So this is what history feels like.
As soon as the final whistle sounded my reaction on Twitter was visceral.
Today was all about character and going a goal down sparked the Hoops into action.
After that Craig Levein’s men were on the back foot.
In fairness the side from Edinburgh put in an Olympian effort and that global sporting event is where they might excel.
As soon as the Olympics Committee introduce Synchronised Hammer Throwing then Hearts will clean up.
Now, for the avoidance of doubt, I have several very good buddies who are Jambos and I wish them no ill will.
Moreover, there isn’t a discriminatory molecule between them.
However, there is a nasty element that follows the Tynecastle side and they would fit right in at Ibrox.
When Ryan Edwards slid the ball under Scott Bain to put Hearts one up I definitely saw a Parachute Regiment flag draped beside a Butcher’s Apron.
I’m sure the subtext of that iconography will not be lost on Anne Budge.
Moreover, there was also the chant of “paedo paedo” from the Maroon end of Hampden.
Like their Herrenvolk cousins at Ibrox self-awareness isn’t encouraged at Tynecastle.
However, today belonged to Celtic.
Nine domestic trophies on the bounce, the Treble Treble.
This represents full spectrum dominance on Planet Fitba.
I wrote this three days ago about Neil Francis Lennon and I stand by every word of it.
A source very close to the Armagh man told me yesterday about the insane rush to Tynecastle on February 27th earlier this year to take control of a squad of players he had never worked with before.
For sure, he knew Broony, Jamesy, Mikka and few others, but this wasn’t his team.
He stepped forward and he stepped up.
Neil Lennon doesn’t need to pretend that he “was born into Celtic”.
I reckon he is now a better manager than when he left the club in 2014.
Indeed, I am aware that in the last month three English championship clubs were tracking Neil’s progress.
He had to get Celtic over the line in the league and he did that.
The cup final today was all about handling pressure and he delivered again.
Therefore, this news is especially welcome.
There is no learning curve required for the Irishman as he sets about delivering 9IAR.
He’s one of the good guys and he’s one of our own.
May 25th 2019.
Now, this truly is a historic day.
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Lenny’s original appointment was viewed by many at the time to be ‘a cheap option’, his successes considered by some – usually of a blue persuasion – to be tainted due to oldco going bust and the distinct impression I got was he lost interest when he realised the board were not going to release adequate funds that would enable NL to take us further in Europe. Hats off to the man for stepping in when BR baled out however I do feel Celtic could just as ‘easily’ saw out the Trebe Treble without a manager at all. We haven’t seen post-BR Celtic perform the way Lenny had Hibs doing and I fear he will bring back the distasteful and unwelcome sideshow that folows him, wether he warants it or not. Of even greater concern is a remark attibuted to Lawell that claims the team doesn’t require some major restructuring.
I know we can take SMSM content with an unhealthily sized ‘punch’ of salt, with their talk of gaps being closed (?) and sevco being ‘three or four’ signings away from presenting a credible challenge – that’s becoming like Livepool’s “This is our season” and I’ve lost count of how many signings they’ve had – but the fact remains it was complacency last summer that prevented us from seeing that gap opening wider than The Great Rift Valley. I’m having a sense of deja vu here which isn’t leaving me how I should be feeling a mere two days after securing an historic and unprecedented Treble Treble.
Neil Lennon, yeah lot of respect for him, but he will not take us further, Lawell is a sneaky rat, waited for the season ticket money and it was Neil all along. What is that tin rattling, oh I remember.
Got to laugh at the hammer throwers comment with Brown in your team. However a great achievement ruined by cheating should be the headline.
Winning a penalty when the keeper doesn’t touch you, but you sling a leg out to initiate contact is a disgusting movement from an otherwise great player.
The biggest problem is the officials, how the GFA thought putting Collum in charge of this game shows how little the care. Even if he was squeeky clean and totally unbiased there would always be those who point the finger, and use his day job to initiate a conspiracy.
In England officials have to declare their boy hood hero’s and it should be the same here.
Oh well onto next season where Celtic will win another meaningless league.
Meaningless league, jealous.
Hail Hail 🍀🍀🍀
Clarke would have been my choice. By a distance. Basically the board
had 3 choices. Lennon, one of the names put forward in the betting,
Moyes etc, or a continental coach with a local assistant (the Jansen
model). That is a tough call I think, and we could argue the pros and
cons all day. There is nobody like Rodgers available to Celtic at the
moment. Mourinho? Having said that I doubt Lennon will succeed. I
remember Delia’s comment on the fitness of the squad which he inherited.
That is just unacceptable, and the rumours are he is making the same
mistake. I would be surprized and delighted if he lasts until Christmas.
