Neil Lennon also in his BBC Scotland interview this morning returned the focus to the Dubai fiasco from the start of the year and still holds a grudge against the likes of Andy Walker who called the trip to Celtic’s usual winter training camp as a ‘jolly’. The photograph of Lennon and his captain Scott Brown enjoying a poolside beer after arriving in Dubai – and it was NOT a Celtic friendly photographer but let us leave that one there shall we? – started an avalanche of criticism that ended up with Neil Lennon’s head in his hands surrounded by snow at the Tony Macaroni in Livingston with the season done mid January.
🗣️'I felt like the club were hung out to dry… We seem to be set a different set of rules from everyone else'
Neil Lennon on that trip to Dubai with Celtic 👇#BBCEurosBreakfast pic.twitter.com/07ENetcOBz
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) June 15, 2021
“Me, Peter, the players and the club were hung out to dry. We went out with the best intentions to go to Dubai. Whether people think it was the best decision to do that, or not,” Lennon argued.
“The way it was perceived was somebody taking a photograph of us lounging around the pool. This perception we were out there having a great time, drinking all day, sitting by the pool having cocktails, Andy Walker called it a “jolly”, that made my blood boil. They were just coming at us for all the wrong reasons.
“At any time, the Government could’ve said “look, we don’t think this is a good idea, blah blah blah, stay here”. None of that was forthcoming, so we took the opportunity to go out and work in an environment for a week that would’ve benefitted us for the second half of the season. As it has done in the previous three of four seasons.
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“But the fall-out from it was ridiculous. The way we were basically punished… sixteen of us then having to quarantine.
“I was raging. Don’t forget I had 10 days in the house. Watching everyone have an opinion, watching everyone speculate, watching everyone put the boot into the club, and the players, and our decision to go. So yeah, I had to come back out and give my side, my perspective of it. And I totally disagreed with a lot of people’s viewpoints on it. And I still do, to this day,” Lennon added.
“I look at what Scotland did. It was no different from us, to go out to a training camp in a pandemic. John Fleck gets Covid, 6 players can’t play against Holland, what’s the difference between what they did and what we did?
“I wasn’t 100% sure it was the best idea to do it, but we’d taken all the precautions beforehand and made sure we had all the right things in place to go.”
It clearly was madness to go to Dubai, no doubt trying to appease the Want Aways and lift spirits within the camp. Yet neither the Celtic manager of his boss Peter Lawwell appreciated just how bad the optics looked in the outside looking in at Celtic.
READ THIS…Lennon on Want Aways’ changed mindsets and the “disaffection and tension within the group”
We’ve already noted that bring overseas players into Scotland in the middle of a pandemic was the wrong thing to do and that the players released – a long standing opinion on here – could have done a better job than the more expensive replacements. Gordon, Hayes and Simunovic we are talking about – three WANT TO STAYS incidentally, all good servants for the club and all shown the DOOR as Neil Lennon apparently had an eye on winning the Quadruple Treble. Do us a favour Neil!
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📅 Ange Postecoglou kicks off his Celtic reign in the capital before a double-header at Paradise🏟️#WelcomeAnge🤝#OneClubSince1888
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) June 15, 2021
