What Bolingoli did amounts to a sacking offence. There’s no way back for him
BOLI BOLINGOLI’S actions this week were so idiotic and dangerous it filled me with rage. And it will be a similar scene within the dressing room at Lennoxtown.
Bolingoli’s fellow Celtic team-mates will all be bubbling with rage and anger at him going on a secret trip to Spain, then playing against Kilmarnock when he should have been in quarantine.
Neil Lennon touched on that very subject in his press conference the other day when he spoke of the anger and frustration his players are feeling towards the left-back.
It is sheer stupidity, with dire consequences on so many levels. One of the key points in the season is right now when Celtic are trying to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League.
The manager would have been looking to take a bit of form, a bit of momentum and a bit of sharpness into the qualifiers, which start on Tuesday against KR Reykjavik at Celtic Park.
Celtic would not have wanted their last match before their Euro campaign to be a lacklustre performance against Kilmarnock when they drew 1-1 at Rugby Park.
Lennon will have wanted his players to regroup as quickly as possible after that and get going again ahead of some of the most important games of the entire campaign.
But what Bolingoli has done has thrown their preparations for the Champions League off course with a total lack of respect for his team-mates and pure stupidity.
On the domestic front, Celtic are hoping to clinch ten-in-a-row this season, which has never been done before in Scottish football.
But while their games against St Mirren and Aberdeen are now postponed thanks to Bolingoli, Rangers travel to Livingston on Sunday then host Kilmarnock the following Saturday at 3pm.
By the time Celtic kick-off their next league match against Dundee United at Tannadice at 5.30pm later that day, they could be 11 points behind their old rivals.
Even though you would fully expect Celtic to win their games in hand, it’s still not a great position to be in psychologically in a title race.
And just imagine next week if they don’t get through to the Champions League. It would be an absolute disaster for Celtic.
But what Bolingoli has done is about more than football. He did not just put Scottish football at risk of a red card from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and being sent back into lockdown again. His actions put people at risk. We are in the middle of a deadly global pandemic.
The government are not telling people to quarantine when they come back from Spain just for the fun of it. It’s to eliminate the possibility of the virus being spread and vulnerable people catching it and being at risk of dying.
So Bolingoli’s furious team-mates will be wanting to know why he did what he did. Why he has jeopardised not just the football season but the health of his team-mates and their families; the health of the hotel staff and their families the night before the Kilmarnock game; the health of the Celtic staff he worked with before the game and their families; the health of the Kilmarnock players and their families.
If Bolingoli had returned from his trip to Spain with coronavirus then you could have been looking at a catastrophic number of people picking it up. There could have been people dying through his actions. People could have lost their lives.
And then there are the rumours and heresay that his trip to Spain was about potentially moving to another club. His actions have left me almost speechless in disbelief.
What Boli Bolingoli did this week is, without question, a sacking offence. I know Neil Lennon will be thinking about that. He will be thinking about asking the powers-that-be at Celtic to get him gone.
Neil Lennon gave Bolingoli strict advice about not leaving Glasgow, let alone the UK. The fact he got on a plane and flew to Spain shows a total disregard for his manager, his team-mates and their families and also himself.
The fact he kept his trip to Spain a secret is also astonishing. Was he thinking he was going to be able to keep it a secret forever?
It’s conniving to deceive your manager by going behind his back to do something that could have had such serious implications.
He won’t play for the club again after this. He can’t.
There can be no way back for him now, with his team-mates or his manager.
Given the seriousness of what Bolingoli has done, and how terrible the consequences could have been, I would hand him the most severe punishment possible. I would sack him.
I would give him the most serious punishment available