Last night was a familiar failure at Celtic Park.
In the post-match, Neil Lennon didn’t hold back.
Indeed, I hadn’t seen him this angry since that volley at Hampden a decade ago when a complacent Celtic side was defeated in a Scottish Cup semi-final by Ross County.
The last time Celtic qualified for the Group Stages of the Champions League the then manager at Parkhead was in full control of all football matters.
Due to the nature of his moonlit departure in February 2019 his achievements have been largely banished from the collective memory of the Hoops fraternity.
Sadly, the man “born into Celtic” found out last year that he had been adopted.
However, the point remains that when a Celtic manager was in full control of football matters, progression to the Group Stages was possible.
Yes, his recruitment record was mainly woeful, with Odsonne Édouard being the glittering exception.
However, any manager must only be judged if they are in full control of all football matters.
A well-placed source within Celtic’s financial firmament told me that if Celtic failed to reach the Group Stages of the Champions League three years in a row, then it was a very serious issue for the Parkhead club financially.
That this has occurred during a pandemic only compounds that dire analysis.
Chief Executives do not play in football matches.
Therefore, the onfield failures must be laid at the door of the players and the manager.
However, having an untitled director of football has been a long-standing systemic weakness at Celtic.
It is a common theme that Celtic have not gone into European qualifications amcthes with a full sqaud.
Last minute transfer haggling has, time and again, proved to be a false economy.
You should never waste a disaster, and last night was undoubtedly that.
If there are players who have psychologically packed their bags, then it should be the end for them.
However, there are other problems further up the chain of command at Celtic Park.
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Loads of experts commenting on here, would be managers etc. Look at the facts that one person put forward.
Possession – 70%
Attempts – 28
Goals – 1
So for all the negativity regarding team selection, tactics. We had 70% of the ball, creating 28 goal scoring opportunities, and managed 1 goal albeit deflected.
They had 2 opportunities, and scored with both.
If I were our manager, I would have been f#@&ING livid as well with the diabolical conversion rate.
Robin Currie…We’ll never know for sure….but…
Would a recognised striker have changed the situation in our favour…?
That’s the big bone of contention among the support.
I will never understand Lenny’s logic here.
Hail hail
By playing either Ajeti (not fit enough to start) or Klimala (not good enough to start against the Hungarian Champions) you then have the issue of dropping one of the Attackers or Midfielders.
You don’t see the logic because you’re not a Manager at the level required at Celtic.
Neil Lennon is hence why he has won 4 League Titles and has a win ratio over 70% at Celtic.
One of only 3 Managers who have.
The other two being Stein and O’Neill.
I’m still waiting on my post from 6pm yesterday being displayed Phil
Lennon is not a great manager, in fact my granny could win the SPFL with his players and finances. However Phil, your watch word is follow the money and due to this shamdemic Celtic are in deep financial trouble. No fans before Christmas will see panic set in. Oh yes they HAD a big bank balance, BUT, they also have high earning players to keep happy and huge overheads to maintain.
This loss and the financial hit only compounds the problem. The fact Celtic are hounding the SG is proof enough. laughingly one of the two teams who have broken simple rules are the ones badgering to be allowed a test crowd. Everyone knows it would make more sense to get fans into a smaller fixture. How would Celtic decide which season ticket holders should be allowed in?
It will take a miracle for Sevco to win the league, and you have said time and again, it’s Celtic’s title to lose, they do seem very eager to throw away the title though.
Neil Lennon has effectively back tracked on his post match comments, according to what I listened to this morning.
However…the bottom line is…. its perfectly obvious that something behind the scenes is seriously wrong and it needs to be addressed and sorted …very soon.
I’ll repeat an opinion that I made in a previous post …and that is….
Every player gave their all the other night, in terms of effort and commitment…and so to my mind…this renders Lennon’s after match comments as being misleading and damaging.
We ended up losing the game for a variety of different reasons …but he was instrumental in some of them and that should have been his priority.
No doubt the Club will now want to sweep this under the carpet…and that’s what will probably happen…BUT….
I repeat that all is not well behind the scenes.
But in the good old Celtic tradition…the support will be given the mushroom treatment…i.e.
Kept in the dark…and fed shoite.
It was ever thus.
What is the point of buying so called better players when we are not beating lesser teams 5 nil every week? Celtic won the league last year because Sevco imploded and it has to be said that Lennon seems to be lucky in that respect. Lucky generals might have been good enough for Cardinal Mazarin but it ain’t for me.
Anybody else feel the goalkeeper is a tad small?
No Charlie but he was definitely at fault as well as Elhamed. There is no way he should have got the ball back across him from that position and he knew it
Totally agree with your comment…he didn’t look clever.
