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[Football] Neil Lennon







E

Eric Youngs Contact Lense

Guest
you Would like to think that the senior leadership of Hibs would take a dim view of Lennon's actions. I read an article yesterday just putting the incident into the context of the years of abuse (and worse) that he has been on the receiving end of over the last 15-20 years whilst involved in Scottish football - it didn't condone his behaviour, but made the point that his personal situation/experiences are not typical. I accept that as context, but cannot get away from the fact that if he has been a victim, and presumably wants things to change, why oh why continue to act in the way that he does? He could be a beacon for change, he could help people see across the divides (and to be fair I have no knowledge of efforts he puts in off the pitch), but all too often he is involved in events and incidents that portray him as part of a problem - he appears to revel in it. Regardless of all of this, as an institution, Hibs would surely want their Manager to lead by example, role-model behaviour and represent their organisation accordingly. If it were isolated, I would buy the "heat of the moment" point of view a little more, but I don't see any accountability from him, or indeed a recognition that he needs to grow up a bit. He should be able to sense the environment around him and get beyond it. He cannot expect his players to play with discipline, cool heads under pressure, if he cannot do that himself.
 


Jackthelad

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2010
804
As a Hearts fan I take exception to being called a diet Hun. We have a small but vocal minority in our club who espouse similar views to Rangers fans. I know scores of Hearts fans and none of them identify with Rangers. Celtic fans look at everything through the prism of the sectarian divide in Glasgow, and because of a small minority of our fans we are all tarred by Celtic with that brush. In the same way, Rangers fans regard Hibs fans as mini-Tims because a small minority of them take the Irish tricolour to the games.

As for the incident the other night, there is no doubt that Neil Lennon antics in the technical area at just about every game he is involved in are pretty inflammatory. On Wednesday night, after a very tousy game where he had been shouting the odds at the ref, gesticulating at Hearts players and generally acting like an arse as usual, he chose to give it the "come ahead" routine in front of the main stand at Tynecastle when our goal was chalked off in injury time. I don't think it is unreasonable to call it goading. I also think Lennon should reflect on his behaviour in general at football games.

I don't buy this "he is hated in Scotland because he is in Irish catholic" nonsense. Martin O'Neill was never disliked as much as Lennon is. There are plenty of Irish Catholics playing in Scotland, including Jimmy Dunne who is on loan at Hearts from Burnley and was the man of the match the other night for Hearts. Jimmy is loved by the Hearts support.

Whilst a lot of Rangers fans hate Lennon for his upbringing, and probably some Hearts fans, most Hearts fans and a lot of fans of other clubs can't stand him because of his behaviour at football games. My mother, who is in her 70s, brought up a Catholic, from a Hibs family and until quite recently used to go with her partner to Dundee United games, told me yesterday how much she really disliked him and she is not a huge football fan.

Having said all that, Lennon's ridiculous behaviour in no way excuses the actions of the compete ******** who threw a coin at him. It also gave Lennon the perfect opportunity to play the victim card yet again. Unfortunately Hearts do have a number of idiots in our support who occasionally let the club down. The culprit will be banned for life and rightly so. I expect that Hibs will do the same with the idiot who punched our goalie Bobby Zlamal.

Lennon has been physically attacked so many times in his car and at games, he has had bullets posted to his house and so much more, his family threatened his kids threatened he gets secterian abuse and racial abuse, Lennon's been threatened by Loyalist groups and constantly get spat at. What has he done to deserve this?! He shows emotion and stood up for himself in games and is a bit gobby. If he was Black there would be a massive out cry, but the bigoted consensus is he "brings it on himself". Hearts have problem with secterianism, there various videos of them signing secterian songs and some racist songs in and out of the stadium, Hibs are much more neutral compared to Hearts these days.
 


edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,221
Lennon does look to be completely obnoxious there- but equally, I bet there are people in the section of the crowd where the coin came from who were just as obnoxious, and would have done exactly the same to him in terms of gloating had the goal stood. It's a bit like when fans give players dogs abuse all game, and then are the first ones to cry "incitement!" when the player then scores and runs along the crowd cupping his ear.

Coin throwing is extremely dangerous- as I'm sure at least one poster on NSC could testify to quite graphic effect- and whoever did it is a weapons grade coward.
 


