Towering show at Ibrox proved the true value of Jullien to boss

WHEN Neil Lennon sanctioned the £7million signing of Christopher Jullien, he believed he was investing in both talent and personality.

Although the French defender took a few weeks to come up to speed and was left out as the club exited the Champions League, the 26-year-old announced his arrival with two towering performances within 72 hours.

Impressive as Celtic trounced AIK 4-1 on Swedish soil to reach the Europa League group stage, Jullien (below) was even more solid as the team made the trip to Ibrox for the first Glasgow derby of the season.

The timing of Jullien’s blocks, tackles and headers that day confirmed Lennon’s view that he had recruited a new defensive leader.

‘That was maybe the real turning point, an injection of confidence for him,’ admitted the Celtic boss. ‘Up until then, he was struggling to find his feet in terms of the pace of the game and our style of play.

‘He did play particularly well in Sweden on the Thursday against Stockholm and then he put in a marvellous performance at Ibrox.

‘Since then he has not really looked back.’

Much was made of the former Toulouse man’s absence from the defence as Celtic suffered a 4-3 reverse to Cluj in August.

‘He wasn’t ready,’ asserted Lennon. ‘You could see it in his performances, his movement, the quickness of his feet and getting under the ball at times in the air.

‘He hadn’t done a full pre-season with us and because there is so much coverage and inspection of the qualifiers, if I had thrown him out there we could have lost the game by more or we could have damaged him irreparably.

‘He wasn’t ready to play and neither was Boli

(Bolingoli) and we saw that in the game previously at Motherwell when they just looked unsure, a lack of understanding. But that has all gone now. They have grown into their roles.

‘Chris has been consistency personified since Ibrox.’

There has been one blot on Jullien’s copybook since then, namely his shaky performance against Livingston’s Lyndon Dykes in the team’s sole domestic defeat of the season. Jullien later made a public apology for his lack of dominance and vowed to atone.

‘I like that,’ smiled Lennon. ‘We didn’t single him out, he held his hand up and admitted he hadn’t done as well as he should.

‘And he has learned from that. A week or two ago at home to Livingston he handled Dykes brilliantly. We won the game 4-0 and he played him very well. You could see there was a lesson learned.

‘He is a perfectionist. He works at his game, individual aspects of it, all the time. And now he is in a really good groove, he is match fit.

‘Some of his individual performances, too — I thought in Lazio he was outstanding and in the league games he has looked very good.

‘He has a maturity about him and a presence.

There is also an intelligence about him away from football, he is very grounded and he likes to win.

‘You see him in training, if his team is not winning he gets angry or aggressive. I don’t mind that.

‘He definitely has that leadership touch about him.’ Jullien started alongside Nir Bitton in the win at Ibrox but will have his regular partner Kristoffer Ajer for company in today’s Betfred Cup final.

‘They are two big boys, athletic, dominant in the air and their reading of the game is very good,’ continued Lennon. ‘They dovetail together quite well.’