NEIL LENNON will BOYCOTT the PFA dinner after his Celtic players were snubbed.

[RANGERRAB 3,299]

This man has no shame. The perfect face and attitude for Celtic.

 

they still play the victims card whenever they can. It's in their DNA

[ian1964 10,447]

Bitter Lennon

Hoops boss was wrong to blast rivals over PFA snub

 

PLAYERS’ union chief Fraser Wishart should save himself a few quid in stamps next year by asking Neil Lennon to pick the Player of the Year.

 

Why bother with a ballot when Lenny is only a phone call away?

 

Bad losers are not uncommon in football, but bad winners?

 

When the Celtic boss should have been enjoying the afterglow of a second successive championship win, he was spitting blood instead.

 

Lennon should be sucking lemons to keep the smile from his face.

 

He’s won the league title at a canter, should win the Scottish Cup and will get decent money to strengthen his team over the summer.

 

The Champions League run has gilded his reputation throughout Europe and there isn’t a headwind in sight.

 

Still, that was not enough to prevent him blasting Andy Walker for claiming this championship was a given and Lennon wasn’t finished there.

 

In a misguided outburst he turned both barrels on Scotland’s top-flight footballers for their Player of the Year shortlist.

 

Strange, because the PFA voting procedure could not be more democratic. One man, one vote, take your pick.

 

The Hoops gaffer does not have to agree with the nominations, but he should respect the right of others to hold a different opinion.

 

Instead he told us none of the nominees would get near his team.

 

A cheap shot at four fellow pros whose selection is probably a career highlight.

 

Yeah, we know Michael Higdon, Andrew Shinnie, Niall McGinn and Leigh Griffiths lack the pedigree of your average Celtic player, but they deserved more respect.

 

You don’t make that shortlist without ability and loads of hard graft.

 

After a campaign that saw Lenny lionised for leading Celtic to victory over Barcelona and into the Champions League last 16, couldn’t he have been more generous?

 

A split vote for Celtic players has proved costly for the Hoops this year, but that hardly means it was a carve-up.

 

And if a ballot of every top-flight player in the country isn’t the best way of picking the Player of the Year, who has a better idea?

 

How can anyone question Higdon or Griffiths when both have scored more league goals than Gary Hooper?

 

Higdon’s total of 24 is miraculous — they should be drugs testing the big fella.

 

Likewise ex-Celt McGinn’s haul of 18 SPL goals for Aberdeen is a terrific effort from a player who had to recover from Hoops’ rejection.

 

At the same time Shinnie’s 11 strikes have propelled Caley Thistle to the brink of a Europa League spot.

 

In recognition, Lennon should have been more magnanimous.

 

Instead he tells us he will boycott the awards dinner. Have a word with yourself Neil.

 

Kenny Dalglish never won Scotland’s Player Of The Year award, but I don’t remember Jock Stein throwing his toys out the pram.

 

Likewise, Graeme Souness didn’t take the hump when Davie Cooper was overlooked.

 

After 22 years of Old Firm domination, who can argue with a different winner?

 

In 1985 most of the Celtic dressing room voted for eventual winner Jim Duffy.

 

Was Duff the most gifted player in the country? No, but even with a dodgy knee the Morton skipper found a level of consistency nobody else could match.

 

He got our vote in recognition of that.

 

A few years earlier Airdrie’s Sandy Clark beat off good opposition to win the award.

 

Was Clark really a better striker than Derek Johnstone or Charlie Nicholas?

 

No, but he was better than them that season.

 

With some justification Lennon has battled the football establishment.

 

That tenacity cost Dougie McDonald his job when the Hoops gaffer proved he had been stitched up by the official.

 

More recently he found himself in the stand thanks to a petty ban from Hampden watchdog Vincent Lunny.

 

The SFA have never been slow to get on Lennon’s case, but the PFA?

 

Are we to believe Scotland’s footballers conspired to cut Celtic players out of the mix?

