THE REAL NEIL LENNON

ONE of the reasons why I find Neil Lennon such an engaging character is how his flashes of honesty can wrong-foot you.

One such occasion was when I gave him an ''out'' when interviewing him in Denmark after he had played in an already qualified Celtic side, beaten 3-1 by FC Copenhagen in a Champions League dead rubber.

Lennon was having none of my suggestion that it was hard for a team to peak when the job had already been done. Instead he was brutally honest in the way he was critical of the team's performance on that cold wet December night in 2006.

Now, cast your mind back to just over three years before that, to May 2003, and the bitter twisted view taken by Chris Sutton when he unleashed what many believed was a libellous rant the day Rangers beat Dunfermline 6-1 at Ibrox, while Celtic could only win 4-0 at Kilmarnock - missing a penalty.

Those results, on Helicopter Sunday Mark One, meant  Rangers won the SPL Championship - the 50th time the Ibrox club had been crowned kings of Scottish football.

Sutton's remarks, live on television, and for which he never apologised personally and without reservation, were to the effect that Dunfermline had lain down to Rangers.

The Fife club's manager, Jimmy Calderwood, board and players were advised of their right to recourse to m'learned friends, but chose not to.

What also emerged at the time was a propoganda deluge, claiming  Rangers only won the title because Celtic had been distracted by their run to Seville and their losing appearance in the UEFA Cup Final.

Such was the extent of this non-stop barrage in newspapers and on the airwaves, those with Celtic DNA tried to make everyone believe Celtic winning nothing was preferable to Rangers not only taking the title, but making it a clean sweep of honours, for a seventh Treble.

Somehow it even managed to plant some sort of seed in the mind of Rangers manager, Alex McLeish, who later cited Celtic's European involvement as being a factor in the title ending at Ibrox.

Now fast forward to Lennon's press conference with Sunday newspapers on the Friday before the first week of this season's Champions League campaign.

The Celtic manager was asked about how Celtic's absence from European football would impact , and perhaps boost, his team's SPL chances, with the reporter who asked the question reminding Lennon of what McLeish had said.

However, Lennon, with a flash of that honesty which helps make me find him so engaging, not only shot this down, but became the first person associated with Celtic to give Rangers their long overdue due for winning the 2003 Championship.

Big Eck, as Lennon referred to him, had been wrong to belittle his own team's achievment by citing Seville, and, also according to the Parkhead manager, it was quite an achievement, given the calibre of the Celtic team McLeish's men pipped at the post.

A week later and Lennon again refused to duck a contentious issue when confronted by daily hacks interviewing him on his 100th day as Celtic manager.

The elephant in the room during each of those days had been Lennon's admission in his own book, that he suffers from depression.

One cowardly Silly Billy of a so-called reporter had tried to be a smart arse in the way he alluded to it when he wrote about Lennon's state of mind in the wake of Celtic's Euro exit. I felt incensed at this shabby treatment.

The Daily Record's Hugh Keevins, though, is no coward. Hughie is always up front and never afraid to step into the firing line to ask the difficult questions. And they don't come any more awkward than asking a man to discuss his mental health in front of the nation's media.

Lennon, wrong-footed everyone by neither brushing the politely framed question aside, or growling at the questioner. Instead he took the opportunity to confront the elephant in the room and remove its tusks.

Lennon spoke of everyone having some cross to bear, and this was his, and went on to say that since becoming Celtic manager he had not had time to feel depressed.

It was a bravura performance by Lennon and Keevins, and did much to enhance the reputation of both in their fields, unlike the view taken by many of the Silly Billy and his sneaky sniping.

Of course Lennon isn't everyone's cup of tea, and during his award winning seasons at the heart of the Celtic midfield for Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan there were many of a Parkhead persusion who questioned his contribution.

The same people are now less than happy with his appointment as manager.Though, as many of these folk also did not like Strachan, because of his lack of a Celtic background, despite his three-in-a-row achievment , it may be safe to say you cannot please some of the people any of the time.

It is easier to see why Lennon's reputation is lower across the city with those who follow Rangers, with many of them citing an alleged rant at them during an Old Firm clash at Ibrox.

Certainly Lennon has behaved with less than dignity during some high tension head-to-heads with the team he loves to best the most. But that's in the heat of battle.

Away from it he is different, and there was even the infamous occasion when O'Neill grabbed him round the neck after Rangers had won at Ibrox, and led him on a walk of defiance to the Celtic supporters, when Lennon looked both bemused an uncomfortable.

No doubt there will be other times when he does himself less than justice when the battle fever is on him.

However, none of that can take away from what I have found to be his honesty, and for being the first man from Celtic to admit that Alex McLeish's Rangers deserved to win the SPL Championship in May 2003.