Strange how the ”West of Scotland Issue” reared it’s ugly head with a loud rendition of the Billy Boys as soon as the tarts scored their goal!
I also wonder what the reaction to the NFL appointment would have been had the tarts deprived us of the treble treble, which they could have as we were utter rank yesterday.
NFL is the new manager but we still have the same old PL for whom every pound is a prisoner and that’s what worries me more.
R.I.P. the great Harry Hood. HH
It’s 11 years since Rangers, either version, won a Scottish Cup, 9 years since a league title was won, and 10 years since a League Cup win.
Dave King can attempt to downplay Celtic’s historic achievements as much as he wants with his claims that Rangers were not in the SPFL for 4 of those seasons.
They also never competed in the CL this season. Does that stain the achievement of whoever lifts the trophy this season?
Suck it up Dave, there’s more to come and one more season living in Celtic’s shadow will be a season to far for your fans.
Whose fault was that Davie….you can’t blame that on the Broonie, try SDM!
Let’s not forget the players whose contracts were lodged with Bryson over at Lodge Hampden, minus details of the EBT paynents which should have seen any match played by a recipient reversed with a 3-0 win to the opponents.
A dozen plus trophies should have been stripped and awarded to the runners up if the SFA had the guts to follow their own rule book.
Lets not forget the infamous brown envelope years as the English internationalists signed up at Ibrox because they missed the European competition denied them following Heysel……aye right!
Well put Hail Hail
I said last week that I would have preferred a new ” big name” manager if only to put the fear into Sevco….and further impress our superiority over them.
Well…although I don’t think Lenny’s appointment will over worry them ….there are positives to take from it…and the biggest is continuity.
There is no doubt that he is better equipped than anyone to take us forward without disruption. He knows the workings of the Club inside out and appears to have the backing of the players…which is crucial.
He is also a genuine Celtic supporter and we shouldn’t forget that.
The Board now have to back him big time and avoid a repeat of last summer’s disaster.
Its only my opinion…but….and notwithstanding PL’s comments yesterday… I suspect he has known about the outcome for a wee while….because he has been involved in identifying players he thinks should come in…and those who should leave…and you don’t get to do that unless you’re in charge.
Anyway it doesn’t matter when he knew…he’s got the gig if he wants it…and I wish him all the luck in the world.
Oh and I have to draw your attention to a certain greetin’ faced blogger who operates a Pay Per View site…
I suspect he is now screaming at his ” well informed Celtic source” who assured him that that Moyes was the man for the job and that Lenny was toast.
I’m advised that the mis-informed and ill-fated article has been removed.
Will he apologise…?
Don’t hold your breath !!
Re JJ – in fairness to him, not only has he apologised, he’s offered to retire from blogging! xD
But yeah, you’re correct, the evidence has been judiciously removed…
I wonder how many like me paid him ‘a one off payment’ of £25 for a password which he duly revoked a while back. Charlatan
As the Drama Queen might say…
“Colour me surprised.”
Hail Hail
Phil,
We all know how The Bears like to complain about BBC bias, but there was definitely an anti Celtic agenda at work on the BBC Scotland page over the weekend. On the day that the Prime Minister announced her departure date, the BBC Scotland main headline was about the “Celtic abuse regret…” This story was the lead article for well over 12 hours and was clearly designed to take the shine off of the Triple Treble attempt.
Then today, rather than the winning of an unprecedented 3rd consecutive domestic Treble being the lead story they ran with a story about banning fizzy drinks in hospitals.
A friend of a friend was recently approached by one the Scottish medias “cut and paste” brigade asking if he had “any dirt on Celtic”.
This for me confirms that every News Room in Scotland must have one of those motivational posters on the wall that reads “If you can’t write something positive about the Ran*ers, write something negative about the Celig”.
Hail and Hail again !
I was going to reply to M Gove but thought better of it.
Lennon left 5 years ago because Rankers were nowhere, there was no budget to spend and the board were happy to chug along and try their hand in CL as NL had proven he could get us through on a shoestring.
Different times now, different priorities, back aways we were no even think 9 or 10iar
Today we are, NL is a more mature man, better tactician who had us chasing our tails against Hibs and if he’s going to sign up with the rumours about the big names we canvassed held any truth he’ll be looking to be backed as much.
No bedding in needed, paring knife already keen, loans to depart with a few others to come in we already own, I for one am glad there’s no uncertainty.
If my wee brother lived closer he’d be looking in the mirror this morning nursing a blackened eye for the vitriolic pish spewed about NL not being wanted by a majority.
Can I steal one of slippys comments and make it our own?
Let’s go? 9 in a row.
Hail hail
In fairness to your wee bro, there was a poll done on Kerrydale Street two weeks ago for new manager preference. ( I’m not a poster there myself, but I guess it has to be the biggest Celtic fan forum online. )
Lenny racked up just 2% (two) of the popular vote.
