NEIL Lennon last night revealed that he has been privately upset by some Celtic first team players’ lack of commitment to the Parkhead club’s cause this year - and will look to move them on following their painful Champions League exit.
Lennon accepted full responsibility for the Scottish champions losing 2-1 to their Hungarian rivals Ferencvaros and crashing out of Europe’s premier club competition before the group stages for the third season running.
However, the Northern Irishman also aimed a dig at key personnel who have told him they want to depart the Glasgow club - and confessed he wouldn’t stand in their way in the remaining weeks of the transfer window.
“There are some players who may want to leave and have made inroads into that in the last six months or so,” he said.
“If they are making waves to leave the club they are obviously not committed. I have just put this out there because it has been bugging me for a long, long time. If they don’t want to be here we have to do something.”
The Celtic manager fielded playmaker Ryan Christie up front in the second qualifying round match after Odsonne Edouard was ruled out with a thigh injury and left strikers Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala on the bench.
Christie scored a second-half equaliser for the Scottish champions against their Hungarian rivals – but the home side failed to capitalise on a plethora of scoring opportunities.
“They (Ajeti and Klimala) are not match fit yet,” said Lennon. “It’s quite obvious, otherwise at least one of them would be playing. I want to play strikers, we were missing the big one (Edouard) tonight. I don’t know how much effect that had. We still had enough chances to win.
"It's not fine going out at this stage of the competition, because we're better than that. I’ll have to carry the can for it. It’s on me. It should have been done and dusted, with or without Odsonne.
“We lacked a killer instinct on Saturday and he was playing. We will all regret it and we will have to suck it up for a few days. The best thing we can do is get back out and play. There are no excuses from me for the players. We have to apologise to the supporters.
“It is the first time in 15 years we have gone out so early. I have to take responsibility for it. They just aren’t hitting the heights yet. Some of them don’t look as if they’re full pelt yet. We shouldn’t have to give them any warnings.”
Celtic were defeated in the third qualifying round of the Champions League by AEK Athens in the 2018/19 campaign and lost to CFR Cluj at the same stage last term.
Asked what his emotions were after the reverse, Lennon said: "I’m angry, frustrated and disappointed. The game was actually a lot easier than what I thought it was going to be, but we didn't take our chances. We had plenty of them.
"The first goal we can maybe legislate a little bit, the second goal is really poor decision making. It's individual mistakes. It's cost us against Copenhagen (in the last 32 of the Europa League last season) and it's cost us again tonight.
“If you keep giving the opposition oxygen they hang in there. The game was easier than I thought it would be. They score early. We don’t get out quick enough to stop the shot which was poor for us. But in the second half we dominated. We should have won the game
“I don’t know if we budget for it, but for everyone associated with the club it’s massively disappointing. I thought we were by far the better team.”
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