NEIL LENNON this morning started to pick up the pieces after the carnage of Wednesday night when six months of frustration at a number of players agitating to leave the club boiled over. Heaven knows what the immediate or longer term consequences will be from the Champions League exit to Hungarian side Ferencvaros – who were priced at 7/1 outsiders by bookies ahead of the game – or the manager’s subsequent outburst.
We might get an ideal when he names his team on Sunday – will it be leaked? – but we found out today that Odsonne Edouard will NOT feature against Motherwell.
🗣 NL: (on Edouard) – “He won’t be available for Sunday. We have the international break then so I’m pretty confident he’ll be fit for the Ross County game.” #CELMOT
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 28, 2020
Lennon had this message for the Want Aways on Wednesday evening after the disastrous 2-1 defeat to the Hungarian Champions. “Get your mentality right. Get your attitude right. If some of you don’t want to be here then leave, and then, you know, let us work with players who want to be here.”
Today he was asked if he regretted that outburst and “not really” was his reply, “I don’t want to elaborate on it.” The Celtic manager said at this morning’s Media Conference. “We want them all here. We have a big year ahead of us, this is a difficult time of the year as you know, people are unsettled.
“We want them to settle down and do what’s best for the club and that means winning the league and trying to make the best of what’s left of the European campaign.
“The players have got great mentality and great experience. They don’t get too high when things go well or too low when they don’t. We try and keep a balance. The best thing they can do is get back out and play.”
Whether that will be enough to steady the ship remains to be seen. The support, who have shelled out record sums of money this season in funding the club via season tickets we can’t use, are far from happy with what they saw and heard on Wednesday night and one or two performers have already made their moves to leave via their agents agitating for the process to begin.
Here is the manager’s Media Conference, curiously held much earlier today than is usually the case.
