Lennon dismisses Green 'bigotry' claims

Neil Lennon could have not been more disdainful when he described Charles Green’s controversial assertion that the demise of Rangers was down to “bigotry” within Scottish football as “funny”.

Before Sunday’s Ramsdens Cup extra-time win over Brechin at Glebe Park, the Rangers chief executive suggested that the reason the Ibrox club were denied entry into the Scottish Premier League was due to bigotry and jealousy.

The Scottish Football Association’s compliance officer, Vincent Lunny, has written to Green asking him to explain his comments.

The Celtic boss, speaking at the club’s Lennoxtown training ground ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League qualifier against HJK Helsinki at Parkhead, was withering in his response to the former Sheffield United chief executive’s remarks.

Lennon said: “The club have said that it is not worthy of response, so…I was golfing, I only read about it yesterday and I found it quite funny. He has only been here five minutes and he is calling us all bigots already.”

Lennon, who revealed that Kris Commons and Anthony Stokes will be given fitness tests tomorrow as they try to shake off their respective ankle injuries, was asked if he still saw Rangers as his rivals.

“Not this season, no,” he said. “The remit is to win the title and it will be no different whether they are here or not and if we can advance on the European stage all the better.”

In order to do that, Lennon first has to negotiate Celtic through their Champions League third qualifying round with the first-leg against the Finnish side.

The former Celtic skipper is aware of the importance of making it into the group stages of European football’s elite club competition but knows his side will have their work cut out against a team well into their domestic season and who beat KR Reykjavik 9-1 on aggregate in the last round.

“It is not the be all and end all but it is important,” he said. “It is important for the players, the club, financially, obviously, and it is important for our supporters to get a feel for the European nights again.

“It is difficult, I am very wary of these games and I have been for quite while. But they enhance the players’ reputation, the club’s reputation and it is imperative that we make the next step into the Champions League group but we have four very tough ties coming up.

“It always is (a concern), when these qualifiers come around. We haven’t had a competitive game yet so we have tried to condition the players as best we can.

“We have had Helsinki watched three times. They lost a league game at the weekend but they are in good form.

“They are defensively well-organised, have good players in wide areas, two good full-backs who are comfortable on the ball and get forward well. So it is a tough task for us and we will have to play very well to get through the tie.”

Lennon is hopeful that Commons and Stokes, who both picked up injuries in the 1-1 friendly draw with Inter Milan at Parkhead on Saturday, will declare themselves fit but the Northern Irishman is reluctant to take risks.

“We are still waiting on Anthony and Kris, they did a bit of light training today which is a significant step in the right direction so we will see how they are in the morning,” he said.

“We will do a light session in the morning and see how they get through from there but it is so early in the season, it is difficult to envisage taking many risks with any of the players.”