NEIL Lennon has revealed he has attempted to raise the morale of his under-fire Celtic players up during their crisis-hit season by holding socially-distanced pep talks with them on their doorsteps.
Lennon and his squad have been savaged by supporters and pundits in the last six months as their bid to win the Scottish title and complete 10-In-A-Row has foundered amid the Covd-19 pandemic.
The Northern Irishman believes the level of abuse they have been subjected to during the 2020/21 campaign has been completely unprecedented in the modern game.
He confessed he has been concerned for the mental wellbeing of the charges – the new signings who moved to Scotland last summer in particular – and has met with them personally outside their homes to ensure they are coping.
"It’s been very difficult,” said Lennon. “I've been to players' houses, not inside them obviously, but outside chatting to them and their partners, just trying to support and encourage them.
“We are not exclusive in this. All clubs are going through the same thing, but they maybe didn't have the demands we had coming into this significant season. The stress around the support coming into this season has exaggerated that as well.
"It's not just about the football team, it's also about their health and wellbeing. That's very important for a manager, to try and stay on top of that, particularly in the modern game and certainly in a season as abnormal as this.”
Lennon continued: "I felt it was required at the time, with the level of abuse, criticism, whatever you want to call it. They are human beings at the end of the day and have come up here in good faith. It's obviously not the picture or landscape they would have expected.
“The loss of your freedoms, restaurants, cafes open, that type of stuff, the social life away from football and the supporters in the stadiums as well, has been huge for us, particularly with the significance of the season. It has been a shame.
“I have a duty of care to the players to offer them support, to tell them they are not on their own and that we all go through phases like this.”
Lennon, who has been open about his own struggles with depression in the past, stressed he personally has received backing from Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell as well as his assistant John Kennedy and first team coach Gavin Strachan during the difficult season.
“I speak to Peter every day, I speak to my backroom team, John and Gavin,” he said. “They have all been superb as have the players.
“I still think the criticism has far outweighed anything I’ve come across before in my career for the players, the staff and myself.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel