FORMER Celtic boss Neil Lennon has gone into depth time and time again about the disastrous COVID season but has revealed that, along with Boli Bolingoli, two other members of the squad breached the restrictions in place.
Lennon emphasized how the strict protocols had been followed to a tee, but Bolingoli‘s breach of rules had caused a stir among the squad and beyond. The Belgian full–back was suspended and investigated by the club, however, the manager revealed that after the incident, two other players had confessed to going to Amsterdam and Manchester, respectively.
Speaking to PLZ Soccer, Lennon revealed:
“We followed the protocols to an nth degree.
“Maybe that was a little bit over the top when you look back on it now but everyone thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
“Five different dressing rooms at the training ground then the players had to go home, stay in. Eventually after Dubai it went from two buses to five so the goalposts were moved after us following the protocols, there was so many things I could write a book on it.
“Then there was the Bolingoli incident at the start of the season, you‘re saying don‘t leave Glasgow and he gets on a flight to Spain for a day.
“Then he comes back and says he didn‘t go to Spain it was Belgium. We played Hamilton and we said stay in Glasgow, then a week later we‘re playing Kilmarnock. In between that he‘d gone to Spain, not told anyone and then in the squad and played a bit of the game against Kilmarnock.
“Then the story develops and we asked him. He said ‘I went to Andorra then drove over the border to Belgium to see my family‘. Then two hours later he rings me and goes ‘actually I went to Marbella for the day‘. Then I had a meeting with the players to ask did anyone else leave Glasgow. No. Later on I get a phonecall from two players, I won‘t say who, saying ‘gaffer I was in Amsterdam‘ and ‘I was in Manchester‘.
“When you look back it was really difficult on them, they missed their families, there were no restaurants, no social interaction with people. They broke the rules and I get it now.”
The former Celtic manager is still managing to lose the respect of the fans; instead of coming out and holding his hands up and admitting his mistakes, he’s still blaming everything else and everyone else. However, these new developments are surprising, and it’s a wonder how we haven’t learned of this until now.
