Craig Levein reckons Neil Lennon's outburst at his press conference was a 'last stand' for the Celtic manager.
The Parkhead boss reacted angrily to the criticism his club faced following the controversial trip to Dubai.
Lennon believes Celtic have been unfairly treated by the likes of the media, pundits and the Scottish government after two positive tests were confirmed following the warm-weather training camp to the UAE.
But former Hearts boss doesn't believe his rant was solely to do with the backlash of the trip, but a culmination of factors, which has been a dreadful season for Celtic from start to finish.
He said on the BBC Scottish Football Podcast: "I feel a bit sorry for Neil in some regards.
"I just think this season has been incredibly frustrating for him.
"Go right back to the beginning where Bolingoli disappeared to France, which caused some problems with their form on the field.
"It disappeared for a fairly long time, he was just getting that back together.
"I think the trip to Dubai was a huge mistake, I think somebody above Neil or somebody from the government should have said, 'there's a potential for disaster here and they shouldn't be allowed to go'.
"I could understand Neil desperately wanting to go because it's worked for him the past couple of seasons.
"And he would see that as the catalyst to bring the players together and hopefully kick on in the second half of the season and try and catch Rangers.
"But that press conference... for me it just summed up how awfully bad things have gone for Celtic.
"He says there's one in 60 (tested positive) and halfway through the press conference it doubles!
"So he's sitting there in the press conference saying it's one and halfway through he's got to say it's two.
"That's ludicrous."
Levein reckons everything that has gone wrong for Celtic this season just boiled over for Lennon.
He added: "For me, this is about Neil getting to the point where he's probably just about had enough.
"That's what it sounded like to me.
"I think he's firing bullets in every direction, a last stand.
"I feel that he's at the point where everything that he does at the moment doesn't seem to work for him and that for me was the sound of somebody who's exasperated.
"I'm not so sure it's scandalous.
"Maybe some people have been over the top and kicking him when he's down."
