Alex McLeish says precisely what nobody was thinking about Celtic

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It is with a heavy heart, we must announce that Alex McLeish is at it again, and by “it” we mean “speaking nonsense about Celtic”.

I’m sure Alex McLeish is nice in person. I’ve heard from people who followed Aberdeen in the 80s that he’s a genial type, who always has time for supporters. Yes, he managed Rangers, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a bad guy, necessarily.

But a bad pundit? No doubt.

In the same way we might ask the cast of Hollyoaks what they think about NATO policies, Football Insider asked McLeish about Neil Lennon and Christopher Jullien.

Reflecting on Celtic’s 1-0 loss to Rangers, McLeish picked up on Neil Lennon’s comments about missing Christopher Jullien. Lennon was perfectly reasonable to say that Celtic missed the big French defender. That’s because he’s one of our first-choice centre-backs. It’s a reasonable thing to have said.

Also, it was before the game even kicked off, and Lennon certainly wasn’t using it as a pre-emptive excuse. He was just responding to a specific question.

Yet, McLeish was unimpressed by the Celtic manager talking about his injury problems.

McLeish’s baffling Celtic comments

Former Rangers, Hibs and Scotland boss told Football Insider:

“I was loathed to mention Jullien because of the fact that he’s now going to be out for a while.

“My philosophy was always: ‘Well, if you’re not going to have a certain player for a few months, you’ve got to stop talking about it, and we have to stop making excuses about it.’

“Regardless of losing games in the past, in my career and then you come on to see: ‘Well, we missed Jullien, we missed this one, we missed that one and it just wasn’t a level playing field.’ Then the critics will run rings round you and they will not give you any leeway.

“You’ve still got to win and Neil will be very conscious of that and he’s still trying to find that perfect formula in defence between Duffy, Bitton or whoever.”

I’m not a football manager, I’ve come to accept that now. But if I was, I feel like I’d be entitled to say I was disappointed if my team had important players missing.

Jullien is a key part of Lennon’s defence, and has been since he joined for £7m (BBC). Neil Lennon isn’t making excuses when he says that it’d be nice to have him play for the side. Celtic have had injury woes, Alex McLeish knows this.

McLeish has spoken in frustrated tones about injuries during his career. A cursory web search will show that (Herald). If he never said “injuries are bad”, he’d be the first ever manager to do so.

It’s just a bit strange. It’s not surprising that pundits across the UK are finding the nearest stick to beat Celtic with. Still, it’s not really a legitimate criticism, and it makes McLeish look a bit small-time.