Lennon, Neil – Miscellaneous Articles (manager) (4)

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O'Neill says Lennon could become 'one of the greats'

Hugh Macdonald Chief Sports Writer.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

The Herald MARTIN O'NEILL has disclosed his views on Derry's Walls, why he made his famous gesture at Ibrox in 2004, and why he believes Neil Lennon can be an all-time great at the club. In a wide-ranging interview for Faithful Through and Through, a book on the club and its culture to be published later this week, O'Neill also discloses that he believed Celtic and Rangers were on the verge of joining the English Premier League during his tenure as manager of the Parkhead club. O'Neill, born in Kilrea, County Londonderry, 61 years ago, also insisted that Celtic should never relinquish its bond with Ireland. He said: "The soul of Celtic Football Club is inextricably linked to its origins. Brother Walfrid's philanthropic influence pervades Celtic Park, his deeds and concern for the poor in Glasgow and the Irish itinerant workers moving into those areas are deeply rooted in Celtic's culture. That will never be erased. "

The former Nottingham Forest player took over as Celtic manager in 2000 and in five years won three Premier Leagues, three Scottish Cups and a League Cup. He praised his backroom staff of Steve Walford and John Robertson. "The players had trust in Steve as a coach and John as an assistant manager. They knew that unless there were serious problems they weren't going to be reporting anything back to me," he said. O'Neill's side won the treble in his first season, making him the only Celtic manager to achieve the feat apart from Jock Stein.

The Northern Irishman said: "I was ecstatic to win it. It wasn't easy but nothing had been easy for Jock Stein." He also pinpointed August, 8, 2001, as the moment his side grew up in Europe. "My view was that the winning of the game against Ajax was a very important breakthrough in our development as a side," he said of the 3-1 victory in a Champions League qualifier.

"It is worth bearing in mind the kind of players they fielded at that time, such as [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, [Ahmed] Mido and Rafael van der Vaart. That night was a magnificent victory. The whole team was outstanding." O'Neill guided the team to the UEFA Cup final in Seville in 2003 and addressed accusations that the club should have used that moment to take a further financial leap in acquiring players. "I think a lot of things changed; there wasn't any money – Celtic and Rangers could have gone their own way in terms of TV money and that might have earned them more. I know that suddenly there did not seem to be any money in the SPL in 2003 and 2005." He said that "in essence" Celtic and Rangers had stopped signing players for big fees. He opened up the regular debate about an entry to English football for the Glasgow sides.

"Celtic and Rangers may have to ply their trade elsewhere," he said. "It nearly happened when I was manager and I was all for it. Celtic and Rangers would maybe have to start in a lower league but what is five or six years in the life of a football club?" Of his period in Glasgow and the atmosphere at old Firm matches, he said: "Personally I feel it would be strange for me to go to Ibrox and not hear Derry's Walls or not feel a presence at Celtic Park with Fields of Athenry resounding from all four corners of the stadium.

Anyway, I often ask what is right and wrong these days. "I totally accept that no-one wishes to take family and friends to football games and feel lives are under threat. Will viewpoints change massively or even at all in another 100 years? I really don't know the answer but I suspect not." O'Neill famously led Lennon, the Celtic midfielder and now manager, towards the support after a controversial match in November, 2004.

"I felt we were getting a rough deal that day," he said. O'Neill believed Peter Lovenkrands, the Rangers forward, had tricked the match official, Kenny Clark, into giving Alan Thompson a red card. "It seemed the referee did not need much persuading to send him off." Chris Sutton, the Celtic striker, was also dismissed and O'Neill strode towards the Celtic support at the end of the match with his arm around Lennon. "That particular gesture at Ibrox was about appreciating the support we had from the Celtic fans that day," said O'Neill.

"I think the referee was looking for any excuse to do it [the sending-offs]" O'Neill was vocal in his praise of Lennon, saying: "He was in every way a leader. He proved himself time and time again on the European stage…

He could be become one of Celtic's all-time greats."

Rangers fan who encouraged people to send bombs and bullets to Neil Lennon faces prison sentence

14 Sep 2013 00:01 Daily Record

A JURY has agreed that William Kilpatrick's Facebook post telling people to send bombs and bullets to the Celtic manager incited violence, while the thug claims 'it was just banter'. A YOB is facing jail after urging people on Facebook to “send mair bombs and bullets” to Celtic manager Neil Lennon. Rangers fan William Kilpatrick posted the comment on the social networking site.

It said: “Neil Lennon’s a f*****g c***, get mair bullets and bombs sent, boys, Glasgow Rangers Champions.” The post was made from his mobile on the day of an Old Firm match.

It came at the height of tensions in April 2011 when what were described at the time as bombs and bullets had been sent to Lennon and high-profile Celtic supporter Paul McBride QC, who died last year. Kilpatrick’s comment was reported to police by a concerned colleague at supermarket Morrisons, where he worked. Stirling Sheriff Court was told that there had been no known repercussions. But Dev Kapadia, prosecuting, said: “It was a dangerous thing to do. “It was a misguided and reckless comment which could have caused others to commit violence.” Kilpatrick, 22, of Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, claimed it was “just banter” and denied the offence.

But after a trial lasting a day and a half, a jury found him guilty by majority verdict of causing a breach of the peace by posting an offensive and threatening Facebook message. He incited others to commit violence and placed the colleague who saw it, Richard Heggie, in fear and alarm. In evidence, Mr Heggie, 24, said he had been a Facebook friend of Kilpatrick, whom he thought had over 100 other Facebook friends who could also see the post. He said: “I was really concerned that it was getting said out in public. “I was concerned that somebody might take it seriously and might follow up on this suggestion.”

Mr Heggie said he did not think that Kilpatrick would personally carry out the suggested actions. Police detained Kilpatrick four days later. After caution, he told officers the game had been on while he had been at work and he had put up the post as he was leaving. Defence advocate Claire Mitchell said the post had never been “a serious call to arms”.

She added: “It was an ill-judged and ill-informed joke.” Sheriff Wyllie Robertson deferred sentence for reports. But he warned Kilpatrick: “I will continue bail but that should not be taken that any sentence, including a custodial sentence, is ruled out.”

Celtic's Neil Lennon suffers spitting and coin-throwing

BBC Feb 2014

Aberdeen and Celtic have condemned fans whose behaviour forced the Glasgow club's manager, Neil Lennon, to leave Saturday's League Cup semi-final early.

The 42-year-old was spat at, had coins thrown at him and was the subject of verbal abuse in the Tynecastle stand, according to his agent, Martin Reilly.

He had been a spectator as Aberdeen defeated St Johnstone 4-0.

Both Celtic and Aberdeen, whose fans were in the main stand, described the behaviour as "unacceptable".

“We would urge anyone who has any information as to the identity of those responsible to get in touch with the club”

Aberdeen Football Club

The Dons, who reached their first cup final since 2000, pleaded for supporters to report those responsible.

"The support we enjoyed at Tynecastle was absolutely fantastic and helped to create an incredible atmosphere that the manager and players acknowledged played a major part in what was wonderful day and occasion for Aberdeen Football Club," said a statement on their club website.

"However, it would appear that a tiny minority within the main stand behaved in a manner that is completely unacceptable and has absolutely no place in football.

"And we would urge anyone who has any information as to the identity of those responsible to get in touch with the club in order that appropriate action can be taken."

Reilly told BBC Scotland that Lennon and Celtic coach Gary Parker had to leave their seats in the main stand after 70 minutes of the game.

"I'm absolutely raging about the treatment of Neil, about the stewarding and the fans' behaviour," he said.

"It's scandalous that Neil is treated like this."

“We have an excellent relationship with Aberdeen Football Club and we are sure they will look into this matter”

Celtic spokesman

Play was also held up briefly as two young supporters ran on to the park and got to the technical area before being apprehended by police and stewards.

