NEIL Lennon has described Walter Smith's comments regarding Rangers' continued bitterness over their treatment by Scottish football following liquidation as "inflammatory" and "unnecessary" in a week leading up to an Old Firm match.
And while his opinion is sure to rile those supporters who have long viewed the Northern Irishman as public enemy No 1, the former Celtic manager and captain also insisted it was "petty and extreme" for anyone to describe today's Rangers as a new club.
Smith caused controversy when he suggested everyone connected to Ibrox should use any bad feeling which still existed regarding the events of four years ago as a motivational tool in an interview in which he failed to acknowledge any part Rangers played in their own downfall.
Asked what he felt about the word bitterness being used, Lennon said: "I think that is inflammatory and I think it is unnecessary in a week coming up to a game that has no relevance as to what happened four years ago.
"It is not a fixture that needs more bitterness and nobody has experienced more bitterness than myself, even before liquidation.
“Those sort of comments are unnecessary when we should be looking forward to the game and Rangers should be looking forward to being back in the top flight next season.
"The propaganda is starting already! It was four years ago and everyone is looking forward now.
"I don’t know if the term punishment is the right word. It would be consequence. Rangers got liquidated at the end of the day and the consequence was they went down to the bottom tier of Scottish football and started again.
"They have done that. It has maybe taken them a year longer than most people would have expected but now they can get on again.”
There is a seizable number of non-Rangers fans who won't be shaken in their belief that the club founded in 1872 is dead and the one whose team face Celtic at Hampden this Sunday afternoon is a new entity.
It was put to Lennon that should Rangers win the Scottish Cup, it could be seen as the club's first, rather than their 34th triumph in the competition.
Lennon said: "Some people may see it as that but then you are getting to the extremes of being petty about the whole thing. I wouldn’t see it like that, put it that way. I think players and fans would see it the same way. Some people with extreme views would see it the other way.
"People have their own opinions and they are entitled to do so. I just think the parity of Scottish football is coming back now, which is important going forward.”
And of those Celtic supports who claim to hold little interest in cup semi-final against a four-year-old club from the Championship, Lennon said: "Of course they are going to say that. Publicly. But sub-consciously they will be itching for it. This is one of the great fixtures in world football and it’s been sorely missed."
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