'I get an unfair press up here, it's totally personal'

GLENN GIBBONS

ON THE weekend he returns to football, Neil Lennon has talked with hair-raising candour of the widespread hostility he has had to tolerate for all but a few months of the five years he has spent in Scotland.

In a lengthy and revealing conversation yesterday, the Celtic midfielder expressed his conviction that he has been the object of a media-driven, concerted campaign of harassment motivated by prejudice and bigotry against a Northern Ireland Catholic playing for the Parkhead club in a predominantly Protestant environment.

The latest episode in a long-running series of attacks - on both his character and his person on the field and in his private life - was the outrage and condemnation from many quarters over the three-match suspension imposed by the SFA as a result of his ordering-off at the end of the Old Firm match at Ibrox in August.

Despite the trials, Lennon admitted that there was only one occasion on which he wondered if remaining at Celtic was worth the trouble. He also confirmed that he hopes for a renewal of his present contract, which expires at the end of this season, because he retains unfulfilled ambitions and is convinced that Celtic will re-emerge as a powerful force in Europe.

"No matter how thick-skinned you become, it does get to you a wee bit," said Lennon, of the uproar that accompanied his sentence from the SFA disciplinary committee when he was found guilty of adopting an aggressive manner toward referee Stuart Dougal and his linesman, James Bee.

"I'm certain that if it had been any other player - and I don't just mean a Rangers player, but a Scottish player - the reaction would have been nothing like as bad. I do get an unfair press up here. I'm sure that, for the last four-and-a-half years, they've been trying to get me out of the team, for one reason or another.

"Whether it's my form, my body shape, the way I run, things that have happened off the field, they've always tried to pick holes in my game. There's no doubt that what I did at Ibrox was totally wrong, but it was so out of character for me.

"I've been here for five years and when they found out my disciplinary record was so good, a lot of people were surprised by it. The only reason for that was the way I've been portrayed in certain quarters of the media, there is no doubt about that.

"I mean, sometimes I read things about myself and I think, 'Are they watching the same player? Are they watching the same game?' It's totally personal, I'm certain of it. I don't know these guys personally, I don't socialise with them, so they certainly don't know anything about me.

"There's got to be another reason - an agenda - why they write these things. And I think it's an easy get-out for these guys, or lazy journalism, just to say that I wind the crowd up. Basically, they're hiding behind that kind of nonsense because none of them has the guts to come out and say what the real reason is for their hostility."

Lennon traces the beginnings of the persecution to the first time he played for Northern Ireland after he had signed for Celtic from Leicester City in 2000. He was booed by the home crowd in Belfast, the start of an orchestrated movement to hound him out of the national team - it included death threats - that succeeded when he decided to quit international football.

"The match after that game in Belfast, Celtic went to Dunfermline and won 3-0, and I was booed every time I touched the ball," said Lennon.

"It built from there and has been building and building over the period and, with what happened at the Rangers game, I've given them the ammunition to come for me. And they've come for me in a big way. But I knew it was coming.

"But, since the incident at Ibrox, I've seen other incidents where players have laid hands on both referees and linesmen and nothing was said about it. The referee hasn't even deemed it to be a yellow card, never mind a red."

Despite the tribulations, Lennon has always wanted to stay at Celtic because he has loved playing for the club and has taken deep enjoyment and satisfaction from the achievements of the past five years.

But the assault on himself and his girlfriend by two alcohol-fuelled students a couple of years ago caused him, for the first and only time, to reconsider.

"When that happened, I did begin to wonder if it was worthwhile staying here. But it was near the end of the season and the UEFA Cup final in Seville was only three weeks away, so the incident was put to one side as I was getting on with things.

"But it was hard at the time. I was sitting in my car waiting for my girlfriend when these two kids, who had obviously been drinking, came up and started giving me a hard time. My girlfriend came out and we drove off, but I was stopped at the traffic lights just down the road and they chased us, started spitting on the car and kicking the rear end.

"The lights had just changed to red, so I knew we'd be there at least a minute-and-a-half. I got out to look at the back of the car and they started shoving me and then I was butted. I got the guy on the ground and I was sitting on him when I realised the blood was pouring from my nose. My girlfriend got out and she was pushed to the ground.

"I must tell you, I was this close to battering the boy I was sitting on. I could have punched him stupid. Then I realised that, if I did, everything would be turned around against me. The reason I didn't hit that kid was because of what I was going to get in the press over the next few days.

"A woman came running over and said she had seen everything and she was willing to testify to the police. These were two university kids, one studying law, the other medicine and the father of one of them was a judge. I thought, well, if that's the background they're coming from, bigotry is alive and well and all over the place."

In another act of persecution, the car of a neighbour was badly damaged and the street outside his house daubed with sectarian graffiti as the vandals mistook his house for Lennon's.

"They got the wrong place," he said. "I went round to see him, but it was his wife who was there and she was six months pregnant and worried sick. I assured her that it wasn't her or her husband they were after, but me. She said thank God for that, because her husband is a Catholic and he was worried that somebody at his work might have it in for him.

"The upsetting thing about that was that the press printed where I lived. They did this big piece and printed the address and showed a picture of where I lived. I just thought that was very irresponsible. People say we court the press, but we try to keep our private lives private and then they do something like that.

"There are other little things, like the club having said they're giving me a tribute dinner. So many people have been asking, why is he getting a tribute dinner? But the fact is, all the money is going to charity. And I mean all of it. I won't be receiving a single penny."

Lennon's next test, of course, is to try to re-establish himself in a Celtic team who have played well in his absence. He is given an immediate chance against Hearts in Glasgow this afternoon in a match of endless intrigue between the Premierleague's top two sides. He would not learn until today whether he is to be included, but insisted that he would have no quibble with being omitted.

He has also been impressed by Hearts and believes there is every chance that the George Burley-inspired Tynecastle side will sustain the form that has brought such a productive start to their championship campaign.

"I've kept myself fit during my suspension, and I'm ready to get back to work," he said.

"The thing about Hearts is that the kind of unbeaten run they have been on feeds on itself. The players' belief grows and you can see that in them. Look at their last performance at Falkirk. Down to ten men and 2-0 behind, but they kept going, refused to give up and got a 2-2 draw. That says a lot for them.

"But it's no surprise, with George Burley in charge. George is pretty shrewd, you know. He did an exceptional job at Ipswich when he took them into the Premiership and then into Europe. I know he's been saying in public that the Hearts squad isn't big enough or strong enough to go the distance and that finishing third will be a great achievement for them.

"But I'm willing to bet that, in the dressing-room, he'll be saying the exact opposite."

Taken from the Scotsman