Lennon was sitting in the main stand, which housed Aberdeen fans on Saturday, yards above the technical area where he was infamously attacked by a Hearts fan in 2011, at Tynecastle.

The Celtic manager walked out of the stadium in Edinburgh shortly after Adam Rooney scored the third goal in the 62nd minute.

A Celtic spokesman said: "Clearly it is totally unacceptable for the Celtic manager to be treated in this way.

"Neil has complimented the way in which the situation was handled by stewarding staff at Tynecastle.

"We have an excellent relationship with Aberdeen Football Club and we are sure they will look into this matter."

That Neil Lennon needs a bodyguard is a grotesque reflection on Scottish football

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/that-neil-lennon-needs-a-bodyguard-is-a-grotesque-reflection-on-scottish-football.23341904
Michael Grant
Feb 2014

Chief football writer.

NEIL Lennon's comments last night, when he admitted a time may come when he has had enough of the abuse he gets in Scottish football, really should send a chill through the game in this country.

If the day ever comes when the Celtic manager leaves the Scottish Professional Football League and suggests that he has been hounded out, it will do permanent, irreparable damage to Scottish football. How primitive must we be if a football man cannot go to his work without getting pelted with stuff, maybe even spat on?

It is almost two years since one notorious idiot broke out of the stands at Tynecastle and attacked Lennon on the touchline. Since then he has been permanently accompanied on match days by his personal bodyguard. The sight of 'big Kevin' a few feet away from him at all times, keeping an eye out, has become so familiar and routine that it is only now and again you stop to realise anew how grotesque it is that he should need protection at all.

When Celtic are at home, or somewhere such as Perth, Inverness or Dingwall, it can seem like Kevin has the easiest gig in the country. And then along comes an episode like Saturday's and it becomes painfully clear that the big fella is not indispensable quite yet.

And so the appalling list of episodes is refreshed and updated. Thankfully no physical harm was done by the handful of Aberdeen louts who chucked stuff at him, but all these incidents will doubtless take a psychological toll.

"I thought we were passed all this," Lennon said last night. It was a small but revealing line. If he thought he was able to relax, and maybe go about his working life with the same freedom as the rest of us, that was snatched away. He was endangered, dragged back on to the front pages, and robbed of the precious peace of mind he might slowly have been recovering since the last incident some time ago.

Why Lennon? He is a hated figure for many rival football supporters, that much is painfully obvious. Lennon himself said he suspected excessive drinking was a factor and, significantly, said he did not think the motivation was sectarian. There have been claims of anti-Irish racism without the slightest evidence of that being a part of what happened at Tynecastle.

Aberdeen have a long-established problem with a small number of hooligans and troublemakers easily inflamed by any contact with Celtic or Rangers figures (Ally McCoist would have been equally vulnerable had he been in Lennon's seat on Saturday). There has never been any issue with Irishness. Anyone claiming otherwise might want to have a look at an Aberdeen team currently in danger of being carried shoulder high down Union Street: Willo Flood, Irish; Joe Shaughnessy, Irish; Jonny Hayes, Irish; Niall McGinn, Northern Irish; Adam Rooney, Irish.

Those responsible at Tynecastle surely will be identified and dealt with by the police and the club. They shamed Aberdeen on an otherwise great day for the club, and they once again made Lennon a victim in a way that should embarrass us all.

Spiers on Sport: Neil Lennon, and Scotland's continuing embarrassmen

Feb 2014

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/spiers-on-sport-neil-lennon-and-scotlands-continuing-embarrassment.1391520592

What are the roots of this recurring abuse of Neil Lennon in Scotland? Where does it all come from? Why, for some, is he such a hate-figure?

These questions have exercised minds again after Lennon was alleged to have been verbally abused and spat upon at Tynecastle last weekend. Not for a first time the Celtic manager was the subject of some embarrassing newspaper headlines

It would be tedious to cite the entire canon of Lennon abuse episodes of the past dozen years in Scotland – it clearly suffices to say he is a targeted figure. There have been court prosecutions and prison sentences doled out to some who have chosen to make attacking Lennon their chosen sport.

What is going on? What is it all about? Why is Scotland repeatedly embarrassed by this activity?

For me, there is no one exclusive cause of the abuse of Lennon. Indeed, I would cite three distinct roots of this behaviour.

First, Lennon is sometimes abused for being a Catholic. Second, he is sometimes abused for his Irish ethnicity. Third, some of the abuse of Lennon is linked to neither religion nor Ireland, but to his personality, which many appear to detest.

The first of these – anti-Catholicism – can scarcely be disputed. Parts of Scotland continue to haul themselves slowly and painfully out of the 19th century, but until that process is complete – if it ever is – then public figures like Neil Lennon will continue to bear the brunt.

Scotland's anti-Catholicism is also inflamed in the football environment, wherein Celtic and Rangers remain mired in a regrettable context. This scene is changing, mercifully, and progress is being made. But the brute lump of sectarianism which remains ensures that a figure like Lennon is a magnet for bigots.

Anti-Irish prejudice? This is a more complicated theme, but it certainly exists in Scotland. I don't overstate it – this country is not saturated with anti-Irish prejudice, which would be an absurd claim – but strands of it for me are clearly visible.

It is an oddity that, in north America, ethnic roots appear to be encouraged and celebrated, such as the Irish-Americans in Boston, or the Scots-Canadians in Nova Scotia. Yet here in Scotland, strangely, the Irish-Scots are somehow deplored, disparaged or denigrated.

President Theodore Roosevelt once implored of his countrymen: "Stop being hyphenated Americans…please just be Americans."

But this was in a tender age of wartime, especially during the First World War, when German-Americans found their feelings compromised by the conflict.

In more recent decades, Roosevelt's words have come to look outdated. Today people's ethnic origins are openly valued, all across the globe, especially in the so-called "migrant age". So why the Irish-Scots come in for their abuse seems out of kilter.

For some, Lennon represents just such a figure. Moreover, his political view of "the Irish question" might not be to everyone's liking in Scotland. Whatever the case, the Celtic manager attracts those who need to vent their spleen in this context.

Yet one problem here is, some people want to make anti-Catholicism or anti-Irish prejudice the be-all and end-all of the Neil Lennon saga. But they aren't. They cannot be. There is too much evidence to dispute such a claim.

On Saturday night, when news of Lennon's assault at Tynecastle came through, I was in a BBC studio and being invaded by people who – some of them hundreds of miles from the Tynecastle scene – were decreeing the incident to be "sectarian" or "anti-Irish" in nature.

I always find this a strange scenario. Those who (rightly) despise anti-Irish prejudice often seem to crave every single episode to be just such an instance.

Last Saturday night, I was being told, there was no argument about it. Pure and simply, Lennon's experience at Tynecastle was said to be a faith or ethnic attack. People were emphatic about it.

Well, Lennon himself came out later and disputed this. Indeed, he put quite a tin-lid on the purveyors of zealous anti-Irish hurt by claiming that his verbal assailants at Tynecastle were simply footballing piss-heads who had had far too much to drink.

Some of those who cannot breathe without seeing anti-Irish sentiment in Scotland had their head in their hands at Lennon's words. I mean…how could he possibly say these words?

The truth is, on top of the blatant prejudice Lennon has faced, many others in Scottish football simply deplore him for his character, his personality.

Lennon is feisty. He stands his ground. He can provoke – he says so himself – when he wants to. To many, he comes over as strutting, or arrogant, or conceited, or whatever.

For this, some choose to hate Neil Lennon. And on occasion, such as at Tynecastle, that hatred produces a pretty ugly scene.

I don't mind adding a personal note here. I like Lennon a lot. In so many respects I find his public image totally at odds with the private man.

