ANY Celtic fans turning on their trannies yesterday morning to catch up with the headlines may have been forgiven for thinking that life in lockdown had addled their brains. Did the last five months actually happen?

There we had former Celtic manager Neil Lennon and SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell going at it hammers and tongs on the BBC Euros Show over Covid-19 protocols, with Maxwell defending the treatment of Celtic over their journey to Dubai, and Lennon unable to accept even now any notion that the mid-season training trip was a patently ridiculous idea in the circumstances of the time.

It made for fantastic radio, but the Groundhog Day theme was only underlined by Lennon’s apparent inability to recognise that some of the culpability for his downfall at Celtic rests on his own shoulders.

The game's governing bodies. The government. Wantaway players. Entitled fans. They have all copped flak from Lennon over the part they played in the calamity that was Celtic’s tilt at 10 in-a-row. But Lennon himself? Even on the issue of Dubai, a trip that was panned by fans, pundits and just about everyone else you might care to mention, he is sticking to his guns.

Was the abuse aimed at Lennon from his own supporters over the top at times last season? Yes, and it undoubtedly shocked him. But he seems stuck now on a default setting of casting blame in all directions but his own.

"The protocols haven't changed,” began Maxwell to kick off the debate. “The protocols haven't changed over that period at all and the assessment hasn't changed. When there's a positive case it goes through the government..."

"Ian the protocols were changed when we came back from Dubai,” retorted Lennon.

"No they weren't,” shot back Maxwell.

"Yeah they were,” Lennon continued. “Because we ended up having to travel in five buses rather than two. The social distancing...we actually had the Scottish physio, who was the Celtic physio, taking all the pictures on the buses, taking all the pictures on the plane.

"We actually came back on a business class flight, two metres apart and yet from the photographs the government intervened and said, 'no that's not good enough'. And the protocols were changed.

"We had 13 players, and myself, and two backroom staff, so 16 of us all together on a flight back from Dubai. We were told we had to quarantine for 10-12 days and we missed two important league games off the back of coming back with one positive case.

"So the rules were changed."

Maxwell interjected: "That's not my understanding. Assessment has been..."

"Well that was our understanding, Ian!" interrupted Lennon.

Which is rather where Lennon’s argument fell apart. Just because he believed something to be so, didn’t make it so.

"Assessment has been the same on planes and buses right the way through,” said Maxwell. “Two rows in front and two rows behind."

Lennon, not ready to back down, said: "Well why did we go from two buses to games to five? Why weren't we doing that from the start of the season?"

"That was a club decision, Neil,” Maxwell replied. Lennon has presented the five buses as a diktat passed down by the authorities to justify his theory about shifting goalposts, when in fact, that wasn’t the case.

"We were the only club to do that in the end,” Lennon carried on regardless. “We were told by looking at the bus journey from training in Dubai that you could only have maybe two or three players on a 52-seater bus. Which is ridiculous."

Maxwell explained: "It is ridiculous and we had it as well for international matches. The point about bus travel is that you can put as many people on the bus as you want: clubs can make that decision.

"If there's a positive case the assessment process is two rows in front, two rows behind and either side of those individuals are identified as close contacts.

"So there's not a protocol that says you can only put five people on a bus. The clubs understand that if there is a positive case on a bus that is how that's going to be assessed.

"So the rules didn't change, the clubs knew that from the start of the season.

"However many people they choose to put on a bus... it's like car sharing. Car sharing is not illegal, you're allowed to car share, but if there are two people in a car and one of them is positive the other one is going to be designated a close contact and have to isolate.

"So that's the risk people take when they car share."

The approach from Lennon here is consistent with the defensive stance he has taken since leaving his role at Celtic. It is understandable on the one hand, with Lennon having every right to stick up for himself, particularly if he is on the lookout for his next management opportunity.

However, a little self-reflection and perhaps holding his hands up publicly to his own part in the series of missteps both on and off the park at Celtic last season would go down a little better with supporters, and go some way to restoring his battered reputation among the fans who used to adore him.

There is no sign of that yet though, certainly on the topic of Dubai, and he ended the exchange with Maxwell as it had begun; by taking a swipe at the SFA.

"So were Scotland taking five buses to training?" Lennon enquired, equating two different situations at different points of the pandemic as entirely comparable.

"We had... I think we had eight buses. The last camp we had in March we had eight buses,” said Maxwell.

"No I'm talking about the tournament,” Lennon said.

"Well we weren't bussing to training, we were on site,” said Maxwell. “That was the beauty of the facility.”

If Lennon was hoping for a gotcha moment, it never arrived. Whether a moment of clarity over his own part in Celtic’s failures last season ever will remains to be seen.