Sky Sports pundit Davie Provan has hit out at former Celtic striker John Hartson, for supporting Neil Lennon, claiming that if it was any other manager then Hartson would be calling for them to lose their position.

Writing in his Sun Sport column, Provan accused Hartson of refusing to point the finger at Lennon, when he was speaking as a pundit on BT Sport after the 4-1 loss to Sparta Prague.

“John Hartson couldn’t bring himself to spit it out after Celtic’s latest Euro embarrassment.

“Asked what the defeat in Prague meant for Neil Lennon, he refused to point the finger at his old team-mate.

“I get that but, had it been anyone else but Lennon, Hartson would have taken the manager’s head off.

“Big John reckons the players are still pulling for Neil. They could have fooled me.

“You can’t watch Sparta Prague taking eight off Celtic over two games without questioning the manager’s position.”

In recent weeks, many fans have criticised some of Neil Lennon’s former team-mates for not reserving any criticism towards the Northern Irishman after an extremely poor period of form.

The likes of Chris Sutton, Martin O’Neill as well as Hartson came out and backed him to turn things around. Now though, Sutton has changed his tune and does not believe Lennon is the man to turn it around.

Whether you are mates with someone in football or not, it is important to be impartial especially when doing punditry.

Old examples of the same people criticising other managers such as Ronny Deila have resurfaced and it doesn’t paint a good picture. It should be interesting to see if any attitudes change soon, depending on the results.