Celtic manager Neil Lennon noted his frustration with his pre-match interviews this season earlier today.
He’s unlikely to be much happier tonight given his reaction to one question from BBC Sportsound reporter Rob MacLean.
As discussed by my colleague David Walton this morning, Lennon had quite a lot to say about the interviewing technique of journalists this season, taking particular issue with what he faced away to Livingston last month.
Tonight he was asked a pretty impossible question about Rangers, or as MacLean put it, ‘the machine that is Rangers.’ Yes, really.
Lennon was asked how impressed he has been by the Ibrox side this season, which drew a prickly response.
The Bhoys boss said (Radio Scotland, 19:21): “Rob, you can’t ask me that, I’m the Celtic manager. You need to ask other people that question. But they’ve been very consistent.”
Realising he’d a brick wall, MacLean reframed the question to draw a response about how it might have been different for Celtic this season.
Lennon would go on to say: “It might have been different if we had been more consistent ourselves. We can only look at what we’re doing in the dressing room, on the training ground, in the way we’ve played this season. It’s been too inconsistent for the standards we’ve set over the last few years.”
Neil Lennon also answered question on tonight’s team
Perhaps to your surprise, MacLean was good enough to also turn attention to tonight’s match. Lennon was asked about the thinking behind tonight’s team selection and the benchings of Ismaila Soro and Albian Ajeti.
For the manager, it was about returning to the set-up from last week’s victory over St Johnstone.
He told Radio Scotland (19:21): “It’s the same team that started at St Johnstone last weekend. I thought Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard dovetailed quite well, particularly in the second half up there.
“Scott Brown has been in good form, he got a little bit of a rest mid-week and he’s back to start tonight.”
So there you have it. The first half has been less than inspiring, but hopefully we can kick on after the interval and get the job done.
In other news, this was the Celtic fan reaction to tonight’s lineup.
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