Celtic head down to A77 this evening to take on Kilmarnock on the plastic pitch at Rugby Park and the players will all be aware of the manager’s comments on Saturday and again yesterday after the 2-1 home defeat to St Mirren. Yesterday, at the Mainstream Media Conference – the Celtic fans media was yet again completely excluded and perhaps will be for longer after the fake news story that ‘caught fire this morning’ on a podcast re something that was wrongly claimed that the Celtic SLO John Paul Taylor said to a group of representatives of Affiliation Celtic Supporters clubs last Thursday night on Zoom.
This isn’t the case I think something may have just been picked up incorrectly and I’m sure @ACSOMPOD will clarify at some stage today
— Celtic FC SLO (@CelticFCSLO) February 2, 2021
Yes, they have David this is just one example https://t.co/Lc9Y5OIRwD
— Celtic FC SLO (@CelticFCSLO) February 2, 2021
JPT has been fighting the corner for the Celtic fans media at the club – and has been making steady progress despite the considerable resistance he’s faced – but will now be on the back-foot after this unfortunate incident. However he has publicly accepted the full apology so we move on.
One last point though, had the Daily Record of the Scottish Sun published this story which was inaccurate and misleading – just completely wrong – then we’d have rightly condemned them and argued that this was another reason why Celtic should work with the fans media.
Back to tonight’s game and the current Celtic manager’s thoughts, as expressed yesterday to the MSM and reported by the aforementioned Daily Record, on his players and the way they have been performing.
“If they’re honest with themselves, they know it’s not good enough,” Lennon said. “Let’s not kid ourselves on. With what we’ve achieved over the past decade or so, we’ve fallen way short of the standards we set for the players and what the supporters expect as well. We can’t hide away from that. There has to be a positive reaction and if I don’t get that, that’s on the players.
“I’ve been pretty consistent with the way I’ve approached the job and the players since I came in. It’s very rarely I’ve lost my temper with them or hauled them over the coals.
“Every now and then they’ve sort of needed a jag. I felt on Saturday they needed a jag and they got it. I don’t think I was too over the top,” the Celtic manager said. “I gave my own impressions of how I felt about the performance.
“I can’t hide away from that and I’m not going to. They need to show professional pride. They need to show personal pride now.
“As I said after the game, in any walk of life when things aren’t going well, you have to show your personal and individual feeling for what you’re doing. Rather than feel sorry for yourself, you have to dig deep and turn it around.”
Tonight we’ll see if the Celtic players respond to Lennon’s criticism. Or if they decide to throw him under the bus.