Jambo Seagull

Well-known member
Jul 18, 2003
1,486
The Athens of the North
Lennon has been physically attacked so many times in his car and at games, he has had bullets posted to his house and so much more, his family threatened his kids threatened he gets secterian abuse and racial abuse, Lennon's been threatened by Loyalist groups and constantly get spat at. What has he done to deserve this?! He shows emotion and stood up for himself in games and is a bit gobby. If he was Black there would be a massive out cry, but the bigoted consensus is he "brings it on himself". Hearts have problem with secterianism, there various videos of them signing secterian songs and some racist songs in and out of the stadium, Hibs are much more neutral compared to Hearts these days.

Just to be absolutely clear, I am not in any way condoning the behaviour towards Lennon. Does he deserve to have bullets sent through the post, be spat at, have coins thrown at him, receive threats? Not in the slightest. Totally unacceptable behaviour which should be dealt with by the police.

Was Neil Lennon's behaviour irresponsible and inflammatory the other night? Absolutely yes. Has he got previous for this? Yes.

Does that in anyway justify people throwing coins at him, absolutely not. There is no "bigotted consensus" that he brings it on himself.

As for your comment about Hearts & Hibs, I'm not sure what your experience is of going to either Hearts or Hibs games. I'm a season-ticket holder at Tynecastle and was there the other night. Both clubs have nasty elements to their support. As I said before, there is small but vocal minority of loyalist sympathisers at Tynecastle. We are trying to eradicate that but it isn't easy. If you think the Hibs fans are squeaky clean then you are misguided. Our goalie had coins, lighters and (bizarrely) a set of keys thrown at him the other night, as well as being punched. There is mobile phone footage of both Derek Riordan and Leigh Griffiths (Hibs players and fans) singing songs with their scummy mates about Rudi Skacel (a Czech Hearts player) being a ducking (autocorrect) refugee, so in my experience, they have plenty of fans (some of whom have played for the club) who are far from "neutral" as you call it.
 




Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Lennon does look to be completely obnoxious there- but equally, I bet there are people in the section of the crowd where the coin came from who were just as obnoxious, and would have done exactly the same to him in terms of gloating had the goal stood. It's a bit like when fans give players dogs abuse all game, and then are the first ones to cry "incitement!" when the player then scores and runs along the crowd cupping his ear.

Coin throwing is extremely dangerous- as I'm sure at least one poster on NSC could testify to quite graphic effect- and whoever did it is a weapons grade coward.

As I understand it, the fans around the coin thrower, have identified him to the club. A fan has been charged.
 




Tooting Gull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
11,033
Whatever you think, it was an explosive press conference today, just shown on Sky. And it will totally divide opinion once again. He is either playing the mother of all victim cards, or it was 18 years of abuse, anger and frustration all coming out from his time with Northern Ireland, Celtic and elsewhere. Basically says Scotland has not remotely dealt with sectarianism, furious about all those (plenty) saying he brought it on himself with touchline antics, and calling the sectarianism he has suffered from "racism". I thought it was all just because he was ginger...

Found myself sympathising with some of it, but he took no responsibility whatsoever for his own goading of the crowd which was highly inflammatory, and thinks he did nothing wrong.
 




mejonaNO12 aka riskit

Well-known member
Dec 4, 2003
21,494
England
I find it really sad people are focusing on the bigger picture when actually we should all be laughing at the self-promoting HARD MAN rolling around on the floor :lolol:
 


NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
As a Hearts fan I take exception to being called a diet Hun. We have a small but vocal minority in our club who espouse similar views to Rangers fans. I know scores of Hearts fans and none of them identify with Rangers. Celtic fans look at everything through the prism of the sectarian divide in Glasgow, and because of a small minority of our fans we are all tarred by Celtic with that brush. In the same way, Rangers fans regard Hibs fans as mini-Tims because a small minority of them take the Irish tricolour to the games.

As for the incident the other night, there is no doubt that Neil Lennon antics in the technical area at just about every game he is involved in are pretty inflammatory. On Wednesday night, after a very tousy game where he had been shouting the odds at the ref, gesticulating at Hearts players and generally acting like an arse as usual, he chose to give it the "come ahead" routine in front of the main stand at Tynecastle when our goal was chalked off in injury time. I don't think it is unreasonable to call it goading. I also think Lennon should reflect on his behaviour in general at football games.

I don't buy this "he is hated in Scotland because he is in Irish catholic" nonsense. Martin O'Neill was never disliked as much as Lennon is. There are plenty of Irish Catholics playing in Scotland, including Jimmy Dunne who is on loan at Hearts from Burnley and was the man of the match the other night for Hearts. Jimmy is loved by the Hearts support.