NOT impressed so far. We let a far better keeper go in Craig Gordon.
Everyone at Celtic Park must be smarting after the Hungarian humiliation – we were suckered in the same way that other mid-range outfits have previously suckered us, with a little too much insight into our weaknesses than is helpful and a little too much information on our tactical approach to be defensible. The deserved criticism seems to fall into three categories: people who blame the CEO, people who blame the manager, and people who blame the players. (Personally, I blame Ferencvaros for being better than us on the night.) There is, of course, eleven sub-categories where individual players are blamed, and ‘manager’ can sometimes become defence coach and attack coach, while chief exec can also include members of the board…. the simple fact is, they are all to blame, at least in so far as each and everyone of them has a duty to fans to ensure this almost predictable seasonal skelping is not repeated in other knock-out matches ahead.
I walked through Coatbridge the day after the game, past the Celtic shop in the precinct, and the Gregg’s on the corner. The drizzle that fell from a leaden sky on the shoulders of passers-by added to my inner gloom. There were few smiling faces on the damp streets of the Brig, its citizens unlikely to ever experience the riches that the average, non-playing Celtic squad player can enjoy. Yet, I am sure, not one among the town’s Celtic fans would deny any dedicated Celtic player the respect that is always due professionals who try their best to bring the results that lighten our work-a-day, or too often workless, lives particularly during the dark days of the continuing Covid crisis.
I’d therefore hope that here at least we can openly express our deep disappointment with the Ferencvaros fiasco, and share our sincere wish that everyone at Celtic Park plays their part in ensuring we can save our season by remembering they, each and everyone, are the stuff of our dreams, the light in the dark, and the embodiment of our vision of how the ‘beautiful game’ should be played. Let’s all make a start by living up to that vision again.
Contrary to what is implied here Phil, it is the managers position before accepting the role to ensure he has full control over the squad…including his input to who comes and goes.
Lennon has again failed the club because of his team selection…..his tactics….and his lack of a plan b.
There are certain men in our squad who seem to be able to gain favour with lennon when it comes to selection no matter how poor theyve been the matches before.
Playing with no striker is a no brainer when you need goals to win…..to have 2 strikers sitting on the bench and declare them not to be matchfit is a true puzzle…..if not fit then why are they on tbe bench ??
He could have played one in each half just to have a striker on there.
Instead he chooses to use a midfielder as a striker…..and it cost us.
His subsequent meltdown….after he had scuppered like a thief in the night down the tunnel….throwing players under a bus…..was contemptible…..
If his comments were indeed about Ajer and N’tcham….as has been widely reported…my opinion is that bot these players played well in the match.
Indeed, apart from a couple of no shows….we mostly had a team that played well and created enough to win that match 3 or 4 times over.
Our problem was scoring…..and not having a goalscorer on the field could account for that.
Im not convinced lennons comments regarding want away players was not directed at Edouard though…..but time will tell on that one.
At the end of the day it appears Lennon has lost the dressing room…….and after Wednesday,his marbles.
I cannot honestly see how he remains as manager……
In a 10 in a row season we cannot afford such indulgences from the manager……and we cannot have the team drifing apart because the manager makes tbe type of statements he has ….
Lennon accepted the job…..if he failed having the dilligence to ask the board what he needed too…his fault.
He had the same problems with playets at bolton and hibs……he is the common denominator in all of this…..and his antics are dragging our club in reverse of where it was a couple of years ago.
Problems with club start at top and filter down all the way to manager, assistants & players.
DD apparently loves Lawell because he runs club as a business first and delivers a wonderful balance sheet
Lawell, gets to play Stockbroker and make investment bets on players who thinks will return a big payoff down line. All he needs to do is hit on one every few years to keep balance sheet, well….balanced. But what he assembles is a squad, not a team. That’s because what may be required in the team, or is available for a given position, may not match up to Lawwells future valuation strategy. Therefore, it’s why you rarely see a true veteran plug and play player brought in -easier and cheaper to do a quick 1 year stop-gap loan deal.
Lenny appears to be manager because Lawwell likes him, knows he’s loyal and he doesn’t interfere with Lawell player investments, sorry squad additions. For all his faults Lenny’s heart bleeds green. Unfortunately he is what he is as a manager and tactician. Not the worst by any stretch, but simply not good enough for what Celtic need.
What is it our coaches do? Anyone know? For the life of me, I have never seen worse group for trying to cross balls in. Is that practiced at all? Doesn’t matter if it’s by someone on the run, corners or free-kicks. The attempts never seem to be near our players. Defencively, we are all over the place, and rarely seem to be on same page. Same goes for marking at corners, headscratching most times.
