Loutish protests leave Christopher Jullien feeling "pain" for Neil Lennon and Celtic's nine-in-a-row playing stalwarts that "deserve better"

It wasn’t difficult for Christopher Jullien to brush off the mayhem that ensued from Celtic fans clashing with police as they demanded the removal of Neil Lennon and berated players and board outside Parkhead on Sunday night.

Christopher Jullien believes that "one month" of bad form and the League Cup exit to Ross County did not warrant the anti-social behaviour that marred protests at Celtic Park on Sunday (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The grotesque scenes sparked by the League Cup loss to Ross County did, though, leave the French defender feeling for his manager and the team-mates that have played their part in making the 2010s the most silverware-strewn decade in the club’s entire 133-year history.

“It was not scary for me,” Jullien said of the loutish behaviour. “I think that’s football and, at the end of the day, as a player you can’t control that sort of stuff. Even so, I was a bit hurt for the manager and for players like Broony [Scott Brown], Callum [McGregor], Tom [Rogic] and Jamesy [Forrest], people who had been there for the last nine years: I felt pain for them because they definitely deserve to be treated better than that.

“How can you compare nine years of trophies against one month of losing? And it’s not as though we’ve lost our [main] goal – yes, our [35-tie] unbeaten cup run has gone but our top [priority] is far from finished.

“We know that this month is really important because we can make more history for the club [ by completing a quadruple treble in the Scottish Cup final against Hearts] plus we still have a lot of games to play in the league. We have to battle against our biggest opponent, which is Rangers. We all know that you can’t win championships in November or December - you win it in May so we’ll see.”

The 27-year-old believes Lennon can lead them to that success in remaining as he has always been in the teeth of a storm that would have buckled lesser characters. “He’s been unbelievable,” said Jullien. “He’s a great man and a great coach and I’m just so happy to have him on my side. He knows that we all back him and that we are all with him and that everyone at the club is behind us – this is the respect we have for each other and I’m glad it is that way.”

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