NEIL Lennon, the Celtic midfielder, has suggested that he is considering moving from Glasgow after vandals daubed a death threat on the road outside his home.
Police have confirmed they are investigating the threat, and a number of sectarian taunts that were painted in yellow on the street, in capital letters more than 18ins high, in the west end of the city. The graffiti included the words: ''You are a dead man Lennon.''
The latest abuse directed at Lennon, which occurred sometime overnight on Saturday, is among a spate of sectarian abuse the 32-year-old Northern Irish player has had to contend with since he joined Celtic from Leicester for a fee of (pounds) 5.8m in 2000.
The suggestion by Lennon that he could move home following the latest incident will fuel speculation about his future with Celtic and raise the possibility that he could move back to the Premiership in England when his contract expires next month.
Commenting on the graffiti last night, the midfielder, who last week was voted Player of the Year by Celtic supporters, said: ''It's disgusting. I was
appalled when I saw it. It is so blatant and scrawled over the road.
''The first I knew of it was at 9 o'clock this morning when police came up to my door to tell me about it. They asked me if I wanted to make a complaint and I said 'yes, I would'. The people I really feel for are my neighbours, who are all really lovely people, having to put up with this.
''I'm seriously thinking that I might have to live somewhere else. There was a similar incident last week when some thugs thought they'd spotted my car, though it was someone else's and they daubed 'fenian' all over it.
''I don't feel I can have my neighbours being constantly subjected to this. There are kids living around here, so what are they going to think when they see stuff like this?''
A spokesman for Nil by Mouth, the anti-sectarian pressure group, said: ''The treatment suffered by Neil Lennon since he has been playing for Celtic has had a large sectarian element to it. Hopefully the latest culprits will be arrested by police and charged under the new aggravated religious hatred legislation.''
Death threats by loyalist supporters in Northern Ireland led Lennon, from Lurgan, to
quit playing for his country in 2002.
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