As for the players, they appear to fall into 3 categories; Lenny’s clique that he loves and will play no matter what; the group that have to be showcased to make sure their value is retained or increases; and then last, the group on the fringe that Lenny appears to have exiled and will only ever play for a couple of minutes at end of games or if an injury.
Whether this is due to Lenny not rating them, don’t fit his system or doesn’t like because he didn’t ask for them to be signed is anyone’s guess and will vary with each player. Players will always want to move on when it’s a case of making more money, so I don’t blame them for that. I blame a manager for continuing to pick them when their not 100% committed. Not whining about it after the fact.
How all of this ever gets fixed is up to one person and one person only – Dermot Desmond. So long as he is happy with his investment manager, Lawell, nothing is going to change. I’m an older fan, so I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly over the last 50 years. I also know that this groundhogs day ineptitude is going to continue until DD, or the fans, take action on it. I’m not holding my breath!
Peter…I am also out of the old school…( saw my first game at CP 65 years ago )…and like you…I’ve seen it all.
But what I want to do here is…compliment on your post.
You have covered everything that I feel is wrong with the Club…and you have summed it up perfectly.
I won’t go over the points you made…I’ll just say…
Well done.
Hail hail
Yes,to confirm terencenova remarks,Peter,I’m sure you’ve commented before here and I’m a wee bit younger still but,if it’s the same Peter,your comments are always insightful and this one is also pointing out the personal and personnel angle of both non/playing staff.Bigger picture observations,if ye like.
’Aye,ye cannae beat an auld heid!’ a saying well used in Auld Caledonia,springs readily to mind.
I think Phil was right when he outlined a few weeks back that the only thing preventing Celtic winning the 10 in a row was Celtic themselves—we’ve had the Bolingoli debacle a lacklustre,to say at least,performance versus Kilmarnock another poor performance v Dundee Utd and the hugely dissapointing result last night.
Neil Lennon threw his players under the bus but he works with these same players everyday surely he can see their body language their persona who’s committed and who’s not got his heart in it..why play them then??
I believe our back four is the root of the problem.
John Kennedy is our defensive coach..that is obviously not working well at the moment..and were it not for big Fraser last year the defensive frailties would have been even more evident…our centre halves lack confidence are easily bullied and when turned are in serious trouble. Bitton should be picked over Ajer all day long – young Ajer’ heart ain’t in it anymore. Frimpong is an outstanding talent but stills a young boy learning his trade. Julien for me will be much better having a tough uncompromising centre half beside him he gets pushed around far too easily.Duffy be a good signing if it happens and give us the solidity we crave at the back. Taylor? I don’t know the boy tries hard but jury’s out to his credit he’s probably our best defensive performer so far this season and that says something…. we need to sign a leader at the back a solid experienced international centre half..ASAP.
All I’ll say about Taylor is…
His final ball attempts are shocking…no other word for it.
I coached and managed at a decent level…and if a player had ” shortcomings” then we worked on it tirelessly until it was sorted.
What do they do at Lennoxtown ?
It maybe Lenny’s fault for not playing a striker from the start BUT that team last night had plenty of time on the ball and couldn’t come up with anything. Much like they have been in the league this season, they had bad first touches, the link up play in the last third was woful. They lost out on countless 50/50 challenges when it mattered the most. It was like they thought their opposition were just amateurs, they showed them no respect what so ever. At 1-1 most of us were probably wondering who was going to get Celtic’s next goal. Unfortunately most of the celtic team were thinking the same and started getting careless again about doing the basics like organising a defence for a throw in.
Hopefully we can offload a few to balance the books and keep a hold of Eddy. But in all honesty I can see Eddy away with the first bid of 20/24 million and a over the hill has been Premiership player coming in on loan to keep the fans happy and Lawwel’s driveway heated for another winter.
We can play in Europe every year, but there is only one Ten in a Row.
The fact we had 70% of the ball and created 28 chances against the Hungarian Champions in the Champions League seems to have escaped a great many.
We had enough chances to win two games.
Many also seem to run this level of opponents down?
They took their chances when they dropped amd we didn’t.
It’s that simple.
Tactics and team selection allowed us to have the ball for 70% of the game,dictate the play and create 28 chances.
Not Lenny’s fault that our players failed to convert only one of the 28.
These type of stats are generally reserved for SPFL cannon fodder NOT League Champions from Europe.
Would you agree that a recognised striker may have put away some of the chances we created.?
Or are you ok with Lenny’s selection as was..?
Hail hail
I would contend that Klimala is nowhere near the level yet required to start against a team who are Champions of Hungary in a must win game in the Champions League.
I would also contend that Ajeti is nowhere near fit enough to start a game at this level and so therefore given that our two first choice Strikers are/were out injured it made more sense not to start those deemed fit enough to start on the bench .
