FREAK SHOW
Lennon: Watching Celts wipe the floor with Rangers made me feel uneasy ... it proved this is not Old Firm we know
AS Hibs boss and a Celtic fan Neil Lennon should have been on cloud nine.
Rangers, his rivals for second spot in the Premiership, were being thumped at Parkhead as the Hoops strolled to seven in a row.
But as Callum McGregor fired in the fifth goal after just 53 minutes the former Celtic manager felt surprising emotions rising up inside – sadness and unease.
Such an abject capitulation from Rangers would never happen on his watch and it has nothing to do with the absurdity of Lennon being handed the keys to the front door at Ibrox.
He said: “Watching the game got really uncomfortable for me, believe it or not. When the fifth goal went in after 50-odd minutes I was thinking, ‘This just doesn’t look right’.
“It was a total mismatch. It was a freak show. I hadn’t seen anything like that before in this fixture but it’s certainly not the same these days. Celtic are a fantastic team yet they’re beatable. But they absolutely wiped the floor with Rangers.
“It’s great for Celtic, their players and supporters but the balance is way off kilter from what we’re used to. The enjoyment went, I thought, after the fifth goal. At 5-0 it just didn’t sit well, didn’t look right.
“It’s not an Old Firm derby at the moment, not what you would really class as a traditional Celtic-Rangers game, because it’s so one-sided.
“I’m not that bothered about it because I’m on the green and white side of it. But from a neutral point of view, a footballing point of view, it doesn’t look right at all.
“It’s down to Brendan because his record in these games is incredible, the way he gets the mindset of the players right every time. But some of those Rangers players look well short of it – well short.”
Asked if they would be losing by four or five goals if he was in charge Lennon added: “No, I’d like to think not. Maybe on the odd occasion but certainly not on a consistent basis.
“The Rangers job? That’s just not going to happen and the answer would be I couldn’t possibly do it. Would it be interesting though? Maybe for you guys!”
New boss Steven Gerrard is on his way and the result at Pittodrie tomorrow will go a way to determining where Rangers will finish in the league.
Hibs will go second on goal difference with a victory over Aberdeen so long as Rangers don’t take full points when Kilmarnock visit Ibrox.
Lennon has acknowledged the arrival of Gerrard into the Scottish game will be pure box office but for the fledgling managerial career of the Liverpool legend it could be more turkey than Titanic.
He added: “It’s a good time to go into Rangers. Any manager with decent experience could turn it around very quickly.
“But it’s fraught with a lot of risks, not just in the game but outside the game as well.
“It helped me hugely that when I became manager of Celtic I’d been at the club for 10 years as coach under Gordon Strachan, as well as development coach.
“So looking at it that way would Steven not be better off staying at Liverpool? He’s been there all his life, knows the club, the surroundings, the culture. He is cutting his teeth at development level.
“People are citing the example of Pep Guardiola. Well, yeah, but Pep was at Barcelona for years and years and years. Zinedine Zidane was at Real Madrid for