THE CLOSED SEASON
Lennon admits mass football shutdown was inevitable but it’s uncharted territory and he doesn’t have answers ...
All routine is out the window. We don’t know how long this impasse will last .. at the moment we are all in the dark
Neil Lennon was the first to admit what should have been a routine press conference would result in more questions than answers.
The fact he had to digest the news that all of Scottish football’s fixtures had been postponed indef initely ensured many imponderables required good guesswork about the unfathomable.
That air of uncharted territory on the back of the coronavirus crisis hung heavy in the media room.
Lennon cracked a smile and waited in bemusement for the first query over the state of limbo his club and the rest of Scottish football find themselves in.
The Celtic boss was at a loss to make any sense of the chain of events – but the only certainty is his belief that football now has a new normal.
He said: “We are sort of institutionalised. It’s a way of life.
“We are regimented, a bit like being in the army. You train, you go to the hotel, you have the preparation, the game.
“All that routine is indefinitely out of the window.
“And it’s not as if it’s a holiday. We can’t go anywhere or take a break even if we wanted to. “It ’s a very strange situation. “Will we train next week? Hopefully, that’s the plan, but we don’t know yet. We’ve given the players the weekend off and will have a staff meeting with the executives then take it from there. “The plan is to get the players back in on Tuesday. “But we don’ t know how long this is going to go on for. It’s an indefinite period. “I’ve been told that this thing is not even at its peak and it’s going to become more widespread.
“We don’t know how long this impasse will last, where we are going to pick up and what we do with the players in between. “Do we go on a break? You can’t fly anywhere, take them anywhere. “We have a lot to ponder. We have given the players the weekend off, Monday too.
“We will meet on Monday with the executive team and see what we can do from there. At the moment we are all in the dark.”
Lennon has been tuning into the daily bulletins that detail the latest victims of the coronavirus.
He admits the revelation Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had contracted coronavirus brought home the ease with which it is spreading and insists the authorities had no option but to press the pause button.
He said: “I heard about Mikel for example. How quickly it can spread. That’s the scary thing too.
“There was an inevitability about the decision. Once the EPL had (decided to suspend its fixtures) I think it was only right that Scotland followed.
“It’s not ideal with the magnitude of the game we were preparing for (against Rangers today) but we just have to accept it.
“It’s unprecedented. We don’t really know when we are going to be back playing, what training times we are going to be able to use. “If one of the players actually picks up the virus then the whole thing starts over again.
“You have to self-isolate and the rest of the players have to do the same.
“I would love everything to go back to normal but I know that’s not going to be the case.
“I would imagine Euro 2020 may be cancelled, which would be a huge shame.
“The other thing with the virus is we don’t know how long it’s going to last. China seem to have a grip on it now because their numbers are coming down.
“But we haven’t reached our peak yet. It may take a month or maybe more.”
As the UK adopts a herd immunisation policy, Lennon has noted the change of approach from the government to that of political leaders on the continent.
He said: “It’s interesting. In Italy they closed the schools then you had grandparents looking after the little ones.
“All of a sudden they were picking up the virus – and, of course, it actually attacks the elderly more.
“That wasn’t the right thing to do.
“We are in the delay phase, whatever that means, and the cancellation of sporting events is part of that.
“I don’t think it is at a drastic stage yet but it is contagious, the numbers will rise and unfortunately so will the fatalities.
“All this now is a measure to try to stop the f low of that. You have to balance public health, public safety against sport.
“For everybody, players and everyone, sport will have to take a back seat for now.”