Whilst a lot of Rangers fans hate Lennon for his upbringing, and probably some Hearts fans, most Hearts fans and a lot of fans of other clubs can't stand him because of his behaviour at football games. My mother, who is in her 70s, brought up a Catholic, from a Hibs family and until quite recently used to go with her partner to Dundee United games, told me yesterday how much she really disliked him and she is not a huge football fan.

Having said all that, Lennon's ridiculous behaviour in no way excuses the actions of the compete ******** who threw a coin at him. It also gave Lennon the perfect opportunity to play the victim card yet again. Unfortunately Hearts do have a number of idiots in our support who occasionally let the club down. The culprit will be banned for life and rightly so. I expect that Hibs will do the same with the idiot who punched our goalie Bobby Zlamal.

You can take offence all day long but being Scottish not for one minute do I take offence about Scottish people being tarred by the ''Sectarian Brush'' - It is a sad fact that the Religious bias on both sides is shameful and something to be embarrased about

Even the British Army got involved at Ibrox

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/s...=7d86fe0e53a4449bd436e890931c0d69&action=view

Celtic fans have had numerous bans in Europe for it

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/s...=a6dd95aac3ea08240561a8bfb6b9807d&action=view

And even my own club Motherwell have similar within their ranks

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/s...=33ea246dc07b8793227022bf3514e1bb&action=view

And here is Aberdeen

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/s...=14e1cef26d5d0f8251c120d93252d715&action=view


I could go through every club in Scotland and find it. Scotland should be ashamed of it. I am proud to be Scottish but these actions are shameful by Scottish people. It is no better than Racism , Homophobia or Misoginism .


Small minorities or not - I would never hide behind a comment like that. It is barbarick
 


FloatLeft

Well-known member
Jun 12, 2012
1,603
Throwing a coin can’t be defended but Neil Lennon has a complete lack of class goading the Hearts fans like that. You’d never catch our Chris doing that.
 




Lower West Stander

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2012
4,753
Back in Sussex
I’ve ever known anything like a Glasgow derby. The fans are unreal.

I used to work there and there were normal guys in the office who became deranged lunatics when talking about the football. Some even refused to say the other club’s name - I’m not joking.

Go to the game and there’s Union Jacks and flute playing on one side and people selling pro Republican papers and singing IRA songs on the other.

Lennon is a prat but I can’t help thinking there was a lot bottled up in that press conference given his history as a Celtic player.


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Napper

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
23,870
Sussex
Lennon went up in my opinions today at the press conference.

He's bang on the money about the issues in Scotland. Been going on for years and shouldn't be acceptable.

I was quick to jump on Lennon and have him down as a c t over this issue but after his calm and measured assessment today , I actually for the first time have seen it from his point of view.

Nothing will happen of course
 


Napper

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
23,870
Sussex
Throwing a coin can’t be defended but Neil Lennon has a complete lack of class goading the Hearts fans like that. You’d never catch our Chris doing that.

if CH had been goaded over his race for years , even being attacked in the street and death threats. He might.
 




Crackpot

New member
Jun 4, 2011
128
Upper North Street
I find it really sad people are focusing on the bigger picture when actually we should all be laughing at the self-promoting HARD MAN rolling around on the floor :lolol:

Exactly. Pretending he had been struck by a pickaxe handle ffs. Absolutely no marks on his face whatsoever after he emerged into view from his curling up on the turf.

His dramatic over-reaction and theatrical performance is as much a story as the coin itself,but totally bypassed in media reports. The BBC website refer to the coin as a "missile" which is an incredible use of hyperbole if ever there was one.

He's probably loving every minute of it...getting attention and sympathy by the barrowful and not being called out on his histrionics and playground behaviour.
 










crodonilson

He/Him
Jan 17, 2005
13,514
Lyme Regis
Lennon getting sickening abuse on social media after Celtics incredible unbeaten domestic cup run came to an end today at home to Ross County. Our very own Shane Duffy came on late in the game for an extra goalscoring threat late on bit was booked within minutes of his introduction for a 'clumsy challenge'. Looks like Celtic are on crisis and Lennon's days may be numbered, so sad to see a world institution like theirs in such a sorry state.

:nono:
 


bhafc99

Well-known member
Oct 14, 2003
7,080
Dubai
Does that mean Celtic won’t do the quintuple treble of trebles, or whatever it was they were aiming for, having won the last 245 competitions in Scotland in a row?


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