Neil Lennon in Celtic quit threat

By ANDREW SMITH
Published on 25/11/2012 00:00

Neil Lennon last night threatened to quit if the Celtic supporters were not happy with his efforts. The manager became embroiled in an argument with two fans at the loss of the goal that condemned Celtic to a 1-0 home defeat to Inverness. He did not play down the incident.

“They were frustrated and I disagreed with them,” Lennon said. “I didn’t like what they were saying about the team. Look, if they’re not happy with what I am doing with the team I’ll go.”

Pressed on whether he would really consider giving up on a club he could lead into the Champions League last 16, he stated: “If the fans make it clear they’re not happy and want me out then, that’s OK, I’ll do the honourable thing. I think we are in four competitions. I am not happy with the league form, far from it. It’s my team at the end of the day, I take responsibility for it. I’ve got a good squad here. They are not performing to the level they are capable of.”

Lennon felt the abuse was not warranted. “I can’t repeat [it] because it’s a public forum. There were a lot of expletives in there. There was heavy criticism which I didn’t think was justified. A lack of patience with the team as well. If there was a lack of application, a lack of commitment I would be the first one to say, but I didn’t see that today. What I did see was a lack of composure and quality in our play in the final third.”