John Barnes has defended Neil Lennon and insists he's doing the best job he can at Celtic.
The former Hoops boss believes the current manager is doing his best to protect the reputation of Celtic by refusing to name the 'mitigating circumstances' he mentioned earlier this week.
Lennon admitted it's been a tough season off the field as well as on it and the Celtic Park side sit 15 points behind rivals Rangers at the top of the table.
But Barnes believes Celtic fans should be thankful they have Lennon in charge to keep the club in a stable place during a misfiring campaign.
Barnes was speaking to BonusCodeBets and said: “At a club, if there is any unrest or upheaval as we’ve seen at Celtic this season, as a manager you do not want it to get out, as it can cause even more problems.
"If you look at social media and the reactionary world we are in, everybody is so involved with everything.
"You don’t want to have messages out there that players are unhappy, and people fighting in training, standoffs with the board etc, it’s not good to bring all this to the surface. Neil Lennon is doing his best to protect the reputation of the club.
"Unfortunately for him, what will then happen is because he’s not making an excuse, it’s then his fault as a manager, and people will go for him. Managers must be very careful that they protect themselves, but also the club and the players. If most managers were to come out and tell the truth about what goes on in clubs, it would be very unstable and not be good for success.
"Neil Lennon has to protect himself or everybody's going to be blaming him without knowing the story of what's actually going on in training Monday to Friday, so it's a bit of a tell-tale sign of the club’s current affairs that he’s saying ‘mitigating circumstances’ which he can't discuss. It’s not always just down to the manager.”
