For those who were hoping for Lennon to see sense, for those hoping he had managed his last game, today will have come as a mighty shock. I was not one of those people. Instead my shock comes from his absolutely deplorable comments.
They come on the day another Celtic player tests positive for the bug.
As this player was already in self-isolation there should be no further effects on the squad … still, this is the wrong day for Lennon to be mounting a defence of the trip … which of course is what he did.
He then went on to attack the media for “hypocrisy” in how they covered the affair.
I am flabbergasted that anyone at Celtic Park would think this line of attack was a good idea.
You have to be completely divorced from reality to believe that this is a strategy worth pursuing.
There is barely a person in the whole of the country who doesn’t think that trip was an outrage. There is not a single Celtic fan I know who will defend it now, for any reason, when the effects of it have been so horrendous and costly.
Lennon has confirmed what Lawwell did just last week; nobody at Celtic is in the least bit sorry they did this, only that it has had consequences. This is the mindset that once permeated Ibrox, this “it’s own our business and to Hell with what other people think.” I never thought I would see this kind of thinking at Celtic Park.
The total lack of contrition is one thing. The complete snow-blindness is another.
Lennon does not think anyone in Scotland is owed an apology over Dubai except the Celtic fans.
Well, apology made and not accepted, I’m afraid, if it comes with that scandalous caveat.
The trip was an insult to millions of people; I am appalled that no-one at Celtic is prepared to acknowledge that.
Every time they defend this trip they rub salt into this wound.
Today Matt Linsdsay of The Evening Times wrote an excruciating column on how the Celtic board should not consider Dubai and its aftermath when deciding what to do about the manager, because that decision was made over his head.
I thought the article was embarrassing because it made so many excuses for Lennon you’d think without “unfortunate events” that he’d have been a candidate for manager of the year.
The piece was pleading “extenuating circumstances” even for the European humiliations.
Well how stupid must Lindsay feel right now, after Lennon not only mounted this bizarre and out of touch defence of the trip but actually took full responsibility for it and said that going was totally his idea and that those criticising the CEO for it were being unfair?
Not only is this plainly ridiculous – as there is no way that trip did not have Lawwell’s explicit approval – but it’s either Lennon trying to ingratiate himself with his bosses who should have sacked him two months ago, or he’s taking a bullet for them in return for a little more time at the helm.
Either way, it’s absolutely pathetic and heaps further embarrassment on the club.
Lennon’s continued role at our club has become a flat-out and unpardonable disgrace.
Right now, most of us would take Kennedy as interim boss whilst we sort this mess out.
Other clubs would never have delayed this long.
Nothing could be worse than this, to maintain this charade, to keep on going as if we’re cruising and not sinking.
What is it going to take before the board acts and gets rid of this guy, and what will be the consequences be if they don’t?
It seems that those “running” our club are going to push us until they find out.