Worry not about what Charlie Nicholas or Kris Commons have got to say this week ahead of Saturday’s Glasgow Derby. After last week’s latest anti-Celtic rant from the former Arsenal and Aberdeen striker, the Celtic support and even the club hit back at the recently released Sky Sports pundit, now operating out of the media backwater that is Daily Express.

Commons has been a disappointment since ending his playing sabbatical at Celtic under Brendan Rodgers. Before the former Liverpool manager took the Celtic job he did his research and spoke to the man he was replacing as well as numerous people inside the club. His card was well and truly marked and he never kicked a ball for the club again, despite enjoying the financial benefits of that last season of his extended contract.

Both pundits were decent players for Celtic, Nicholas had two goes at wearing the Hoops, as a young man he was an outstanding talent, possibly the best Celtic had produced since Kenny Dalglish, in his second stint he was a bang average shadow of his former self.

Commons was a key player for both Neil Lennon and even Ronny Deila but played a huge part in undermining the Norwegian and in doing so led to the arrival of Brendan Rodgers. it’s never about the player Kris, it’s always about the club, the one that pays the wages.

TheRangers or Rangers before them have never been too troubled by former players putting the boot in ahead of big matches. Celtic fans are now quite used to that along with the trick of linking a Celtic Star player with a move away, last weekend it was Ryan Christie going on a cut-price deal to Newcastle Utd.

The Celtic fan media will pick up on these reports but really does have an obligation to the support to filter in some scepticism. Not all of these sites have Celtic at their heart though, many are just click-bait sites that target the large online Celtic audience and it is remarkable that they can achieve prominence of coverage by pulling together four or five random social media posts to hammer one Celtic player or another.

Gerrard makes comments to the camera in a recorded interview – “not proven”

Celtic player accused of making comments nobody heard – “probably guilty”

Enough said

— ScottXaviBrown (@Indysco500) October 13, 2020

Greg Taylor, Odsonne Edouard, Scott Brown and Neil Lennon have been on the receiving end of this sort of stuff and it broadly similar to the reaction pieces that Nicholas and to a lesser extent Commons produce.

Neil Lennon, the current Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month achieved much more in the game as a player than either Nicholas (despite his natural ability) or Commons and since hanging up his boots he has been a hugely successful manager for Celtic, picking up the pieces after the disarms Tony Mowbray experiment.

Celtic fans were pretty much unanimous that the club had had a very good transfer window yet Nicholas had a go last week and stung by the level of criticism he received, especially from Lennon himself and from the club via that brilliant tweet, was at it again this morning.

You can read what he had to say elsewhere, not on here.

Celtic have our biggest game of the season on Saturday, Commons is right to point out that there will be no supporters there but it will come down to the players on the park and Celtic have better players than theRangers. That in itself is no guarantee that the points will be Celtic’s but it is cause for optimism.

Neil Lennon has already lost James Forrest and Mikey Johnston won’t be ready. He’s seen Odsonne Edouard, Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed test positive for COVID-19 while on international duty with France (Under 21s) and Israel and he’s also lost Ryan Christie due to a track and trace link with the COVID-19 positive former Celt Stuart Armstrong while in the Scotland camp. Christie tested negative but is ruled out for Saturday by the 14 day self isolation rule in place in Scotland, while the COVID-19 positive Odsonne Edouard will be able to play against theRangers as the French self isolation period is only 7 days.

That’s more than enough for Neil Lennon to contend with without worrying too much about what Nicholas or Commons have got to say.

The Celtic manager, undefeated domestically in 2020, even without these players, knows that he’s got more than enough talent in the squad to win the match on Saturday and that’s where his focus will be on.  And a little added advantage of a Celtic win on Saturday will be to shut Nicholas and Commons up for a few weeks at least.

And if you want to read something different from those click-bait READ THIS….Exclusive Interview with Brendan O’Hara MP, the great-great grandson of Celtic’s first secretary and Founding Father John O’Hara (updated to include Bobby Murdoch’s Celtic shirt and shorts!