This is a guy who can be the most placid, withdrawn man in a pub, but who out of nowhere will suddenly be the subject of aggression. It is quite extraordinary.

Lennon is many things. Very often, a victim. On occasion, no innocent. Certainly, no shrinking violet. And he continues to hold up a mirror in the face of Scotland, upon which a pretty embarrassing truth is revealed.

Lennon deserves three cheers, not treble yell . . .

The Herald
Hugh Macdonald

SO he has won a treble after all.

Some would seek to define the managerial career of Neil Lennon by his failures rather than his successes. It is a universal football trait to dwell on the disappointments rather than exult in the victories but it is condition that is at its most virulent in its Caledonian strain.

It could be categorised as the Aye, But virus. Its symptoms are a myopia to the good and an obsession with the bad. So Lennon is criticised for not winning the treble rather than a treble which his third successive league title constitutes.

Spoiler: click to toggle
The only other Celtic managers to achieve three consecutive title wins are Willie Maley, Jock Stein and Gordon Strachan. Lennon, of course, does not yet merit entry to the Pantheon of Celtic managerial greats but he has cause to ask at least for a place in the lobby.

Any discussion of the 2013/2014 season must, of course, deal with the League Cup defeat by Morton and the William Hill Scottish Cup loss to Aberdeen. The first was so freakish to be almost absurd. The second was the result of an excellent Aberdeen performance.

The philosophical banality that these things happen in football is not likely to be met kindly by fans or rivals. The burden for Lennon is that the domestic treble of league and two cups has suddenly been rendered as something so easily attained as to be almost compulsory. The mere attainment of a title and subsequent entry into Champions League qualifiers is seen by some as a doleful under-achievement.

Yet Lennon has played a crucial role in a testing time for the club. His achievements are substantial. He has led Celtic into the group stages of the Champions League twice and the knockout stages once.

With warnings of financial meltdown after the demise of Rangers, his team has not only paid the bills but posted a profit. And it is his team. The starting XI last night was a Lennon production, save for Scott Brown, an inheritance from Strachan, another of the three-in-a-row club.

The Northern Irishman, too, has built teams while pilferers from other leagues have wandered south with his foundations. Kelvin Wilson, Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper all departed in the summer, Joe Ledley in January. All were excellent for Lennon but he has replaced them within a budget and with a commitment to maintaining quality.

The Aye, But faction would point to such as Mo Bangura and Efrain Juarez as beacons of Celtic fallibility in the transfer market but this accusation can be rebutted with a litany of names. To restrict to those present at Firhill last night: Fraser Forster, Adam Matthews, Emilio Izaguirre, Virgil van Dijk and Stefan Johansen all look capable of attracting substantial sell-on fees. Leigh Griffiths, too, will score goals, Charlie Mulgrew is a starter for Scotland and Kris Commons will be Player of the Year.

If one of the tests of the quality of a manager is whether he can improve players, Lennon passes with a considerable degree of comfort. He has taken potential and led them into battles against Europe's best.

The Aye, But brigade will point to the drubbings by Barcelona and AC Milan this season. The realists will insist that punching above one's weight is not an enduring quality and entry to the group stages is laudable, even remarkable given the gulf in resources between the Scottish champions and those in bigger leagues.

But Lennon's best qualities as a manager are often overlooked. The first is his insistence on playing with pace and with an emphasis on attack. His full-backs last night, Izauirre and Matthews in the first half, were so far upfield when Forster gathered the ball that they were in danger of being ruled offside.

The second is his ability to motivate players in a league season that has contained only one defeat by Aberdeen. Last season Celtic were prone to slips and carelessness. They have been focused and relentless during this campaign. Lennon has learned. It is what good managers do.

The third overlooked trait is Lennon's determination to give youngsters their chance. He showed this early, promoting James Forrest almost immediately he was given a managerial role.

It was apt that on the night Celtic won their 45th championship and Lennon his third as a manager that Liam Henderson, at 17, scored the second goal that ended any hopes of a Partick Thistle revival.

The five goals gave Lennon his treble on a comfortable night for the champions. His side were never truly stretched, though Lennon guarded against complacency by racing from his dugout after a piece of sloppy play by Efe Ambrose and conducting a impassioned, immediate post-mortem after the loss of a late goal to Christie Elliott.

There was an outbreak of bampottery at the end when a deserved ovation from the support was denied after a pitch invasion by a couple hundred eejits. This was a pity because Lennon and his side deserved a prolonged ovation on a night when the Aye, Buts were rendered speechless, if only for the moment.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/lennon-deserves-three-cheers-not-treble-yell.23802041

Football: Why do people want to kill Neil Lennon?

For the past decade Celtic's bellicose manager has endured death threats and physical assaults. Sectarian prejudice could explain it, but some say he brings it upon himself. Kevin McKenna meets the most victimised man in football

Kevin McKenna
The Observer, Saturday 17 September 2011 21.04 BST

“I became aware that I was being jeered at every away ground Celtic played”: Neil Lennon last month, at the club’s training centre near Glasgow. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
It is claimed that you must attend an Old Firm game at least once in your life… like drinking yak's milk with Tibetan monks or fire-walking with Mayan Indians. To say that it is merely Irish Catholic Celtic vs Ulster Protestant Rangers is to disregard the centuries of cultural, ethnic and political nuances that make this one of the purest and most intense tribal rivalries that has ever existed in world sport. Today is the first of a handful of occasions this season on which these two will meet. For those new to this tumultuous carnevale it is a breathtaking experience. The seasoned observer learns a lingua franca with which to navigate this febrile part of Glasgow, when colours, songs, accents and dialects are scrutinised for signs of an allegiance to one team or other.

Even so, the series of events that befell Celtic's Northern Irish manager Neil Lennon between January and May this year remains shocking, and has led to one of those prolonged bouts of spiritual introspection in which Scotland likes to wallow every generation or so. Following the traditional early January meeting between these two clubs, in which Celtic triumphed at the home of their ancient foes, Lennon was told by police that he was the subject of a threat of physical violence and that his home in the West End of the city would be placed under 24-hour guard. Websites began to appear encouraging subscribers to "kill Neil Lennon"; bullets were sent to him at Celtic's stadium address. In March, following a four-day media blackout, it was revealed that primed explosive devices intended for Lennon and two other prominent west of Scotland Catholics had been intercepted.

Glasgow develops a bleak and sardonic humour that it uses as a carapace when evil comes to visit. But this time there was a palpable sense of shock that such things were happening in post-Christian, modern and liberal Scotland. Why Neil Lennon? In 2002, two years after joining the club as a player, he was forced to quit playing for Northern Ireland following death threats issued to him before a game. In 2003, two students attacked him as he enjoyed a night out near his home in the genteel West End. In 2004 he was the victim of a road-rage incident in the middle of the M8 which led to a man being fined £500. In 2008 he was beaten unconscious by two men as he left a pub. Each of his assailants was jailed.

If an asylum-seeker or an immigrant or a gay man had been subjected to an ordeal of such deep, sustained and violent hatred there would have been a public inquiry. Instead, there is a widespread notion that Lennon, somehow, has partly brought this upon himself. At the end of last month a 26-year-old man admitted to Edinburgh's sheriff court that he had assaulted Lennon during a football match in the city in May between Heart of Midlothian and Celtic. The miscreant could hardly have pleaded otherwise; 16,000 spectators and millions more watching on TV had witnessed the incident. The perpetrator spoke of his remorse and told the court that he had written aletter of apology to Lennon. The jury, however, found that the assault charge was not proven and that he had merely been guilty of a breach of the peace. It is one of the few occasions in Scottish legal history when an individual is acquitted of a crime that he freely admitted carrying out. A joke rapidly emerged that Colonel Gaddafi had offered to surrender to Nato if he could be guaranteed a trial in Edinburgh.