So while I hope any vitriol was directed at the board rather than NFL (who is blameless in all of this) – factually speaking, your brother was very much correct in his claim that Lenny was not the choice of the majority.
Of a fans forum, not exactly a fair representation. Most of the guys I know said Lennon all the way
Phil, any word on Maxwell signing up for an O level basic course in English?How excruciatingly embarrassing to have your level of educational attainment revealed in public to be less than that of a 10 year old in primary school.
Though I doubt if, like his brothers in arms, Petrie, McCrae, Fleming and Bryson, you could mark his neck with a blowtorch.
Once again the question is what attributes does Maxwell bring to the job as Chief Executive Officer of the dear old SFA?
Answers on a post card please.
Ah but Phil, don’t you know that statistically Rangers would have won the league if the games duration was only 80 minutes!
Oh dear if this is the type of claim they are holding onto in desperation.
As for Hearts and Levein where do you start.
At the kick off for the 2nd half the ball was immediately passed back to be launched out of play as far into Celtic territory as possible. Ditto at the kick off after the equaliser.
It’s a useful and normal tactic in rugby union but an indication of Levein’s tactical nous…zilch.
Phil your right Lennon is one of us. That’s the only reason he has been given the job. It’s so PL can be the head of recruitment and director of football.
Can you truthful say Lennon would have been in the frame for the job if BR had stayed until the cup final yesterday.
Remember Lennon left the last time because he said he was bored with the job. He expected to get a good job down in the EPL. He ended up at Bolton were he failed.
Will he get to choose his own backroom team , or with keeping with the cheap option will Kennedy be his assistant and duff first team coach.
If he’s that good a manager , how come Hibs replaced him with a better manager.
If he’s that good a manager why are the only group of football fans who are fully behind this appointment sevco supporters
All credit to Celtic for the treble treble. But we gave them a shock and two bad mistakes made the difference.
But why, oh why, are street traders allowed to sell the union flag on match days ? It was embarrassing to see my fellow Jambos wearing them. Be unionists if you must be, but don’t lower yourselves to level of the new team supporters,
Street Traders should be avoided at all costs Clubs have shops and the money in the shops stays in the club!
Even @iboaks😂
Big THANKS TO BRENDAN RODGERS HH
The Rebel Treble
Well that was great while it lasted.
About an hour’s worth of jubilation, quickly replaced by something near to fury, when the new manager was announced.
A few hours ago it looked almost impossible for anyone – SFA, referees, Sevco, anyone – to endanger 10 in a row.
Now the Celtic board, in their shameful short-sighted parsimony, have done what none of the Club’s worst enemies could – and delivered a sledge-hammer blow to that dream.
Even the clueless Gerrard managed to comfortably outwit Lenny last time out – and we can expect more of the same, under a manager whose idea of tactical mastery is “4-4-2 and get in about them lads”, and then off down the pub.
I’m out, before I say something that will make this post unpublishable. Shameful, shameful day – that should have been wonderful.
What an absolutely clueless comment.
Neil Lennons preference is for 3-5-2,3-4-3 or 4-3-3.
He’s been upfront and honest about the fact whilst we have been successful (on the Domestic front) deploying 4-2-3-1 for 5 Seasons teams have now worked us out.
He also stated to change anything BEFORE the League and Cup were secured would have been higher risk than just leaving it as it was.
His record against both Celtic and Prentendgers was excellent considering the disparity in both wages and quality available to him at Hibs.
He lost his entire Midfield in the Summer ffs!
Can you imagine if we Lost Brown McGregor and Rogic all at once
And were forced to scrape around the backwaters of the backwaters to find replacements?
Neil Lennon is a shroud,Pragmatic Manager who will alter setups to suit whatever environment he finds us in.
This approach took us to the last 16 of the Champions League previously and he is way more experienced now.
He also has way more money to spend than previously (Which was 40% less than Rodgers had btw) and is far more focused in the Market.
The state King Rat left us in the Treble was far from nailed on.
Yet here we are with a historic Treble,Treble and 8 in a row -4 of which Neil Lennon put in the Cabinet btw.
Neil is THE best candidate for taking us to 10.
He’s been there,done it and has the T -shirt(s) to prove it.
Yes, that reference was confusing. I didn’t mean to imply he’s stuck in a Mike Bassett 4-4-2. I was referring to how – in sharp contrast to Rodgers’ rigorously researched tactical talks – Lenny had a documented preference for simply announcing the formation and telling the players to get on with it. Sometimes leaving them needing to consult Mjallby, Thommo etc to find out what position they were supposed to be playing in!
