FORMER Celtic skipper Neil Lennon convinced his agent he was joining
Rangers in an astonishing wind-up.
The prankster claimed he was signing for the Ibrox side in a
50,000-a-week mega-deal.
Ex-Celts Chris Sutton, Alan Thompson and Jackie McNamara were in on the
joke.
Lennon’s Glasgow-based agent Martin Reilly admitted last night: “It was
the best laxative I’ve ever had. My gut was in turmoil.”
The wind-up happened just before Lennon played his last game for Celtic
in the Scottish Cup Final last month.
He put Reilly through hours of agony, saying he was at the Gers’ Murray
Park training ground for signing talks.
A source said last night: "Neil met up with Chris, Alan, Jackie and
their Glaswegian pal Liam Donnelly
"They phoned Martin at 8.30am from the back of a car in Dublin.
"Neil just blurted out, ‘You’ve got to get down to Murray Park - I’m
signing for Rangers.’
"Neil told him he was there with Kenny McDowall, who moved from Celtic
to Rangers as a coach recently.
"Liam pretended to be Kenny and was saying, ‘Martin, you’ve got to get
down here - we’re offering Neil 50,000 to sign for us and he’s agreed.’
“Martin was saying, ‘No, this isn’t a good move - this isn’t happening.
This is bad. There are too many problems with it. Neil won’t be able to
stay anywhere.’”
Reilly phoned Lennon back - only to be told he was dead keen on the
move. Reilly told him: “You’ll need to buy a house in Ireland and travel
back and forward to training because you won’t be able to walk the
streets if you do this.”
Our source said Lennon responded: “Martin, I can’t say no to the money -
and they’re going to double your fee.”
Reilly insisted the deal was still not worth it and announced he was
coming down to Murray Park straight away.
Lennon warned him off, claiming the Press were there and had got wind of
the deal.
He said he would phone Reilly back - but left the agent dangling for
several hours.
The source said: "Even when they called back, Liam came on pretending to
be McDowall and said it was a done deal.
"He said the Press were still there and told Martin to approach the
training ground - but hide round the corner. So Martin drove to a local
filling station, bought a paper and parked up, waiting for the call
"Finally they called and told him to proceed to Murray Park.
"Sutton was announcing, ‘Good morning, Rangers Football Club’ which
Martin picked up in the background on his phone, making it sound more
plausible.
"The other two were shouting players’ names and things like, ‘Dado,
Dado, you’ve to get in to the treatment room right away,’ to give it the
buzz of training.
"Martin just took everything in.
“The first call was at 8.30am and they didn’t put him out of his misery
until lunchtime.”
Lennon bowed out at Celtic after captaining the side to the Scottish
Cup.
He has been linked with a moves to Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and
Crystal Palace.
Reilly said last night: "They took the mickey right out of me and it was
brilliantly done.
“I swallowed the whole thing - hook, line and sinker.”
