The former Celtic manager probably doesn't hate Alan Shearer for the reason you think he does - though the tasty stamp to the head can't have been very pleasant - it's the aftermath that would really have prickled the notoriously fiery midfielder. Called to an arbitration case to give evidence on whether he thought Shearer had done it purposefully - flanked by a tide of former players and managers who were tripping over themselves to say Shearer wasn't a bad man - Lennon actually called for the witch-hunt to end. Inevitably it did, but not before Lennon was cast as the villain of the piece. For some press, Lennon's reputation meant that Shearer's wayward, flailing boot - which would probably have had anyone else sent off, and would have seen someone like Joey Barton immediately arrested on the pitch - was somehow perversely deserved; that he was "asking for it". Over time, doubts would grow about the player, until it culminated in outright abuse in Scotland when he played for Celtic, and where he was accused of being consciously provocative. He might not care to admit it openly, but the whole Shearer affair fed into that unavoidably.