That how he managed to tactically mastermind a last 16 appearance in the Champions League?
Brendan Rodgers inherited a side who had been playing 4-2-3-1 and a high press for two years under Ronny Deila.
All Brendan did to change it was start playing out from the back and retain more possession or as he put it “Death by football”.
The 7-0 drubbings at the hands of Barca and PSG were certainly a Death by football right enough.
He deployed the same tactics at St.Johnstone as he tried to against the likes of PSG and Valencia.
Jock Stein used to trust the Lions to alter things on the Park if they deemed things were not going the right way.
As professionals with experience they should be allowed to do so if they deem it is not quite working out.
Sorry, but today was wonderful. Neil Lennon was, is and always will be a Celtic legend. I think the offer of manager going forward is a retrograde step by the board. The Rodgers appointment was a step up from the norm and most fans expected a similar appointment now. Neil has a couple of days to consider things. I hope he makes the right decision. For him, and for Celtic. HH.
The irony is, of all of us, Lenny is the one this crazy appointment is unfairest to.
Like yourself, I still hold onto the hope that he will consider it and turn the post down.
And then when he is formally appointed, I’ll hold onto the hope that he won’t be signing Gary Hooper or Steven Fletcher, and starting with Mikael Lustig and Jonny Hayes in the full-back roles next season, and building the team around Scott Brown rather than CalMac.
But in all of this there’s more hope than expectation.
Mind the Door doesn’t hit you on the way out. Bye!
Michael Gove is not the type we have to win over, rather, the scum we have to be rid of.
More of a Theresa May fan then, Padraig? Nae luck, mate. xD
In Neil’s defence, he took over a relatively successful celtic team. They were not firing on all cylinders at the start of the season under that other fella that used to be the Liverpool manager, but Lenny came in, took the tiller, and steadied the ship. We may not be sailing “full steam ahead”, but at least the ship is afloat still.
Lennon’s real work begins now, building a team for next season. He will know who he needs to let go, who he wants to stay, and most importantly, who he wants to bring in. Next season, the ongoing success of celtic is really down to the board and Dermot Desmond making proper funds available to Neil.
We are celtic supporters. We have class. Unlike the klan, we do not turn on our manager when times are troubled – we stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
You say, “when times are troubled”, Steven – but that’s just the point. Why the hell should times be troubled? We’ve won 8 in a row and 9 Scottish trophies in a row – we have a huge financial advantage over our domestic opponents, and could easily have afforded a substantial, ambitious managerial appointment. Why jeopardise something of such huge importance? This trouble is being brought on us by ourselves, or rather by the board’s failure to appoint – and, if Peter Lawwell is to be believed, even to so much as *interview* – an ambitious, forward-looking, modern manager.
I should stress I’m not at all a “Lawwell-out” broken record – I’ve often defended him in the past. But I now have no expectation that the board will provide significant funds for player acquisitions in the summer. If that was their intention, surely they would have started by spending generously on the most important part of the jigsaw – the manager?
All we need now is for them to reappoint John Park, and we’ll have taken a full decade of a backwards step into the past.
( Incidentally, the thing about Celtic supporters standing by the manager while the hunnish hordes turn on them is an inversion of the reality. Rangers-Sevco stuck with the utterly clueless McCoist a mind-boggling 4-and-a-half years – beyond all reason and sanity. Whereas ex Celtic stalwart Tony Mowbray didn’t even last a full season, largely as a result of Celtic fans going apeshit demanding his removal – very little shoulder-to-shoulder in evidence there, if you remember. Even I thought he should have been given another transfer window. )
You sound just like one of “them”… with a sense of entitlement that we should never be troubled. In football, absolutely nothing is guaranteed. Tiredness, injuries, and suspensions all play their part in slowing down our onward march. We were beaten twice by sevco this season, more so because tiredness has crept in due to the number of games we had to play, and the short summer breaks over the past few seasons.
So, you would rather see the board bring in a Benitez, Mourinho, or whoever with a top-quality pedigree, but absolutely no clue what celtic is all about? Neil Lennon not only “gets” celtic – he knows exactly what 10 in a row means, and he also fully understands the entire history of our great club. If you cannot give our manager your 100% backing, you are not (and never were) a celtic supporters in the truest and purest meaning of that description.
It WAS wonderful…. for an hour !
another one who has swallowed the psyop completely!
Hear Hear Phil.
Absolutely 100%. I cannot believe the negative and in some cases, shameful, reaction by some in the Celtic support over Lennon’s appointment.
I Hope he goes on and shuts all the doubters up and makes a few in the blogosphere to eat several large slices of humble pie.
1NFL…….with him and behind him all the way.
Hail Hail
so do I but he is not what I was expecting especially after BR.
but I will support him….HH