Ally McCoist tells Neil Lennon to mind his own business

By STEPHEN HALLIDAY
Published on Saturday 4 February 2012 02:20

RANGERS manager Ally McCoist has insisted his Celtic counterpart Neil Lennon is wrong to pass comment on the Ibrox club’s financial troubles.

Lennon yesterday accused Rangers of financial “mismanagement” which has now “come home to roost” with the enforced sale of top scorer Nikica Jelavic to Everton this week.

It prompted a swift response from McCoist who suggested Lennon was guilty of hypocrisy, having previously condemned former Rangers manager Walter Smith for commenting on Celtic.

“I think I remember Neil telling Walter to mind his own business when he said something about Celtic a while ago,” said McCoist. “I’m not starting a war of words with Neil, because it’s the last things the clubs need. It’s the last thing Scottish football needs.

“I don’t think our troubles are directly to do with anyone else. They might be indirectly, but there is nothing directly to do with Celtic. So I find it surprising and a little bit disappointing.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Lennon expressed a level of sympathy for McCoist’s predicament during the January transfer window but insisted Rangers are simply reaping what they sowed during years when Celtic, by contrast, have been financially responsible. “Tell me this, why was he [McCoist] forced to sell Jelavic?” said Lennon. “Because of the [financial situation of the club] that has been going on for how many years. I’m not saying it’s Ally’s fault. But it’s been a build-up of mismanagement of the financial side for a long, long time. I have a certain sympathy with Ally in that respect becauseit’s his first year in the job and I’m sure he didn’t envisage the problems he has had. But somebody must have seen it coming. Do I have sympathy in that respect for them? No.”

McCoist, meanwhile, backed Jelavic’s claim, disputed by Rangers’ chief operating officer Ali Russell, that he did not ask to leave Rangers during the January transfer window. “I had a good chat with Nikica on Monday and he has never asked me to leave the club and has never said he wanted to leave the club,” said McCoist. “But what I would say is that he has always maintained that he has wanted to play in the English Premier League. That’s where I would leave it.”

Where McCoist and Lennon found immediate common ground was over a press report that Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor and Celtic coach Alan Thompson had enjoyed a “boozy night” in a Glasgow bar.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” said McCoist. “In fact, on the contrary I think it’s quite good. I know Tommo well and I’ve had a beer with him before myself.

“There has always been relationships within the Old Firm. I think socially it’s good to meet up and have a beer.”

Lennon said: “It is a nothing story. One of my staff and Allan McGregor frequent the same pub. Wow. It happens every now and again and now all of a sudden one of the tabloids want to make a whole big thing about it. It only stirs it up.”