‘WE’LL IGNORE THE

Lennon taking big-picture view on eve of new campaign

KEEP calm and carry on may be the trite slogan that launched a thousand aprons, but it may well also be the motto that carries Celtic to 10-in-a-row.

The attention Celtic receive is always intense, but it will crescendo to a fever pitch this season given what is at stake. The scrutiny will be heightened, the hype will be frenzied when things are going well, and the alarm bells if things aren’t going to plan will be deafening.

Neil Lennon can’t afford to listen to any of it, and according to the Celtic manager, neither can his players. The fingers are in the ears, the blinkers are on, and the focus is clear.

Certain members of the Celtic squad of course have already been rebuked by their boss over their use of social media, but he will be encouraging everyone at the club to give it a wide berth during the crucial months to come.

If his job at Parkhead was once about bringing back the thunder, this season is about blocking out the noise.

“You get used to that,” Lennon said. “It’s been like that for the last few years. A lot of it’s not real. There’s a lot of good stuff on social media at times and obviously a lot of fake and negative stuff. You just don’t engage with it. It’s important you just stay conscientious with your work and blank out the noise.

“There’s nothing you can do about it. You can only stay true to the values you have in the way you work and the way you want the players to work.

“There has been 10-in-a-row chat for the last three or four years. When we won seven, people were talking about it. It’s no different. I’ll just do what I normally try to do and block it out, concentrate on the job in hand.”

That’s not to say that Lennon, inset, views the league title as the be all and end all of his duties this season, even if some punters may disagree.

“Everything doesn’t just stop at the end of this season if we achieve it,” he said. “The club will go on and there are players here we want to bring through. “We got [Vasilis] Barkas in and he needs a bit of adaptation time. We are excited about him coming in. Hopefully we will have one or two more.

“The main focus is the league, as it is every season. The priority is to win the title, but it doesn’t just stop with this season. We look to go on again. I’m trying very much to stay in the present.

“It’s not just about this season. It’s about the seasons after that in terms of developing young players, integrating players into the squad and bringing new players in to add to the core we have already.

“This season, we are trying again to achieve Champions League group stage football which is going to be immensely difficult but not beyond us.

“Then, obviously, defending all the domestic trophies as robustly as we can.”

The first step to doing that comes in the shape of the Premiership season opener tomorrow against Hamilton at a deserted Celtic Park.

It may not be ideal, but Lennon is relishing the return of competitive football in any guise. Even so, the news that test crowds could be at games as early as mid-September has been warmly received by the Celtic manager.

“It’s brilliant,” he said. “Noone knew what was coming.

You can only stay true to the values you have in the way you work