Since we're enjoying a good old laugh at the "revelations" from his book, here is the next installment.
ALAN THOMPSON and Neil Lennon were as close as they had ever been during the Englishman’s two years as his coach at Celtic.
Thompson was thrilled to team up with his former
Hoops team-mate Lennon after leaving a role at Newcastle in 2010.
But by the summer of 2012 their relationship was in tatters after a sudden phone call from boss Lennon to break the news the
Celtic board wanted Thompson OUT.
The former Hoops midfielder reckons he’ll never be as tight again with his former pal.
The 47-year-old said: “At the end of March 2010, Tony Mowbray’s disastrous eight-month spell in charge of Celtic came to an end.
“At the time Lenny was the reserve team coach but he stepped up to the plate and did a great job.
“I can remember Lenny ringing me up when he was the caretaker and saying, ‘Listen, Tommo I’ve not got the job yet, however should I get it full-time I’d like you beside me in the trenches’.
“Fortunately for me, Lenny did get the job and together we were able to put Celtic back at the top of Glasgow’s football world.
“Life at that time was brilliant for me because not only was I around first-team football, I was also back in Glasgow and I was with a club close to my heart.
“The day I was fired by the club, it came out of the blue.
“I’d been to the Derby at Epsom with my wife Jo, ex-player Steve Stone and his wife Judith who were close friends.
“I just remember getting on the train at Kings Cross to go back to Newcastle when I received a text from Lenny asking if I was still in Tyneside.
“I thought that was a strange text so I said to Stoney I wouldn’t be long because I needed to give Lenny a ring.
“I called Lenny and he answered with, ‘Alright Hooch?’
"Hooch was the nickname given to me by Bolton goalkeeper Aidan Davison and it was because of the dog from the 1989 film, Turner and Hooch.
“Aidan used to say I wasn’t the best-looking lad so he named me that and it followed me around the clubs.
“Lenny calls me ‘Hooch’ to this day. He asked where I was and, if I was in Newcastle, he was going to come down and see me.
“I asked him why he would be needing to come down and see me but he wouldn’t tell me over the phone.
“He told me he needed to talk to me face to face. By now alarm bells were ringing.
“I told Lenny, ‘Whatever you’ve got to tell me then you can do it right now’.
"He told me that
Peter Lawwell and the rest of the board wanted me out of Celtic.
"It didn’t surprise me when he told me this after the drink-driving, cocaine allegations and affair. I asked Lenny what his take was on it.
“He said, ‘I don’t have any say on the matter Hooch’.
“I told him that we’re best mates and that he was the boss of a team we’d both just won the league with. Surely he was going to back me?
“Surely he could have told Peter I was an important part of his staff, but there was just a silence coming from him.
“I think Lenny must have known for a few weeks I was going to be axed and said nothing or didn’t warn me of what was to come.
“He could have given me the nod so I could hand in my resignation to save me the embarrassment of what was to come. But he didn’t.
“I told Lenny that although I wasn’t too happy with the news, I got that it was because of what had gone on in my personal life.
“I also told him not to come to Newcastle because I didn’t want to see him, and put the phone down.
"From that minute on that train, I was an emotional wreck and it continued for many years after. Losing my job at Celtic took some getting over.
“I’d never had depression before that day, but I’m pretty aware that looking back on it now that opened the door to a world of anxiety, depression and darkness.
“I was also out of work for such a long period from that day onwards and my drinking only escalated.
“I would drink to numb the pain and then spend full days in bed in a dark room.”
Thompson later got a job at Birmingham City with lifelong pal Lee Clark.
He and Lennon would not see each other again for two years.
He said: “We had a home game at St Andrews against my old club Bolton, who Neil was now in charge of.
“I’m not going to lie, I was nervous about bumping into Lenny. It was the first time we’d seen each other since my sacking.
“Before Lenny left, he shook my hand and said, ‘Give us a bell Tommo’. That evening myself and Lenny had a long chat and spoke about what really went on.
"I told him I felt like I’d been fed to the wolves.
“Lenny suggested I could work at Bolton with the Under-23s and be closer to Jo and the kids as Birmingham was a long way from Tyneside. As nice as it was for him to say, I couldn’t help thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’
“All the friendship, trust and respect had been obliterated with what happened to me at Celtic.
“I told him no thanks and that we couldn’t ever be the same as we once were.”
