Antagonism often seems to pervade every aspect of the Old Firm rivalry.
A newspaper column by former Rangers striker Mark Hateley about Celtic's attitude to the Ibrox club's financial traumas brought a withering reply from Neil Lennon.
The Celtic manager responded not only with a personal rebuke to Hateley, but also a measured dismantling of his critical opinions. Football coverage is often incendiary, and the language of sports writing tends to shy away from restraint. Hateley's column described this season's Clydesdale Bank Premier League championship as a "tainted title", and recent comments by Lennon and Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell as "ill-judged at best and, at worst, deliberately inflammatory".
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article.