“Mentally weak,” Former Celtic manager’s brutal takedown of Ibrox flops

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The Celtic Star

·23. April 2025

“Mentally weak,” Former Celtic manager’s brutal takedown of Ibrox flops

“They consistently concede goals. They’re mentally weak. And they don’t have a spine of the team. Neil Lennon gives his take on current Ibrox side…

Daizen Maeda with the Premier Sports Cup after Celtic’s victory over theRangers on 15 December 2024 at Hampden Park. Photo Kenny Ramsay

Ibrox side lacks mental fortitude

Neil Lennon believes that the difference between Celtic and the Ibrox side is mental fortitude. The man who captained the green and white hoops as a player and then managed twice is in no doubt about the dichotomy between the two clubs and insisted that if that doesn’t change, then Celtic will continue to dominate the Scottish game.

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The Irishman was a guest on The Scottish Football Social Club Podcast this week, alongside host Darrell Currie, and resident Premier Sports pundits Michael Stewart and Alan Hutton.

Brendan Rodgers with the Premier Sports Cup after Celtic’s victory over theRangers on 15 December 2024 at Hampden Park. Photo Kenny Ramsay

The subject of Celtic’s dominance came up in debate after Lenny had been speaking about the minor issues that Brendan and his team faced recently, with a poor spell culminating in a 1-0 defeat to Simo Valakari’s Saints side a few weeks ago, before Michael Stewart quizzed him on the main differences between Celtic and the latest Ibrox entity.

Barry, Neil and Billy Dodds

The now Dunfermline manager replied: “Look, in (the) Rangers dugout at the minute, you’ve got three guys in Barry, Neil and Billy Dodds, who know (the) Rangers inside out. They know what the DNA of the club is. They know what the driving force is.

“They’ve been very successful as players and Barry obviously has been a captain. And he will have been driving that narrative. But he’s not getting the responses. They’re far too inconsistent.

Merry Christmas. Disappointed after the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden Park on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“You know, I don’t see them blowing teams away the way Celtic do, when they really want to. As Alan (Hutton) said, they’re a cut above (that’s Celtic) anybody else in the league.

“The closest team to the them is (the) Rangers, who on their day, they can match Celtic, if not better them. But they’ve too many off days. Way, way far too many.

‘There’s an air of inevitability when Celtic rock up to the game yesterday”

“And that’s the secret to this squad (the Rangers) is getting the consistency from them. Which is what Celtic do have. You know, there’s an air of inevitability when Celtic rock up to the game yesterday.

“I’m thinking ‘yeah, their mentality is going to be, we’re going to crush this team’. And that’s the way it turned out. With (the) Rangers at the minute, you could toss a coin to see what type of team is going to turn up.

Merry Christmas. Disappointed after the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden Park on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“They consistently concede goals. They’re mentally weak. And they don’t have a spine of the team. And that’s something that whoever is driving them forward, you need to have that spine in the team,” Neil Lennon said.

Ouch!

This is an excellent piece of analysis from Neil Lennon that will be completely ignored given the source of the advice! They certainly do stupid rather well over the road.

"Once you reach the top of the mountain, so many times you start looking at other mountains to climb" ⛰️ Neil Lennon explains the challenges of maintaining motivation at Celtic, and the importance of the standard setters within the dressing room 🍀 @McBookie
– Mittwoch, 23. April 2025

Paul Gillespie

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