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Ireland & Hoops legend Pat urges Celts CEO to apologise to supporters for the club’s Dubai jaunt embarrassment
PACKIE BONNER has urged Peter Lawwell to make a personal apology to Celtic fans over the Dubai debacle.
The Parkhead legend insists it’s time supporters heard from the club’s chief executive after the trip l ed to 13 players and two staff being placed into self- isolation.
Track and trace protocol kicked in after Christopher Jullien ( right), out for several months and unable to train at t he camp, t est ed positive f or Covid- 19 upon the squad’s return.
A depleted Celtic then limped to a 1- 1 draw with Hibs on Monday night that leaves Rangers 21 points clear at the Premiership summit.
A club statement on the f i asco insisted Jullien could just as easily have contracted the virus in Scotland a nd s e v e r a l pr o min e nt f i g ure s , i ncl udi n g J o hn Kenn e dy, Gav i n Strachan and Scott Brown, have defended the decision to travel at the height of the pandemic.
S upp o r t e r a nger had already been stoked by pictures showing players and boss Neil Lennon a pp e a r i n g t o d r i n k lager while relaxing at the hotel pool.
F o r m e r k e e p e r B o n n e r, w h o s p e n t almost two decades at Parkhead, was angered by the trip and wants to see
Lawwell front up to the fallout.
He told Go Radio: “I was shocked ( that the trip went ahead). If I had the opportunity and somebody to talk to inside Celtic I would’ve phoned up and been really angry.
“A s s o m e b o d y w h o played for the club for a l o n g t i me b u t a l s o supports the club, to a point where obviously working in the media you have to see what’s on t h e pi t c h f r om a neutral stance.
“You still have feelings for the club you played for for 17 years. Very much so.
“I ’m also a shareholder at the club, albeit ver y small, but all of those people – the fans, shareholders – they have a right to hear from the club and from Peter
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Lawwell. There’s no harm in saying, at this point, he doesn’t have to say from a protocol point of view they got it wrong, because they’ll argue they did everything right.
“But from a perception point of view, for going out there i n t he current cli mate even though they had planned it in November.
“Things change and there’s things changing on a daily and weekly basis.
“Sometimes you’ve got to come out and say : ‘ We’ve got this wrong. From a perception point of view, it was wrong and we apologise to our fans.’
“He ( Lawwell) doesn’t have to apologise to anybody else but to his fans.
“’ We’ll learn from it and we’ll move on’ – I would like to hear that because i t would go somewhere to at least saying they’re thinking about what they’re doing.
“But when you don’t h ear any t hi ng, t hat ’s difficult for the fans. “C e l t i c f a n s are all over the place, in the NHS, they ’re w o r k i n g ver y hard , u n d e r pressure.”