Sometimes after a loss you don’t want to chat but you bite your lip and take it
EVEN the most insulting abuse from fans can be shrugged aside. The ‘hysterical nonsense’ of trumped-up police investigations, meanwhile, are little more than an irritant to Neil Lennon.
As an Old Firm warrior of old, he understands the perverse rules of engagement.
But the Hibs boss genuinely never thought he would see a fellow manager deliver the kind of disrespectful discourtesy he claims to have encountered at Ibrox last Saturday afternoon.
If Lennon’s description of events is even halfway accurate, Pedro Caixinha appears to have turned a post-match tradition — the act of sitting down together regardless of result, rows or running battles — into an awkward, sullen, ill-mannered farce.
In a wide-ranging conversation yesterday, Lennon tackled the subjects of the Ibrox atmosphere, red-card controversies and — just precursor to a private snub, the Hibs boss saying: ‘That respect should have been afforded to me when we went into his office afterwards. But it clearly wasn’t. You know, respect is a two-way thing.
‘I went into the office after the game. There was no conversation with myself or my backroom team.
‘That was odd, very odd. I’ve never experienced that before.
‘Only Jonatan Johansson (Rangers assistant coach) and the young fitness coach, who was here before, made conversation. I spoke to Jonatan and the fitness coach spoke to Grant Murray.
‘We had no conversation or dialogue with the manager or his backroom team.
‘They spoke in Portuguese. Which I understand a little bit of…’
Lennon left hanging the suggestion that he might not have liked what little of the ‘private’ conversation he’d heard.
Regardless of whether his linguistic skills were up to providing a perfect translation, he clearly felt slighted.
In the Big Book of Fitba’, one of the rules written in bold is that thou shalt always respect thy opposite number. Even if he has annoyed the hell out of you for the previous 90 minutes.
Caixinha previously accused Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes of a grave offence in keeping him waiting after a game at Pittodrie last season. The Rangers manager responded by telling McInnes that he was not welcome in the manager’s office at Ibrox.
Yet, even after the infamous Old Firm ‘Shame Game’ of 2011, Lennon and Ally McCoist — who had to be pulled apart on the touchline — went through the ritual of shaking hands and sharing a drink less than an hour after the final whistle.
To the guys in the business, this is not just about etiquette or protocol. It is a professional courtesy, an acknowledgement that they are bound together by their choice of profession.
‘You don’t want to do it sometimes, sit and have a chat, but you appear out of respect to your counterpart,’ said Lennon.
‘Whether we’ve had a ding-dong, whether the game has been great, if there have been controversial decisions or we’ve had a rammy during the game, whether you are in a foul mood afterwards, you do it.
‘I’ve been there myself, I know managers on the other side have felt the same as well.
‘And it can be awkward at times. But there is that unwritten rule.
‘You go in and talk about the game, or talk about life in general — or you talk about the game! You talk about things unrelated to football, if you have to.’
Reporting that he had ‘half a glass of beer’ before the odd encounter with the Rangers coaching staff was brought to an end, Lennon testified that the professional courtesies are maintained even when Celtic go to Ibrox or Rangers visit Celtic Park.
‘Especially Old Firm games,’ he said, making his point. ‘There is an unwritten respect between managers, no matter what went on before.
‘Sometimes you don’t want to do it but you bite your lip and take it.
‘The majority of the time, you do your press duties afterwards and you are still emotional — and you have to just suck it up when you get beat. Sometimes you don’t talk about the game at all.
‘There is that respect. If Pedro wants that, then he has to give some back.’
Aware that he will receive fresh criticism even for raising the issue, Lennon said he could only imagine the reaction if he had acted in a similar way towards a visiting manager at Easter Road.
‘You would get to hear about it. But I wouldn’t do that,’ added the Northern Irishman.
On Caixinha’s complaints about a ‘union’ that allows British managers to get away with more
on the touchline than an incomer like himself, Lennon said: ‘You have to explain to me what he meant by it. Because, during the game, I think I remonstrated once with the fourth official about a decision. Once.
‘Whereas there were other things going on in their technical area. Bottles being kicked, blah-blah-blah, shouting and screaming at the fourth official.
‘So I’ve nothing to reproach myself for in how I handled the situation last Saturday. I don’t know where he’s coming from, within the confines of the game.’
Reacting to complaints that Anthony Stokes might have joined Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack in being red-carded by referee John Beaton, Lennon confessed: ‘There’s no question that Anthony trod the line. There is no question about that — maybe he got away with one.
‘But there were other things going on in the game that maybe warranted red cards, as well. We haven’t touched on that.
‘I could name a couple of players in the opposition who should have walked.
‘So to blame me or the referee for the defeat is their prerogative. But, from my point of view, I thought we handled the game very well — and we should have won by more.’
Lennon is likely to face an SFA charge for one aspect of his touchline celebrations at Ibrox. It was a rude gesture which invited punishment, and was not ‘punching the air’ as he described it.
As for an official police investigation instigated at the behest of Rangers supporters, reported and then dropped almost immediately, Lennon said: ‘It’s hysterical nonsense, completely disproportionate.
‘How that can make front-page news of a tabloid, I do not know.
‘By all accounts, there were people complaining about me celebrating the goal. And that was reported.
‘But there was a lot of other complaints to the police about other things going on in the stadium — and they weren’t reported in the papers.
‘Look, I have to put up with a lot when I go to this ground. And I don’t complain about it. I could cite a lot of people for what they say or sing — or throw.
‘But there is an acceptance that, within the 90 minutes, it’s part of the culture of Glasgow.
‘So, when I turn round and cup my ears, to suggest that’s a criminal offence — it’s not. Or I punch the air. That’s not.
‘I think there has been a massive deflection from us winning the game with a team that cost a fraction of the opposition.
‘I’m still very, very pleased. I’m still very excited about what we’ve done so far.’
Hibs are at home to Hamilton tomorrow. Without taking anything for granted in the wacky world of Scottish football, it should be a more sedate affair.
Even if Lennon and Martin Canning spend 90 minutes at each other’s throats, the home manager will insist on the visiting gaffer joining him for a drink and a debrief.
It might be awkward, tense, even crammed with banal conversation about the weather or the price of back-to-school shoes.
But it will happen. Lennon wouldn’t have it any other way.