Until now, the Celtic manager has largely kept his own counsel on the maelstrom that engulfed him earlier this year. I encounter him behind his desk on the upper floor of the club's sleek training facility, set among the splendour of the Campsie Hills 10 miles north of the city centre. He is still in his dark tracksuit after a two-hour session with his squad and at 5ft 8in his squat frame and cropped red hair suggest an amateur boxing trainer. His words are considered and each sentence is weighed before he delivers it in a soft Ulster accent. He has an unnerving habit of adopting a longish pause before answering each question and looking directly at you, as if he is asking if you can be trusted not to distort or misrepresent. He seems at ease with himself and glad that he has made it unscathed to the start of a new season. But he remains angry and not a little bitter at what he had to endure a few months ago.

"This isn't something that just suddenly happened this year," he says. "When I joined Celtic as a player 10 years ago I became aware immediately that I was being singled out for special treatment. At first I thought it might just have had something to do with the fact that I was an expensive signing from the English Premiership. That would have been OK. But I became aware of something more sinister when I played for Northern Ireland as a Celtic player for the first time. Before then I had represented my country 36 or 37 times and had enjoyed the full support of our fans. Now I was aware of being jeered by our own supporters every time I touched the ball.

In the line of fire: Lennon is attacked by a Heart of Midlothian fan at Tynecastle Stadium in May. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA

"Then I also began to become aware that I was being jeered at every away ground Celtic played at. Some writers said that it was because of my combative style, but I only received two red cards in seven years playing with Celtic and I had never received this treatment while playing in England for three different clubs."

Lennon is a passionate man who, only with some difficulty, masks his emotions. When Lennon is angry he seems to snarl and bare his teeth. Sky's ubiquitous TV cameras captured just this look in the aftermath of a replayed Old Firm cup-tie in March. A lot had been riding on the match; Celtic had developed the upper hand in recent Old Firm clashes and Rangers were under pressure from their supporters to win. It wasn't the roughest game these two have played, but after a narrow Celtic win, eight Rangers players had been cautioned and three sent off. At the end of the game the cameras closed in on Lennon and his Rangers counterpart, Ally McCoist, about to greet each other at the final whistle. In the space of five seconds, the following happened in chronological order: Lennon shakes McCoist's hand and smiles in commiseration; there is a brusque exchange and Lennon adopts his Rumpelstiltskin visage; a mild scuffle lasting a moment ensues before each is huckled away. No more, no less. Within 24 hours Strathclyde's chief constable has phoned Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, and something called a "sectarian summit" of concerned politicians and officers of each club has been organised. It took almost as little time for Cobra to be convened after the al-Qaida attack on Glasgow Airport in 2007.

"I was proud of my team that night," Lennon says. "Almost every one of our opponents was booked or sent off. After the game I took exception to something that was said and a very brief scuffle took place. It was nothing." But it wasn't nothing and some pointed to Lennon's manner and said that this sort of behaviour… Well, he just doesn't do himself any favours.

Does this though adequately explain why so many people apparently want to harm him? After all, Lennon's former boss at Celtic, Martin O'Neill, comes from the same Northern Ireland, Catholic background as him and never encountered anything remotely comparable. "Unlike Martin, I played for aCeltic team that enjoyed seven years of almost unbroken supremacy over Rangers, so I was already an unpopular figure," he says.

In the 123 years since this fixture was first played there have been sporadic alarums to exercise the civic panjandrums. On these occasions there is an unseemly dash to occupy the moral high ground and speak portentously of Scotland's dirty little secret.

What had been a keenly contested but otherwise unremarkable city derby for around 25 years developed its sectarian edge when Celtic, the pride of the Irish diaspora, dominated Scottish football in the decade before the Great War. Who could mount a Scottish challenge to navvies, Fenians and tattie-howkers? At this time Rangers, whose home lay in Govan on the other side of the city, began to attract support from shipyard workers imported from the Harland and Wolff yards in Belfast. These were loyal to Ulster, the crown and the Protestant faith. Rangers became their club and began to shoulder their aspirations. Battle was joined. The two clubs, ever since, have been entwined in a grim dance to the music of their time.

Lennon was bemused at the reaction of Scotland's political leaders in the aftermath of the March cup-tie. "I still find it difficult to fathom how, in the face of death threats, attempts on my life and physical assaults, some commentators have said it is partly my fault. Martin O'Neill, my old boss at Celtic and also from Northern Ireland, once pulled me across to salute the Celtic fans at Ibrox after I had received even more than the usual abuse from the Rangers support. The press criticised him for that. Only one sportswriter supported him. This is 2011 and reporters have a duty to report what has happened to me in my 10 years here truthfully, but until the bomb threats they and the politicians swept it under the carpet."

"Yet I know that the Celtic support is very protective of me," Lennon continues, "and I am very humbled by that. I've had hundreds of letters too from Rangers fans, from Hearts fans, from Aberdeen fans, all saying that they have been outraged by some of the abuse directed at me and that it doesn't truly reflect their views. That's also been very humbling."

"I still find it difficult to fathom how, in the face of death threats and assaults, commentators have said it is partly my fault": Neil Lennon, playing for Celtic in 2006. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
Lennon grew up in Lurgan, the sober and tidy little town that welcomes us to Northern Ireland when we leave the ferry, and where his parents still live. "I had a good upbringing and a good education," he says, "and I encountered very little sectarian tension. I played sports for many of the protestant boys' clubs and youth clubs. Sectarianism simply was not part of my upbringing." He was invited to train with Rangers when he was 13 and beginning to attract attention from clubs in the mainland. "I still have the letter Rangers sent to me," he says, "and a picture of me at Ibrox with Jimmy Nicholl [Rangers' Northern Irish defender]."

A friend, knowing that I am to interview him, speaks of her appreciation that he wrote, in his 2006 memoir, of his continuing struggle with clinical depression. His candidness was applauded by mental-health charities and he still does what he can to support their campaigns. Despite his troubles in Glasgow he loves the city, and people are often surprised to see him socialising freely in the streets around his home with his family. His friends say he is a gregarious and engaging character who will never be deterred from talking about football to anyone who approaches him.

The football writer Graham Spiers has been observing Lennon the player and Lennon the manager for 10 years. "Look, I'm a huge admirer of this man," he said. "But I wouldn't dismiss the notion that he brings some of his troubles down upon his own head. Yes, he does tick every box in the Celtic, Catholic Irish narrative and that elicits a bigoted response from some people. But this only explains part of it. He is always on the front foot and he never retreats when others have found it more prudent to do so. I've seen him give the middle finger to supporters who were giving him abuse at a couple of grounds. I'm sure these are occasions he regrets. At these times, he seems to be saying: 'Get it right up the lot of you.'"

But little of this begins to truly explain why, following 10 tranquil years in England, many people, outwith Scotland's Catholic community, simply can't abide the sight of this turbulent Irishman. The answer is both troubling and reassuring, for Lennon's decade-long Gethsemane may yet prove to be cathartic for a proud and disputatious nation.

The two other intended recipients of the explosive devices sent in March were Paul McBride, Scotland's most successful QC, and Trish Godman, the former Labour MSP for West Renfrewshire. The law and politics were, not so long ago, realms where the Catholic Irish were not permitted to hold a stake. The white and aspirational working-class Protestant community could rely on exclusive entry to the trades and the professions; the Kirk and the Conservative party gave them sustenance. Membership of golf clubs and tennis clubs and bowling clubs was theirs and theirs only.

That was then. No longer is there an artisan class in Scotland, once the sole preserve of working-class Protestants. And Conservative Unionism is extinct. The Church of Scotland is permitting gay ministers. Old certainties are now no more than wraiths and spectres. The Catholic Irish, having educated themselves out of the ghetto, are prominent in the law, politics, academia and journalism. And into this has come a ginger-headed, Irish Catholic captain and manager of Celtic FC. He is bellicose when once he would have been benign; he gets up when once he would have stayed down; he rolls with the punches and comes out fighting. There are some in Scotland who are raging against the dying of the light and Lennon has become a lightning rod for their fury.

