Kris Boyd has put former Celtic midfielder and manager Neil Lennon right in his place in regards to the latter’s comments about the title race.
Lennon claimed a few days ago that Rangers don’t have the mental edge over Celtic to mount a Scottish Premiership title challenge that would topple the Hoops come the end of May.
He told PLZ Soccer: “They still haven’t got that mentality yet of squashing that hold that Celtic have over them and they need to break that if they’re going to win the league. And to do that they need to bring in either players of better quality or better mentality.”
Before we get to Boyd’s reaction, even boss Philippe Clement had his say on the wide-of-the-mark assessment. The Belgian actually thanked Lennon for providing extra motivation for his players to succeed this season.
Boyd wasn’t as appreciative in his response and within the first couple of sentences of his weekly The Scottish Sun column, the former Ibrox striker hit the nail on the head when questioning Lennon’s own bottle as Celtic manager during the 55 season.
Kris Boyd brutalises Neil Lennon
Kris Boyd retorted: “Neil Lennon says Rangers don’t have the mentality to win the title. I suppose he should know — it was only a few years ago his Celtic side bottled ten-in-a-row.
“They should have been out of sight of Steven Gerrard’s team that season. But when push came to shove, they blew it. But right now at this moment in time Rangers are very much in then title race.
“This Rangers team have given themselves an opportunity to win the league under Philippe Clement through their grit and determination to claw their way back into it.
“Of course, Lenny is entitled to his opinion. But for me it’s far too easy to question the mentality of the Rangers team given how they have responded since the appointment of Clement.
“No, Rangers aren’t going anywhere in this title race. Clement has energised Rangers. He has instilled a winning mentality already and I don’t see that going anywhere anytime soon.”