 

For what it’s worth I reckon Victor Wanyama has been Scotland’s top player this season. But like Lennon, I don’t pull on the boots any more.

 

Whatever you think of the shortlist nobody is better qualified to pick it than the players themselves.

 

The biggest kick I got from the game was winning the players’ award more than three decades ago.

 

Earning the recognition of fellow professionals is the ultimate accolade, right up there with your international debut.

 

If anyone had rubbished my credentials, I would have been wanting a word.

 

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/4906224/Bitter-Lennon.html#ixzz2RiK29tCk

[ian1964 10,447]

[der Berliner 3,284]

Tom Cowan gives them some flak too ... all those naughty facts!

 

"NEWLY-CROWNED SPL champs Celtic travel to Fir Park tomorrow and the cyberspace debate is already well underway...

 

Should they be applauded onto the pitch by a guard of honour?

 

Well, yes, I personally think Celtic SHOULD applaud Motherwell onto the park…

 

Think about it. The fact a club with regular crowds of 4500 didn’t allow the Glasgow giants to clinch the title until mid-April with just four fixtures remaining was a terrific achievement.

 

And, yep, I now feel daft after my pre-season prediction the Hoops would have wrapped up the championship before the rest of us had wrapped up our Christmas presents.

 

At the very least, surely it would be a nice touch tomorrow if Celtic clapped Michael Higdon onto the pitch as he’ll be the only player on show shortlisted for the PFA’s Player of the Year award?

 

Despite the fact the vote has gone to a Celtic player in six of the past seven seasons, Neil Lennon has chucked the toys out of the pram and will snub this year’s awards as none of the Parkhead players made the cut.

 

Aw, diddums.

 

The players are tipped to boycott the event as well and I personally think that’s great news. Well, remember the embarrassing scenes last year when Georgios Samaras tripped over the red carpet and claimed for a penalty?

 

No chance of that happening this year, of course, as I imagine Sammy now has a four-foot hooter to break his fall after claiming this week he’d sooner count his medals than his money.

 

Aye right. And you thought Charles Green spouted a lot of Lillian Gish?

 

Big Georgios reckons the league title would have been wrapped up earlier if it hadn’t been for Celtic’s exertions in Europe.

 

Yeah, he’s probably kicking himself now for that outrageous dive against Spartak Moscow that meant Celtic had to play in the last 16 of the Champions League.

 

Neil Lennon had the whole of Scottish football right behind him last week (yes, even the fair-minded Rangers fans) following that ludicrous suspension for swearing at Jim Goodwin. But his childish outburst on the POTY shortlist left a bad taste in the mouth. A taste akin to sour grapes.

 

How dare the Celtic boss take the shine off a very special moment in the modest careers of guys like Michael Higdon, Andrew Shinnie, Niall McGinn and Leigh Griffiths.

 

The headlines should have been all about those four honest pros and not the dummy-spitting Celtic boss.

 

Shinnie has been dynamite for Inverness Caley this season. Higdon has just beaten Motherwell’s post-war scoring record set by the peerless Willie Pettigrew. Griffiths – arguably the most exciting talent in the SPL – has carried Hibs to within 90 minutes of ending their 111-year Scottish Cup drought.

 

And if it hadn’t been for McGinn’s goals, Aberdeen could easily be playing First Division football next season.

 

Yes, Celtic were clearly the best and most consistent team over the course of the 2012/13 season but did they boast one truly stand-out individual player?

 

Well, according to the experts with the ballot papers – the guys who play against Celtic on a weekly basis – the answer is NOPE.

 

Quite a few of the Celtic lads got votes but it was an even spread over a range of players and that’s why none of them made the top four.

 

And it was a totally democratic vote. Not like the 11-1 set-up Celtic insisted on when the SPL was formed.

 

Incidentally, Lennon is talking nonsense when he claims none of the four contenders would get in the current Celtic team.

 

What about 25-goal Michael Higdon? The big man’s hit the back of the net more than twice the amount of times than Samaras this season – while playing against exactly the same SPL teams – and he isn’t surrounded by players who cost millions and trouser tens of thousands a week.