In one of those city centre wine bars where tribal tensions dissipate in sauvignon blanc a well-known Glasgow lawyer is considering the Neil Lennon question. Douglas Kilpatrick is a lifelong Rangers aficionado and is uncomfortable with the easy assumptions about the opprobrium that surrounds the Celtic manager. "To some in my tradition, Lennon represents the sum of all fears, and religious prejudice on its own does not explain all of this," says Kilpatrick. "The influence and sense of entitlement which has sustained many working-class and middle-class Protestants have declined in the last decade or so. Some Scots just can't cope with this all at once and their response is suitably atavistic. But it will pass. There is too much healthy respect and goodwill between the majority on either side for it not to."

Lennon has refused to yield in the face of almost unbearable pressure and continues to live in the heart of the city with his partner and child while other Old Firm players seek the refuge of drowsy dormitory villages. Every man, though, has his breaking point and Lennon knows his. "If I thought for a minute that anyone in my family was in danger because of me then I would walk away tomorrow."

Perhaps Neil Lennon was born for this; to be the necessary paschal sacrifice that has to happen to wash away the sins of an ancient blood feud, which may now be coming, kicking and screaming, to an end.
• The following correction was published on25 September 2011:

Celtic's manager Neil Lennon was indeed brought up in Lurgan, but it is not "the sober and tidy little town that welcomes us to Northern Ireland as we leave the ferry". We were thinking of Larne. ("Why do people want to kill Neil Lennon?", Magazine).

Neil Lennon leaves Celtic

http://www.celticfc.net/news/5939
By: Newsroom Staff on 22 May, 2014 16:17

CELTIC Football Club today announced that Neil Lennon has stood down from his position as Celtic Manager. Neil leaves the club after serving Celtic for four years as Manager and delivering three Scottish Premier League titles in a row. Neil will now assist the Club in finding his successor.

Neil said: “I have supported Celtic all my life and the Club will always be part of me. It was an absolute honour to play for this great Club, to captain the team and of course to become Celtic Manager, a position which I cherished dearly. However, I feel the time is now right to move on to a new challenge.

“Of course, I am very pleased that I will be leaving Celtic as Scottish Champions and with the Club in such good health. I wish the Club nothing but good fortune going forward.

“I would like to send my sincere thanks and best wishes to Johan Mjallby and Garry Parker who have supported me magnificently, to all the players and staff at the Club who I have worked with over so many years and, of course, to our magnificent supporters who have been with me through everything. I would also like to thank Dermot, Peter and the Club’s Board of Directors for their support.”

“I also want to thank my family for all they have given me. I could not have been Celtic Manager for four years without their wonderful support.

“Serving the Club was always a privilege. I have always given my best and aimed to do all I can to ensure success for Celtic, as a supporter it was all I wanted.

“I will now assist the Club in appointing my successor. As ever, we will need our fans’ support and I am sure they will give the Club and the new Manager the same great backing which they gave to myself.”

Celtic Chairman Ian Bankier added: “Neil has given a huge part of his life to serving the Club and we will always be grateful for all he has given us. Ultimately, Neil brought Celtic back to the top of Scottish football, re-introducing the passion and drive which we needed to succeed and of course keeping us there for the last three years.

“Neil has shown the Club a huge level of commitment and effort over his four years as Manager. We thank him sincerely for all he has done and of course we wish Neil and his family the very best for the future."

Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell commented: “I would like to thank Neil for everything he has done for Celtic. When we appointed Neil as Manager we did so knowing exactly what the Club meant to him and knowing that he would give all he had to the job. He has delivered great success to our supporters domestically and has brought us back to the table in European football.

“He will always be part of the Club and we wish Neil and his family nothing but success in the future.

“We now embark on a new and exciting chapter for the Club. We are sure our fans will give us their usual fantastic support as we aim to bring them more and more success and continue to make Celtic a Club they can be proud of.”

Neil Lennon legacy leaves Celtic in stronger position

By Tom English BBC Scotland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27524020

On 4 March 2011, a suspicious package bound for Neil Lennon at Celtic Park was examined at a sorting office in Saltcoats in north Ayrshire. The package contained 248 nails presented as a bomb.

It was a hoax, not that the hoax would have been apparent to Lennon had he had the misfortune to open the thick brown envelope. Mercifully, a vigilant postal worker spared him the added distress.

Later that afternoon, I sat with Lennon in his office just inside the main door at Celtic Park. He was calm but tired, a little shaken but strong at the same time.

Of the many images of his four years as manager of Celtic that, to these eyes, is the most memorable. A private moment in a little office when he sat back in his chair and refused to be cowed by the unreconstructed lunatics who wanted to do him harm.

How others viewed him and abused him was a theme he was regularly drawn into. He could never shake off the hangover from some of his goading years as a player when he said and did some things that drew the heat from the other side of Glasgow.

That was then, but even in recent seasons when he was a studied presence on the touchline, compared to the livewire of before, his reputation as a snarling individual never quite went away, even though it should have.

Lennon matured as a manager, as anybody who has watched him will testify.

The coiled-spring was always only one part of his make-up at any rate. In company, he is funny and bright, relaxed, a fascinating thinker about the game and hugely ambitious. He didn't get everything right at Celtic but the club he has resigned from is in an altogether better state than the club he took over after the dog-days of Tony Mowbray.

“Celtic need Rangers, not in a fiscal sense, but in a competitive sense. For Lennon, the thrill had gone.”

For chief executive Peter Lawwell, Lennon should be something of a poster-boy. The departing manager has added fortunes to the coffers through back-to-back qualification for the Champions League and one qualification for the last 16. That season, 2012-13 was the highlight of his time. The home win against Barcelona one of the greatest nights in the modern history of the club.

In his transfer business, Lennon hit the jackpot enough times to make his signing failures more tolerable. Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper brought in £20m when sold to Southampton and Norwich. Lennon recruited Fraser Forster and Virgil van Dijk, who are both multi-million pound assets. He has signed a number of duds, but the good ones were very good and they compensated.

The problem is that Lennon hit a glass ceiling, as he was always likely to. He collided with the club's financial reality.

Lawwell won't overextend in the pursuit of Europe's last 16. As a manager striving to better himself, there was always going to come a time when Lennon accepted that he could do no more. And that time has been coming for a while.

Gordon Strachan used to talk about the shelf-life of a Celtic manager. He did four years in the post himself and reckoned that was about right. Lennon, clearly, agrees with his old manager.

He has brought to an end an association that has run the gamut of emotions, from undiluted success as a player under Martin O'Neill and later Strachan, to an unhappy bit-part role under Mowbray, to the full metal jacket experience of being the boss.

Bombs in the post and trophies in the cabinet. Truly, Lennon has been one of the most compelling individuals who ever held office at Celtic Park.

His leaving has been on the cards for some time. Privately, Lawwell has been expecting it. More than a year ago he predicted that Lennon would depart at the end of this season. He was right, sort of. Lawwell's prediction was that Lennon would leave for another club, a Premier League outfit, one with prospects.

On that, he was wrong. Lennon has been linked with jobs down south – and that, indisputably, is where he wants to be – but there's no promise, no contract on the table. He is leaving because the challenge at Celtic no longer exhilarated him. Not with the budget at his disposal. He wants a new test in a bigger footballing world. He's gambling that one will come.
Henrik Larsson and Neil Lennon

Could Henrik Larsson be the man to replace his old team-mate Lennon?

