Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton is known as something of a controversial pundit. However, he is usually able to keep the Bhoys’ fanbase happy, at least.
However, that may prove a bit difficult in this particular incident, owing to the fact that he has now taken on the – ahem – Bhoys’ fanbase.
Yes, that’s right, the former England international, who wore the green and white hoops with pride for several years, has launched an attack on the club’s fans.
The ones, at least, who are refusing to give manager Neil Lennon a chance. In his Daily Record column on Saturday, Sutton targeted ‘the Groan Brigade’ who are up in arms after just two competitive games of the new season, which both happened to be victories.
As Sutton says: “The negativity from a large section of the support who didn’t want Lennon was probably inevitable but it will only have an adverse effect on the team and the club as a whole.”
Here is what the Celtic fans thought of his column:
https://twitter.com/Brig1888/status/1152465353584381952
https://twitter.com/DeclanCarroll94/status/1152549259335671808
https://twitter.com/Turlough_OCoinn/status/1152502839748546562
The above trio of tweets demonstrate that some of the Celtic supporters are willing to give Lennon time to see what he can do, but believe he is being hamstrung by the board’s lacklustre transfer activity so far this summer.
The problem for the Hoops at the moment is that when they look across town to the blue half of Glasgow they see a squad that has improved ten-fold from last season, whereas the same simply cannot be said about Lennon’s team.
With that said, it may be fair to levy criticism at the board, but if that’s the case then the manager should not be used as a punching bag for something that is out of his control.
https://twitter.com/liamd07/status/1152487296702328832
Celtic have exactly the same base that has won 9 trophys in a row, christie is going from strength to strength, rogic will hopefully be fully fit this year, we have a new centre half, Griffiths back and scoring, I fail to see what the panic is about,
— cornelius mc gee (@cornelius_mc) July 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/BBrackenridge/status/1152469707867512832
The above Celtic supporters clearly come down on Sutton’s side of things. They didn’t necessarily want Lennon as Brendan Rodgers’s replacement, but they are willing to give him time before making a more reasoned judgement on the Northern Irishman’s second stint in charge of the club.
As they mentioned, he’s done precious little wrong so far, guiding them to the league after coming in mid-way through the last campaign and making a winning start to pre season.
Where are you seeing this “ridiculous negativity” Chris? I’ve not witnessed any at games. A few on social media who wanted a “big name” but that’s it. A minority
— Michael Callaghan (@MyTownLand) July 20, 2019
At the game on Wednesday night when the team got announced …the loudest cheer was for the manager .. Neil Lennon ..so I don’t know where this is coming from Chris ?
— rhebel* (@celticbhand) July 20, 2019
Then there are the Celtic fans who simply flatly disagree with Sutton. They believe that there hasn’t been overt negativity towards Lennon, or that if there was it has now subsided.
One supporter believes he heard the loudest cheer on Wednesday for the manager himself, which would certainly indicate that any negativity Sutton has seen has come from the oft-more-vocal contingent of online supporters, rather than those who actually go to the games at Parkhead.