Neil Lennon wasn’t buying what Cameron Carter-Vickers was selling after Sunday’s Old Firm defeat, and he said as much on Sky Sports.
Celtic lost 1-0 to Rangers at Parkhead on Sunday, the third defeat of a miserable week that has left Martin O’Neill with plenty to think about. Carter-Vickers gave his reading of the result afterwards, suggesting there wasn’t much between the sides and that the squad remained together. Lennon, watching from the Sky Sports studio, saw something very different when it was put to him – and he wasn’t shy about saying so, as covered in our look at where the gap to Rangers actually stands.
The comments were reported by 67 Hail Hail, relaying what Lennon said during that Sky Sports appearance rather than any official Celtic statement. Lennon said he didn’t understand what Carter-Vickers meant, pointing out the players were clearly hurting after the game and that it was obvious they weren’t together – because, in his view, they simply aren’t playing well enough right now.
A Week That’s Hard to Spin
Context matters here. This wasn’t an isolated defeat – it followed the 3-0 loss at Ibrox and a dismal 3-1 Europa League showing against Ferencvaros, a run that has understandably shaped how outsiders are reading Celtic’s togetherness claims. Carter-Vickers was speaking to the mood in the dressing room; Lennon was watching what’s actually happening on the pitch, and he wasn’t alone in that assessment, with further reaction on the cohesion question here.
Chris Sutton made a near-identical point after the Rangers defeat, describing Celtic as looking like a team that had been thrown together rather than one working from a settled plan. Nineteen-year-old Colby Donovan was one of the few to emerge with any credit from Sunday’s game – which, as Lennon’s broader criticism implies, ought to be a source of real discomfort for the senior players around him.
Where the Responsibility Sits
Lennon’s central charge was that too many Celtic players are badly out of form – some miles off it altogether, others who started the season well and, in his words, fallen off a cliff since. That’s not a dressing-room split he’s describing; it’s a performance problem, and it lands responsibility squarely on the senior players as much as anywhere else, a theme explored further in Lennon’s earlier comments on Celtic’s mentality and rebuild.
O’Neill has already said he’ll reflect on his own Celtic future in the wake of this run. Whether that reflection produces changes on the pitch, in personnel, or in the manager’s own position remains to be seen – but Lennon’s intervention makes clear the players themselves won’t escape scrutiny either. Mon The Hoops.