His reign brought him three league titles, but most of them, whether he likes it or not, will forever have an asterisk beside them given the demise of the one team who might have put it up to them along the way. It wasn't Lennon's fault that Rangers dynamited themselves through their own hubristic financial insanity.

Celtic might have won three leagues in any event. But their absence rendered the competition a procession, a cake-walk with none of the fear factor that all managers need.

Lennon might have talked up the league and, no doubt, he took great pride in winning it three times, but the last two in the post-Rangers age can't have been as fulfilling. When your only rival is not there, the significance of the victory has to be lessened.

Everybody needs a challenger. Celtic need Rangers, not in a fiscal sense, but in a competitive sense. For Lennon, the thrill had gone.

You have to analyse Lennon in different ways. He won two Scottish Cups but that competition and the League Cup to boot caused him untold grief. There was the League Cup final loss to Rangers in 2011, before their implosion, and the other final loss to Kilmarnock in 2012. There were semi-final defeats by Ross County and St Mirren along the way. Then the early, and inexplicable, League Cup exit this season against hopeless Morton.

You go back to what the club was like when he took over, though. So spooked by the Mowbray months and unsold on Lennon's capabilities as a manger, they only offered him the job on a temporary basis to begin with. Lennon promised to bring the thunder back. He was true to his word.

The search for the new manager now begins. It is the Celtic way to automatically divert to old heroes in moments like this. Henrik Larsson has been installed as favourite. He has no real managerial pedigree, but then neither did Lennon. If Lawwell wants to appeal to the hearts of the faithful he will go with the Swede, but that's what he did when appointing Mowbray – the return of the hero – and it all went horribly wrong.

There are two lists in all this. The realistic one, with Larsson and Steve Clarke and others, and the wishful one, featuring Malky Mackay and David Moyes. There is an ever-lengthening cast of characters but very few who are attainable and who tick the boxes.

Lennon's departure marks the end of a tumultuous era. Whatever comes next in his managerial career, it'll do well to match the terrible beauty that was his life in Glasgow.

Spiers on Sport: departing Neil Lennon leaves behind his Celtic legacy

Spiers on Sport
Graham Spiers
Thursday 22 May 2014

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/spiers-on-sport-departing-neil-lennon-leaves-behind-his-celtic-legacy.1400767505

Neil Lennon's decision to leave Celtic has been in the offing for quite a while. Only the weeks and months ahead will reveal to Lennon himself whether he has made the right move, or whether it is one he comes to regret.

For clarity, it is worth confirming that, on a number of occasions over the past 12 months, Lennon has revealed to intimates that he was thinking of leaving Celtic Park.

In January, in his Spiers on Sport column giving his hot tips for Scottish football in 2014, Graham wrote:

There is no argument – Lennon has been a very good Celtic manager. He has defied many who thought him too intemperate, too undisciplined for the job. Lennon has brought craft and original thinking to the task. Nonetheless, by December 2014 he'll have been four-and-a-half years in the job. I find it hard to believe he won't desire a change of scene.

A mixture of over-familiarity with the Scottish football scene, plus a hefty degree of going through the motions with Celtic, have been principal reasons for Lennon's decision.

His love of Celtic has never been in doubt, nor his appreciation of the club's standing on the European scene. But a lack of stimulation has worn Lennon down as he has led Celtic through difficult times in Scottish football in recent years.

His job at Celtic required him to negotiate some unexciting chores. The Champions League adventure between August and December is fraught, exciting, and not without its dramas, and any manager would be turned on by all of that.

That night of November 7 2012, when Lennon's Celtic beat Barcelona in Glasgow, will remain one of the highlights of his career. It once more catapulted his name all over the British football press.

But then there was the other stuff – Celtic's grim local duties. How many more times could Lennon get himself up for trips to Paisley or Kilmarnock or Perth as he went about Celtic's bread-and-butter business? Was there any stimulus in this for him, having done it over and over again?

Much of Scottish football is pretty humdrum, and Lennon, one way or another, has been doing it for 13 seasons. He needed a change.

Ironically, the demise of Rangers, Lennon's greatest rival as both a Celtic player and manager, has probably also been a factor in his decision.

Lennon loved playing Rangers and very often rubbed his great rivals' noses in it – something which helped make him a hate-figure at Ibrox and much loved at Celtic Park. But being a Celtic manager has been considerably less eventful – and maybe less fun – since the liquidation of the old Rangers and the Ibrox club's subsequent rebirth in the lower reaches of Scottish football.

The Old Firm narrative was the greatest – and the ugliest – in the Scottish game. To have it taken away has robbed both clubs and their supporters of something deeply compelling.

It seems very obvious, with their crowds down, that many Celtic supporters have adopted the same jaundiced view of the domestic scene. It is worth repeating again: while Rangers fans have had to go through a tragic event involving their club, it is ironic that their own drama has kept them firmly tethered to the cause. Celtic, in box office terms, have lacked that desperate edge.

Lennon's job in Glasgow became pretty thankless. This season Celtic won the Scottish Premiership by 29 points – and that was while we have all been lauding the rejuvenation of Aberdeen under Derek McInnes.

In other words, few gave a bat's eyelid for Celtic winning the title – it is a given before a Premiership ball is kicked. In fact, in recent seasons, the only time Lennon has warranted strong comment was when he has not cleaned up a domestic treble, such as in his failure this season to add a cup to his league title.

In other words, it was hard for Lennon to receive genuine praise for his work at Celtic. But the criticism…well, that remained on tap.

He now stands at a career crossroads. More often than not the idea of Lennon going to work in the Barclays Premier League seemed a plaything of the sports pages in Scotland, rather than in a CEO of a club in England actually coming on the phone and offering him a concrete job.

It became more and more of an issue with Lennon, when he craved a fresh challenge, whether to sit and bide his time at Celtic, or simply walk away, with nothing definite to go to.

Some are insistent that he will end up at Norwich City, currently without a manager, and newly relegated. Lennon, however, appears to have taken a step into the unknown.

How should Lennon be remembered as a Celtic manager? I would say as a very good – though not a great – one.

Old Firm managers, no matter their club's advantage, can foul up – just look at Paul Le Guen and Tony Mowbray. Lennon, however, brought passion and some original thinking to the Celtic dugout, at a time when the club made a habit of astute signings in the transfer market.

He won five trophies in four years as Celtic manager – decent but not great going. A downside, such as this season, came when he failed to add a domestic cup to the league titles he made his own. To win just two of the eight Scottish domestic cups he went for must count as a Lennon failure.

In twice guiding Celtic into the Champions League, however, and on one occasion into the last 16, Lennon established a testament to his prowess as a manager. He succeeded where he might easily have failed.

The question now is, can Lennon further his career, or will he find the grass less green elsewhere?

Neil Lennon's persecution shames Scotland

The catastrophic lack of action by the authorities to protect the former Celtic manager is a disgrace

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/25/neil-lennon-persecution-shames-scotland-celtic-manager
Kevin McKenna
The Observer, Sunday 25 May 2014

Neil Lennon, Celtic's ex-manager, has been let down by many sections of Scottish society.

Now that the departure of Neil Lennon has been announced, it is time to ask why enlightened and progressive Scotland treated him in such a vile manner in each of the dozen or so years he spent with us. The resignation of a Celtic manager ought only to be the subject of scrutiny on the sports pages, with his success rate and football legacy being picked apart and compared with others who have occupied that seat. Such, though, has been the universal hatred to which this young man has been subjected in every part of Scotland that any interpretation that fails to analyse why is immediately rendered meaningless. Neil Lennon is, quite simply, the bravest man in Scotland.

Lennon was that rare thing in the world of team sport, a highly skilful player who immediately went on to become a very successful manager. From 2000, as his career in Scotland progressed, it soon became apparent that he was being abused and vilified at almost every away ground he visited. Something other than football rivalry was being expressed here and it was becoming ugly to behold.

