Murdo MacLeod outlined his thoughts on the remarkable Media Conference from Neil Lennon on Monday afternoon and believes that this latest incident in a series of unfortunate events and woeful performances this season will certainly not have done Celtic any good. Perhaps we should outline our thoughts too.
It’s fair to say that when you consider the entire text of what happened on Monday there were certain points that the Celtic manager, the CEO and everyone associated with our club would have a right to angry about and would want answers. However the manner in which the rant was delivered, the anger at times on display and the way in which the MSM were able to manipulate the exchanges to show Lennon in the worst possible light, meant that the desired outcome that Celtic wanted was lost. It was amateur hour from the PR and Media staff at Celtic Football Club.
Celtic have no-one to blame but themselves on that score, rudely ignoring requests from Celtic fan media to be given media acreditation – just blanking completely with not even the courtesy of a reply – and so the only people with access to the Media Conference were Celtic themselves (who censored it completely thus denying the support the chance to hear almost directly from the manager) and the MSM.
I’ll tell you what. You invite three or four Celtic fans media guys along and one thing that is guaranteed is that there will be Celtic minded folk in those Zoom Conference calls. Not for the first time this season – remember Ryan Christie missing theRangers game at Celtic Park in October – we have been without players due to politicians and their advisors who we know not their allegiances (although we can certainly guess).
Decent media management at Celtic would NOT have allowed the video of Peter Lawwell going out last week saying that Celtic had been impacted more than any other club from coronavirus. Hearts and Partick Thistle for example would have every reason to be annoyed at that. That video could and should have been re-shot. “Do you really want to say that, Peter?”
And then if Lennon was going to get stuff off his chest on Monday after bottling it all up for a week, why involve the MSM at all? Why choose to do that at a Media Conference? Did Celtic not even know what was going to happen? Did no-once check?
They could have scripted it, considered the points that could be made and take out the nonsense – making unfounded allegations against decent clubs like St Johnstone and Hamilton doesn’t help Celtic and takes the focus away from the key grievances. They could have for instance done an interview with a site like this one and the message that would have gone out would have been exactly on message. And there are senior people at Celtic who know that is the truth and know all the back-stories that prove it.
Anyway enough of that. Here’s what Murdo, who helped Wim Jansen stop them doing the Ten back in 1998 had to say on BBC Sportsound on Monday night.
“He’s an angry young man. For me that was strange. When you come back and you know everything that has happened up to now. He has obviously been angry since he has arrived back home and what has happened to his team. He wants to have a go at people and for me that is not going to help Celtic,” Murdo said.
“Celtic is all about the football pitch that is the most important thing. If you start having a go at people and falling out with people then it just means the relationship between the media, the club and himself will not be good.
“I still don’t know if Lennon and Peter Lawwell got together before he came out with his rant about everything. That doesn’t normally happen when you are sitting down in front of all the media. I think Neil off his own back has come out with all guns blazing.
“He’s had a go at as many people as he can even the people coming up in the trains from London to Glasgow. That is nothing to do with Celtic Football Club.
“Peter has come out and apologised and for Neil to come back and have a real go like this is a real problem for Celtic now. There’s so many people sitting listening to Neil and thinking this is not the way the Celtic manager should be acting.
“I don’t think Neil Lennon should go as much for his rant, it is more what is happening on the football pitch. The hardest thing for Celtic is getting a new manager in who can bring success and wins every single week.”
