil Lennon didn’t actually say that? Surely our manager didn’t sit in front of the press and talk about how excruciating his fear was of playing against the Ibrox club? That would be … outrageous.”
And of course Neil Lennon never said that. The Record’s headline is an absolute falsehood, taking the managers comments on two separate things and combining them to give the appearance that our club is paralysed by terror.
Lennon’s comments were about the lack of fans and thus atmosphere at the games – “excruciating” is what he called that – and the match itself and the mood in the Celtic camp. I have looked through what he said and can find nothing that would indicate fear.
Not one word. In fact, quite the opposite. Lennon sounds pretty confident.
“We are not even contemplating losing the game, we are going there with a positive frame of mind and we have to play, and we have to play a lot better than we did here in October. We have Christie, Edouard, Griffiths, Turnbull, Soro, they are all available to play so hopefully that will give us a real spark going into this game … We are playing well, everybody is fit, available and there is good competition for places … I wouldn’t say I am relaxed about it, you never are going into a game like this but we are looking forward to it.”
As you can see, that’s not a manager being kept awake at night by the prospect of this match.
The Record has taken the manager’s comments, plucked out a word and used it grossly out of context, all so they could get a controversial click-bait headline which suggests that Lennon is running scared. It is appalling the lows they will stoop to, and that our club allows it.
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