In matches against Rangers FC, then Celtic's oldest and fiercest rivals, the abuse was almost unbearable and on one occasion Lennon's manager, Martin O'Neill, put a fatherly arm around his shoulders and marched him halfway up the pitch as if to say: "I know what this is about, but this is my son and we will always support him." Lennon, you see, is a Catholic from Northern Ireland. He has red hair and a belligerent onfield demeanour that brooks no compromise. He never backs down. And then of course, he played for Celtic FC. For some in Scotland, this was a toxic cocktail that deserved a violent response.

In his time at Celtic, Neil Lennon was the victim of almost a dozen assaults and attempted assaults. On one occasion, he was kicked to the ground by two assailants outside his favourite wine bar in one of Glasgow's most desirable neighbourhoods. Most famously, he was attacked on the pitch in Edinburgh by a supporter of Heart of Midlothian. The incident was witnessed by millions watching live on Sky TV. In what must have been a world legal first an Edinburgh jury subsequently cleared his assailant.

Three years ago, two men from Ayrshire tried to blow up Lennon and his family by sending him a parcel bomb. A judge convicted them of a lesser charge. Others had attempted to send him bullets in the post. He was forced to stop playing international football for his beloved Northern Ireland because he and his family began to receive death threats immediately following his move to Celtic.

During Lennon's 13 years in England as a player for Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Leicester City, there hadn't been a single controversial incident involving him. As soon as he pulled on the green and white hooped jersey, he became a marked man throughout Scotland and subjected to a persistent and egregious litany of hate. Since 2011, he and his family have received round-the-clock police protection at home and at his children's school. During this time, Lennon was badly let down by every major organisation in Scotland that would normally have been expected to intervene as this extraordinary campaign of personal vilification was being played out before them. Let none be in any doubt about this: Lennon was hated for his religion and for his country of origin. Too many Scottish football writers either chose to ignore what was happening or, worse, tried to justify it by saying that, by dint of his belligerent demeanour, he brought much of it upon himself. They conveniently overlooked the fact that Lennon had an exemplary disciplinary record and never criticised opposing teams or managers. Away from football, he lived quietly and openly in Glasgow's West End, where he enjoyed the company of supporters in the wine bars and restaurants of that neighbourhood.

The Scottish government simply chose to look the other way while a migrant worker in Scotland was being racially abused in front of them and the Scottish Football Association refused to intervene. Indeed, on the only occasion that they did so, they hit Lennon with an extraordinary ban as punishment for reacting angrily, but not violently, to something uttered quietly by Ally McCoist, his Rangers counterpart. You got the impression they had been waiting to do that for some time.

Meanwhile, the government, in a gross act of cowardice, decided to use that incident to show that it cared by organising an utterly worthless and meaningless summit on sectarianism. Yet it had nothing to say about the campaign of abuse that Neil Lennon endured in this country. No anti-racism body ever came to his aid. There are some who claim that Scotland remains an anti-Catholic country, but it's not really.

Nor is this about Rangers FC, that once mighty bastion of the Scottish Protestant hegemony. They have routinely been employing Catholics for years and participate fully in anti-sectarian projects. Rather, there is still a sizable remnant of Scots who cling stubbornly to old ideas of religious and cultural supremacy and who regard the Irish as an inferior race.

The pillars of their existence were the Church of Scotland, the Conservative party and the reserved professions where Catholics were once told politely they need not apply. These have all either disappeared or been rendered meaningless. The Catholic Irish, meanwhile, have emerged confidently from discrimination and deprivation to play a full role in modern Scotland. For some, the pace of change has been too much. Neil Lennon arrived at a moment in time and became the sum of all their fears and insecurities. This is not to excuse or justify, merely to offer an explanation.

In the 1955 film Bad Day at Black Rock, Spencer Tracy goes looking for justice in a small American town with a secret. Eventually, he finds it and the town finds redemption. Political, cultural and civic Scotland has yet to explain its failure to protect Neil Lennon. Until it does so, it can never fully be redeemed.

I loved it at Celtic but the chaos and letter bombs just wore me down, admits Neil Lennon who has found peace with Bolton

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2841516/I-loved-Celtic-chaos-letter-bombs-just-wore-admits-Neil-Lennon-peace-Bolton.html#ixzz3JbGKL4AS

By IAN LADYMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 22:31, 19 November 2014 | UPDATED: 07:45, 20 November 2014

Video footage of the moment a Hearts supporter leapt from the stands at Tynecastle to attack Neil Lennon on the touchline in May 2011 is revealing for two reasons.

The first thing of note is Lennon's subsequent reaction. Retreating almost instinctively from the touchline to the dugout, the Celtic manager – just 39 at the time – is wide-eyed, stunned. He won't thank me for saying it but, for one of the first times in his life, he looks scared.

The other interesting aspect is the reaction of the commentator. 'Could this,' he asks, 'be the day Neil Lennon reaches breaking point?'

Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon was attacked by a Hearts fan at Tynecastle back in May 2011

Neil Lennon on the attack at Tynecastle: "Was there enough done? No, I don’t think there was."

Neil Lennon on the attack at Tynecastle: "Was there enough done? No, I don’t think there was."

Neil Lennon speaks about being attacked at Tynecastle in a new book about Celtic

Celtic: Keeping the Faith by Richard Purden is out now in paperback (Freight Books, £8.99)

IN the updated paperback version of Celtic: Keeping the Faith, author Richard Purden speaks to a number of figures from all walks of life about what the club means to them. Here is an edited extract from a chapter with the former Celtic manager, Neil Lennon.

THE Celtic story in the 21st century is unimaginable without Neil Lennon. His effectiveness both in a green and white hooped shirt and as the club’s gaffer is associated with stirring displays, high promise and campaigns exuding confidence and unity. In the best Celtic way it was all wrapped in emotion and sentiment. The arrival of the player with cropped bleach blond hair strengthened an already gladiatorial side under Martin O’Neill and he would prove to be one of his mentor’s most valuable assets as an enforcing presence in midfield.

As a manager he built a consistent reputation for sourcing talent and with great vision and energy he built one of the most convincing Celtic sides since the exit of Martin O’Neill. Today I find him at Bolton’s training ground in the northwest of England. He is less eminent in these parts than in Scotland but is perhaps the better for it. Today he affirms a calm and reflective presence.

He no longer has to field questions about wider problems in Scottish society or discuss political issues. There are no physical attacks in football stadia from the fans of rival clubs or parcel bombs sent through the post. He doesn’t get attacked or receive sectarian abuse in the street. But neither is he a spokesman for a large and significant community.

At Bolton he doesn’t retain the emblematic status that he did at Celtic. On his days away from the game he plays golf, spends time with family or turns the pages of a history book. Without the extraordinary and grave concerns outside of football to think about any longer you can only imagine where the 44 year old will travel from here in sporting terms. What is clear is that Celtic will always be in the milieu. Significantly he never saw his role as a spokesman for matters beyond football as an obstacle: “It was important for me as the manager to front-up these questions and not shy away from that because I knew the history of the club. I was aware of what was going on socially within Glasgow and the environment whether it be sectarian, political or football matters. The Celtic support saw me as the leader to front-up on these issues because I had been in the framework of the club for 14 years as player, coach and manager. I think they could trust me to lead from the front in that aspect. I didn’t always want to do it because I got into some areas that were pretty unfamiliar for me. Coming down here and just talking about the football side of things, it’s far more secure and reassuring because I’m not going into waters that are unfamiliar.”

