The latest player drama to hit Celtic boss Neil Lennon is young midfielder Armstrong Oko-flex apparent dig at the Celtic boss’s substitutions and miming the lyrics “I don’t know why I came”. This is not the first time the youngster has been in trouble because of his social media activity but is this yet another example that discipline at the club is gone?
It can all be traced back to the start of the season where Leigh Griffiths reported for training after lockdown unfit and overweight. The striker was left behind for a series of friendly games and has so far had bit parts to play this season. He then held a house party in August for his girlfriend where social distancing rules appeared to be broken. Although Celtic held an investigation and it cleared Griffiths, the media exposure at such a sensitive time does the player and club no favours.
Then Boli Bolingoli’s infamous trip to Spain where he broke all quarantine rules and then played in a league match against Kilmarnock. The incident received such coverage that the Scottish Government stepped in and forced a postponement of Celtic’s game against Aberdeen the following week. Bolingoli was subsequently loaned out and it is likely his career at Celtic Park is over.
And just this weekend, defender Shane Duffy, was at the centre of an Instagram storm where he allegedly was accused of antagonising Celtic fans with a “middle finger emoji”. Duffy claimed that he just selected the wrong emoji.
There does seem to be a developing increase in player misbehaviour at Celtic that Lennon has had to deal with that his predecessors have not, and it is lending weight to those that have theories that Lennon has “lost the dressing room”.