 

To be honest, I almost gave up on Lenny’s rant when he listed Celtic’s achievements this season and included - wait for it – a League Cup semi-final spot.

 

Woooooh! What a run! Beat Raith Rovers and St Johnstone before losing to St Mirren.

 

Maybe there should be a special Team of the Year gong at the POTY bash to salute that monumental effort.

 

Listen, Celtic were worthy SPL champs and beating the mighty Barcelona (no jokes, please, about Messi & Co’s pummeling in midweek) was a magnificent achievement.

 

But come on, if this Celtic team is so great – and the players blanked by the POTY awards have genuinely been robbed – how come the fans aren’t exactly battering down the doors at Parkhead to watch them.

 

And how come Lennon made his comments on the day he was holding up big ad boards begging fans to buy cut-price season-tickets?

 

Just to keep the Celtic boss happy, perhaps the SPL players should vote again with the strict instruction that they can ONLY give the nod to a Celtic player.

 

By the way, folks, I can exclusively reveal the Motherwell players WILL form a guard of honour for Celtic tomorrow.

 

It’s the sporting thing to do. And it shows respect for a fellow SPL club and its players.

 

What a pity that attitude isn’t shared by others.."

[der Berliner 3,284]

Oh dear, Motherwell were naughty again. And Higdon too. The world is just soooo unjust ...

[BlueMazza 0]

I hate Tam Cowan but he got this one spot on

[54andcounting 0]

The Scottish POTY awards have always been dominated by the O.F. Only because they always WIN the league.

 

Win the league and one of your players will win poty

 

TLB knew rightaway he was set to rake up one-horse league tites (tainted).

 

He must have thought his players would simply rake up poty awards as well during this time? Well you can't really fault him for that, after all they've dominated that particular award whether Rangers win the league or not.

 

If you look at the last 16 seasons timmy and Rangers won 8 league championships each.

 

In the years sellik won it 7 of their players won poty, Amoruso denied them 8 out of 8 in 2002. (timmy moaned about that at the time)

 

But when you take the 8 seasons Rangers won it, only TWICE did Rangers players pick up the award, and once it was shared Hartson/Ricksen 2005 (timmy moaned about that shared award too btw)

 

In short, when you consider the 2005 award being shared then sellik have 13 wins to Rangers 4.

 

And lemon still thinks it's all an injustice, an establishment conspiracy, and slags off the guys who are up for the award as not fit for HIS team.

 

The sooner he is out of Scottish football, then it will be better for everyone, even HIS own players.

[ian1964 10,447]

Neil Lennon hits back at Kenny Shiels' paranoia comments about Celtic.

 

Celtic manager Neil Lennon has hit back at Kenny Shiels after the Kilmarnock manager labelled the SPL champions paranoid.

 

He said: "Kenny has always had plenty to say about our club. He likes to ramble on in little monologues, he is a bit like David Brent sometimes. He is an unconscious comedian.

 

"Nothing surprises me from Kenny. He has had a couple of barbed comments about my team and the club over the last couple of years so he must have a personal agenda, I don't know, you would need to ask him about that.

 

"I do take exception to the paranoia (comment). That's been thrown at our club for the last 15 to 20 years but I think the last three or four years have proved that we weren't paranoid, we were just right.

 

"I still think that one or two of our players should be in the running for player of the year. I said the other day that all the candidates have had fine seasons.

 

"I am not taking anything away from them. It has been made out as though I have taken the gloss away from them, that's not what I am trying to do at all."

 

http://sulia.com/channel/soccer/f/d2f021bf-2765-4ca9-8f55-aee36bba9097/?source=twitter

[der Berliner 3,284]

And now back to the real world.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

The sooner he is out of Scottish football, then it will be better for everyone,

 

Couldn't disagree more!

 

With daily tales of doom and gloom coming from Ibrox, the fact that Lennon's across the city making a monumental tit of himself and his club is only thing keeping me going right now.