One of Lennon’s many attacks was broadcast live to millions around the globe on television. Yet even in light of the evidence the assailant was only convicted with a lesser charge of breach of the peace, the sectarian element found to be not proven. Speaking today Lennon said: “From what I was told the prosecution made a booboo – they charged him with assault and charged him with a sectarian attack aggravated by racial and religious prejudice and the evidence was that there was no evidence of a sectarian attack. Then they said he had done his time by being in custody so there was no more time to do. Basically the four months he was inside – they felt that was enough. But the whole world saw what happened. It wasn’t the first time, I remember looking at the death threat story [before a Northern Ireland match against Cyprus] on the news and thinking they are actually talking about me. It’s a bit surreal so after the attack at Tynecastle I thought: “there’s got to be an outcry, there’s got to be something done now.” Was there enough done? No, I don’t think there was.

“Did I feel let down? Yes as a player and manager I felt let down by certain quarters of the media and I know Martin (O’Neill) did. Could they have done more about it? It seemed to get to the point where the attitude was: “It’s Neil Lennon; he brings it on himself,” all that kind of crap. It was imbalanced and secular to the environment we found ourselves in. For instance when I was sent the bullets in the post, you then had this “he brings it on himself” attitude in the press and that I was an aggressive type. But Paddy McCourt and Niall McGinn got bullets in the post too. So what was the real reason behind it? We know what the real reason was, we were Irish Catholics working for Celtic and playing for Northern Ireland. Everyone refers to Scotland’s Shame but not a lot of people did a lot about it.”

Lennon also convinced many that he was something of a diviner when it came to sourcing unknown quantities and turning them into superstars. In Gary Hooper Celtic found their first real talisman since Henrik Larsson. “He was unknown when we got him from Scunthorpe, we developed him and he turned out to be one of the best Celtic players of the last 25 years. It didn’t surprise me that when he got into that position he would score, he’s a natural. We got him for £1.5 million and sold him for £6 million – we did something right there. When you look at it – Victor Wanyama, Joe Ledley, Fraser Forster, Ki Sung-yueng they are all thriving in the environment of the Premier League. That gives us a huge amount of pride because we were the ones that developed them into the players that they have become. That was a strategy at the club which we followed, a good recruitment policy with figures like John Park in the background.”

Lennon secured the services of Wanyama’s commanding presence for £800,000 and sold him for £12.5 million to Southampton. There were suggestions of more dominant English clubs coming in for the Kenyan and a £25 million price tag was slapped on his head, nevertheless it was an extraordinary piece of business: ‘You could tell straight away once he adapted to the pace of the game in Scotland that he would be an absolute superstar. He looked very comfortable in the environment of the Champions League and particularly the performance at Celtic Park against Barcelona on the night he scored, his all round game was phenomenal against the best players in the world. We could see the power that he had, the natural physique. For a big guy his technique was fantastic.”

The notable talent of Leigh Griffiths is without question and while he has made ill-thought-out choices, it’s also fair to say the amount of puritanical aggression directed at the player in his early days at Celtic suggested a lot of first stones were being cast.

Lennon also came in for some criticism when he secured the striker’s signature: “He’s a natural goalscorer and you can’t coach that, his movement was always very good. He’s got a bit of the devil in him -you don’t want to coach that out because some players need that, it helps them play with an edge. He’s been consistent wherever he’s gone and we had no qualms about signing him. We were very happy with his contribution, we only worked with him for about five months. He’s maybe not at the level of a Hooper but is without doubt a quality finisher and one you could work with and make even better. I’ve got a lot of time for him and I’m glad things are going well now at Celtic. There was no reason for us to think otherwise, he’s a good kid.”

– Extract taken from Celtic: Keeping the Faith, by Richard Purden, out now in paperback (Freight Books, £8.99)

Probe launched after cop allegedly tells woman complaining about Orange Nazis to focus on Neil Lennon
The officer is also accused of saying the woman was being “over-sensitive” when she called police after images of Halloween revellers wearing offensive costumes at Airdrie District Orange Hall and Social Club emerged online.

Sep 2017

ByAlan McEwen
A police officer is being investigated after allegedly telling a woman complaining about people in Nazi outfits at an Orange Lodge to focus on Hibs manager Neil Lennon’s conduct instead.
The officer is also accused of saying the woman was being “over-sensitive”.

As well as investigating the officer, police have pledged to review their probe into the Orange Lodge event, despite initially ruling “no offences have been established”.
Officers received pictures of Halloween revellers in offensive costumes at Airdrie District Orange Hall and Social Club.
The images included a man dressed as Hitler giving a Nazi salute and posing with children wearing yellow stars.

Another snap showed a man dressed as the Pope with a noose around his neck.
The photos were posted on the Whinhall True Blues Flute Band Facebook page and reportedly date from 2010 and 2013.
Their publication prompted a woman, who asked not to be named, to call police.
She said: “I was horrified. I called Police Scotland and complained. I didn’t hear anything back so I called them again on August 26 and spoke to an officer.”
The officer, who claimed to have 20 years’ experience, allegedly told her “people can dress up in whatever they want” and said she was “easily offended” and “over-sensitive”.
She added: “The police officer then said if I want to talk about offensive behaviour, I should instead discuss Neil Lennon.”

Hibs manager Lennon was criticised over his touchline behaviour after his side’s first goal in a 3-2 win over Rangers last month. Police decided no criminality occurred.
The woman added: “I said I had no interest in discussing Neil Lennon.
“I reiterated that I thought the behaviour of people at the fancy dress parties constituted a hate crime. He basically refused to take the complaint.”

When the woman complained about the officer’s conduct, a senior officer allegedly told her they would have an “informal chat” with the officer.
Dave Scott, of anti-sectarian charity Nil by Mouth, said: “Any reported hate crime should be properly and formally considered by officers and fiscals.”
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said as the investigation was ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment. The officer involved has not been suspended.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/probe-launched-after-cop-allegedly-11106585

Hibs’ Neil Lennon: All I do is stand up for myself amid racist abuse
David Gunn

Hibs’ Neil Lennon: All I do is stand up for myself amid racist abuse
David Gunn
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/hibernian/hibs-neil-lennon-all-i-do-is-stand-up-for-myself-amid-racist-abuse-1-4823716/amp?__twitter_impression=true
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Published: 13:24 Friday 02 November 2018

Neil Lennon has fully backed his agent’s claim that he is routinely targeted for abuse in Scotland because he is an Irish Catholic who played for Celtic.

And the Hibs head coach hit out at those who claimed he brought on trouble himself after being hit with a coin at Wednesday’s Edinburgh derby.

When asked about agent Martin Reilly’s comments, the former Celtic captain and manager said: “Everyone tries to skirt round it. That’s the basis of it, has been since 2000.

“The first day I stepped on to the pitch at Windsor Park as a Celtic player I was booed every time I touched the ball, having previously played 36 times and had nothing.

“But it was my association with Celtic, being high profile – there’s no question in my mind that was the reason behind it.

“You call it sectarianism here in Scotland, I call it racism. If a black man is abused, you are not just abusing the colour of his skin, you are abusing his culture, his heritage, his background.


“It’s the exact same when I get called a Fenian, a pauper, a beggar, a tarrier. 
“These people with the sense of entitlement or superiority complex. And all I do is stand up for myself.”

Partick Thistle boss Gary Caldwell – a former Celtic team-mate of Lennon’s – was among those who claimed that Lennon brings trouble on himself.

“People should know better,” Lennon said. “It’s pretty poor all this – I was goading people, I bring it on myself. There’s an effigy outside Tynecastle saying ‘hang Neil Lennon’. That was before the game. Did I bring that on myself?

“This has got to stop. Everyone says I play the victim. I don’t. I had 15 years in England of nothing, so the first day I step into Scotland this sort of stuff began.

“And it’s not because I’m an aggressive character. You all know me. I’m not aggressive at all. I’m competitive, sometimes I cross the line just like any normal manager. So this ‘brings it on himself’, I’m very angry about those comments.”