Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HOOPS’ CHAMPS LEAGUE AGONY
Neil fumes at wantaway stars after horror show in Champions League
NEIL LENNON says he will take the heat for Celtic going out of Europe.
But the Hoops boss warned he will show the door to stars who want out of Parkhead.
Lennon was fuming after Celts crashed out of the Champions League with defeat to Ferencvaros last night.
The Scottish champs failed to take their chances and were caught by two sucker punches.
But Lennon didn’t miss his wantaway stars after the game – with speculation surrounding players such as Tom Rogic, Kris Ajer, Odsonne Edouard and Olivier Ntcham.
He said: “The players have to be better, get your attitude right, get your mentality
right. Some of you don’t want to be here? Leave. I just want the players who want to be here.
“There are some players who may want to leave and have made inroads into that over the last six months or so. If they don’t want to be here, we have to do something about it.
“If they are making waves to leave the club they are not committed. I’m putting it out there because it’s been bugging me for a long time.”
Edouard was ruled out last night and Lennon opted to play Ryan Christie up front with hitmen Patryck Klimala and Albian Ajeti on the bench. The Hoops boss said he’d shoulder the blame but insisted they could still have run riot.
He said: “I’ll have to carry the can, it’s on me. It should have been done and dusted, with or without Odsonne.”
Lennon admitted he was fuming his side couldn’t put Ferencvaros to the sword.
He said: “It’s anger and frustration. The game was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be but we didn’t take our chances. We had plenty.
“It’s individual mistakes – it cost us against Copenhagen and it’s cost us again.”