Neil Lennon has vowed to shrug off any attempts to discredit a ninth league title in a row for Celtic, after the Scottish Premiership season was abandoned. Celtic led Rangers by 13 points, with eight games remaining to the Ibrox club’s nine and Scotland’s move to curtail the campaign was mired in deep controversy.
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“I can’t stop people from trying to put a negative spin on what we were achieving,” Lennon said. “But I don’t think anyone could have not foreseen us winning the league with the way we were playing, the form and consistency we were showing. No one could keep up with us. We just kept applying the pressure week in, week out and eventually all the other teams around us faded away.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see out the season the way we’d have liked. This gets overlooked – we are the ones who have missed out a lot even from a football perspective in terms of going for a treble, playing in the [Scottish Cup] semi-final and eventually winning the league in front of our own supporters.”
Celtic’s latest title means Lennon has leapfrogged the late Billy McNeill to become the third most successful manager in the club’s history. The Northern Irishman has overseen nine domestic trophy wins in two spells including five Premiership victories.
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“I wouldn’t underestimate this season,” Lennon said. “The pressure was immense, taking over from Brendan Rodgers. He won everything domestically, so it was important for me to stay focused.
“But I want more. I don’t want to stop now. To be on that pantheon of managers is fantastic. I’m 48, still relatively young. I’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot to achieve. I’ve got a lot of incentives and targets.”
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When Rangers defeated their oldest foes on 29 December, Steven Gerrard’s team were two points adrift of Celtic with a game in hand. As Rangers faltered post-winter break, Celtic excelled.
“You tend to blank out the nonsense that goes around it because it’s not real,” said Lennon of new year doom and gloom. “It was only one win or one defeat from our point of view. When we lost to Livingston in October, we bounced back with a great run of wins. I was quite confident weld do the same again. I didn’t realise how well we would bounce back but bounce back we did.
“It was a spectacular reaction to the point where we opened up a 13-point lead. People were asking me in October if I thought the league would go to goal difference. I said that I didn’t have a crystal ball but that I hoped it wouldn’t. By the time the league was curtailed, we were 13 clear with a 25 better goal difference.
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“People take that for granted from this team but they are the one who have got to go out and play under the pressure and scrutiny. A lot of people were hoping they’d trip up but they just refused to let that happen. Their mentality is unbelievable.”
Hearts have been relegated from the Premiership and are contemplating legal action. They were four points behind the second-bottom club, Hamilton, with both sides having eight fixtures remaining. Hearts are preparing a resolution proposing a league reconstruction and said: “The club has been taking legal advice throughout this process and are continuing to do so. We hope that the resolution being prepared will avoid the need to go down this route. Legal action would be both time consuming and expensive. However the cost to the club of relegation would outweigh these considerations.”
