Neil Lennon criticises ‘ridiculous bloodlust’ at Celtic and Rangers

Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon claims there is a “ridiculous bloodlust” surrounding Rangers head coach Russell Martin and even Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers during the early part of the season.

Rangers were booed off the Ibrox pitch on Sunday after scraping a 1-1 draw with Dundee with the help of a disputed stoppage-time penalty, to leave Martin with two points from his first two William Hill Premiership games.

Celtic have started with wins over St Mirren and Aberdeen without conceding a goal but Rodgers revealed after a 2-0 victory at Pittodrie that he had heard someone claim his team had not played good football for two years.

It was unclear who he was talking about but he added: “There’s a number of people that really don’t like me here at Celtic”.

Martin looks set to lead Rangers into the Champions League play-offs on Tuesday when his side take a 3-0 lead into their qualifier second leg against Viktoria Plzen.

And Lennon believes he will need time to put his stamp on Rangers’ domestic form.

“It’s early days,” the Dunfermline manager said on TalkSPORT. “Rangers have got to qualify for the Champions League so there are mitigating circumstances, I always think, at this time of year, because you are playing tough European games in midweek and then having to play against a team who are really motivated.

“I had problems myself as a manager in those sort of spells.

“And then Russell is just in the door. He still has to put his imprint on the way he wants the team to play.

“But the bloodlust at the minute up here is ridiculous. You are talking one or two games and people are questioning his tenure.

“Then on the other side of the city people criticising Brendan or his style of play when they have made a perfect start to the season.

“Look, you have just got to be laser-focused and block out the noise and just not listen to it. It’s ridiculous.”

Lennon experienced major criticism during his final season at Celtic despite winning 11 trophies as a player and 10 as a manager beforehand.

Discussing Rodgers’ comments, he said: “I think with some there’s still a hangover and some can’t get over and forgive him for the way he left the first time.

“But he’s come back and won two titles, four trophies and made the knockout stages of the Champions League. I think the majority of the Celtic fans are delighted to have him in the building.

“It was a good win on Sunday, Pittodrie is always a difficult place to go but Celtic negotiated the game pretty well, the second goal was outstanding. And I think Celtic will add to the squad and try to bring more quality in as they go along.

“And then Russell has a bit of surgery to do on his squad and then in two weeks’ time there will be real acid test when both come together.”

Lennon added: “He has still got a problem, I think, with the culture in the dressing room. They played great against Plzen the other night and then they find it difficult to raise themselves for the bread and butter games.

“That was so apparent last year. They had some great victories and then they couldn’t do the bread and butter games, particularly at home.

“He needs to address that as quickly as possible and just get some consistency in results. They can’t beat off the motivation of other teams.”