Lennon: Breen’s comments on Duffy are embarrassing
● Ex-republic midfielder ‘has it totally wrong’ with assessment of Scottish game
Celtic manager Neil Lennon has accused former Republic of Ireland international Gary Breen of “embarrassing” himself over his suggestions that Shane Duffy’ s place in the Irish side he captains has been placed under threat by the defender’s move to Scotland.
In a radio inter view at the weekend, Breen said that Duffy, on a season-long loan from Brighton, “could pick up bad habits” operating in a set-up where he wouldn’t face a single striker good enough to feature in an English Premier League game... as he said had befallen Virgil van Dijk before he headed south to Southampton.
As he prepared his team for their trip to face St Mirr en this evening, Lennon accused former midfielder B re en– who represented the Republic at the 2002 World Cup finals while playing in the English second tier with Coventry City – of displaying ignorance on two fronts.
He believes the glib assessment betrays a lack of understanding of the football scene north of the border and Celtic’s success in moulding players capable of thriving at the highest level .“Gary needs to educate himself better before he starts coming out with these sweeping generalisations about the Scottish game ,” Lennon said. “There are a lot of big players in the Premier League down south who came from this division.
“Kieran Tierney and Virgil van Dijk have done all right for themselves and we still have some good players up here – look at Kristoffer Ajer, Christopher Jullien, Greg Taylor and Hatem Elhamed. They’re all top players at a great stage in their career with a huge club. So I think Gary has it totally wrong, he’s completely misread the situation and it’s a bit embarrassing for him, really.
“I think this is a great move for Shane; it’ll be good for his profile, good for his international status and he has an international manager[ in Stephen Kenny] who worked in Scotland and who knows the pressures which come with playing for Celtic. Gary is just the latest in a long list of people who’ve made comments about the game up here which have been totally wrong.”
To play or not to play seems to be the question exercising minds as Scottish football deals with outbreaks of Covid-19 in its domain. Alas, poor St Mirren, Neil Lennon says of the Paisley club his Celtic side will take on this evening over the fact they were forced to face Hibernian despite the loss of their three senior goalkeepers because of quarantine rules as a result of Jak Alwnick contracting the virus.
Yet, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune must not be allowed to floor the Scottish game, he maintains.
Parallels have been drawn between St Mirren being refused a postponement and Celtic last month not fulfilling the fixture in Paisley that they will tonight and a home game against Aberdeen scheduled to follow it. These games were called off as a consequence of Boli Bolingoli failing to isolate following an unsanctioned overnight trip to Spain. However, the scenarios could not be more contra sting. Celtic, unlike St Mirren, wanted to play the two matches, but the Scottish Government decided otherwise.
Such inconsistencies will frame a difficult season. Lennon, who expressed his hope of a speedy recover y for the three Hamilton players that yesterday were confirmed to have tested positive for Covid-19, believes they must not over whelm the drive to get games on. A must when a second consecutive season being curtailed is the doomsday scenario.
“People are sometimes going to get this virus whether they are doing the right things or not, I think ,” Lennon said. “We’re just going to have to try to live with it the best we can. People have got to try, for me, to get back to as normal a life as possible, even though things aren’t normal, without being reckless with it.”
Ever y club will live in fear with the possibility of suffering as St Mirrendi din losing 3-0 at the weekend, Lennon acknowledged. He is in no doubt Jim Goodwin’s men were undone by the “thousands to one” situation that required them to agree an emergency loan hours before kick-off to be able to field Bobby Zlamal in goal. The Hearts lo a nee is set to be in place again tonight.
“You just have to have contingency plans in place. I’m not saying St Mirren didn’t, but that’s totally out of the blue what happened to them ,” the Celtic manager said .“What happened to us was out of the blue and it wasn’t a benefit, it was totally disruptive to our plans, our league position and our fitness going into the Champions League qualifier.
“Everyone is learning as we go along with this thing, whether it is clubs, boards, associations or governments. Things can change all the time, whether that’s the virus itself or the conditions you have to live under and abide by.
“I don’ t think what anybody wants is the season to be called. To do it once prob - ably wasn’ t satisfactory to anyone, but for it to happen again would be unpalatable and not go o d for the game. You want to avoid it, but, in my own view, we’ll probably get a second spike of this in society, because it seems to be the way these things pan out. We’re just going to have to try to live with it the best we can.”
Lennon will make changes to
the team that won 5-0 at Ross County because of the glut of games coming up in the next couple of weeks and feels he has the strength of squad to cope. With the errant Bolingoli packed off to Turkey on loan, he is looking to recruit a leftsided player that would complete a successful window following the addition of Vasilis Barkas, Albian Ajeti and Shane Duffy. Charlton’s 20 -year-old Alfie Doughty has been identified for that area, but the club have been unmoved by offers from the Scottish champions, with reports suggesting a latest bid of around £1 million. Lennon did not give any indication that the pursuit of the player will be successful .“I don’t know, I don’t know,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what the situation is with that.”
“Everyone is learning as we go along with this thing, whether it is clubs, boards, associations or governments”
NEIL LENNON