By playing Klimala that would mean dropping one of the other Attackers or Midfielders.
It was the Midfield and Attack who started the game who DOMINATED the play and produced the chances.
We have proven goal scorers throughout our side from back to front so the onus must be on them who failed to finish 27 of the 28 chances created.
The stats from the game are the type you would expect after playing the likes of St Mirren NOT the Champions of Hungary.
So therefore common sense decrees that the formation and team selection weren’t the issue.
HH
Further to that we had 64% of the ball v Dundee Utd,created 23 Chances and scored with only 1
Édouard was on the pitch for 86 minutes.
Ajeti was on the pitch for 25 minutes and got the winner.
Again as was the case v Ferencvaros he wasn’t deemed fit enough to start.
In the game against Kilmarnock we had 70% of the ball,created 17 chances and scored with only 1.
Édouard played the entire game and failed to score,Klimala had 30 minutes and failed to score.
Christie scored our goal.
In these 3 games combined we had created 69 chances to score and converted only 3 goals.
Ajeti scored 1 and Christie the other 2.
All 3 Strikers featured and of those only Ajeti managed to find the net poaching the scraps from a Christie effort on goal.
These are factors Lenny had to work with leading up to this game.
It’s all one putting 5 and 6 past the dross in the SPFL and the part time teams in Europe but when it comes to playing teams who can defend and actually hurt you in attack you need to be putting chances away when they come.
They did come.
The reaction to losing is of course to be expected now at Celtic.
But the ferocity to this loss is WAY over the top I think and much of it unwarranted when you strip back the game the emotion and look at what transpired.
It is my opinion that the success gleamed over the past 9 years has manifested in to a state of entitlement for some.
Comments like “we should be putting sides like this away” or “losing out to sides with less finances “ don’t come into it at this stage of the Champions League.
We shouldn’t really be paying our players as much as we do or spending upwards of a couple of million bringing them in playing in a poorly funded League such as ours.
We do for the simple fact is we are competing on our border with the richest League in World Football and as such can’t even match mid table Championship Clubs for wages let alone the money ball wages in the Premierhype.
Leagues in Scandinavia or Hungary ,Bulgaria etc don’t have this same issue and so therefore the markets they shop in or pay wages in don’t cost anywhere near the same as ours.
This does not mean they don’t produce players or Teams who cannot compete with an over paid Club like Celtic in Europe.
Clubs like Ferencváros are not Champions for no reason.
If you look around the top Leagues they have a smattering of players in them from the regions these same Clubs play their Football in.
Some of them play for the top Clubs.
Very few players from Scotland make it that far up the food chain and It has nothing to do with Finances but everything to do with ability.
Some of us need to take our head from out of our posterior and realise that Celtic is no longer a Champions League level Club.
We’ve been absolutely battered in there in recent years.
Become the whipping bhoys to Europe’s Elite in some very embarrassing cases.
The Europa League is now our level but even then when we reach a certain phase it then becomes a genuine test.
Meanwhile in Scotland we saunter to title after title with the odd blip or poor performance which is to be expected as the players aren’t robots.
Every game Or point needs to be fought for regardless of opponent.
I judge the team on each performance for this reason.
I also take into account the opposition and the threat that they have.
Ferencváros done to us as we did to Barca previously under Lenny.
They soaked up pressure ,got lucky on the night with uncharacteristic poor defending and scored a winner on the break.
We mugged Barca on the night and of it hadn’t been for Forster it could have been very different.
The way Ferencváros celebrated the win tells you all you need to know about how that game went.
Many of those putting the boot into Lenny never wanted him back.
Have had to bide their time to put the boot back in.
I have no doubt that a few are huns simply at it as they see a way in to cause problems for him and us.
Some of our own though and especially those who run blog sites need to take a good look at themselves I think.
Not one of them has had the pressures Lennon had had to deal with.
We obviously have players at the Club who want to move on.
Players who have absolutely no interested in 10 in a row ar what that means to many of us.
Is he right to call them out?
Go read Steven Pressley’s remarks on that.
I always believe at Celtic Europe should be our benchmark, and a team should look to write it’s own part of it’s history. However this season is unique. It’s once in a generation stuff. The financially doped old rangers* won theirs. Growing up through that, it was horrific and now we stand at the precipice of La Decima
If there are incumbent players not committed than NFL, is quite right to call them out. He needs warriors and fresh minds to impress on this season. The players look jaded, and something has to give. Either way sacking a manager now won’t be the answer, there is 5 weeks of a window, we’d probably lose more than we could bring in. and end up with John Kennedy as Head Coach
The planning of the board is one thing, and whilst a CEO life cycle should be around 3-5 years, we should be actually grateful, we don’t have the fantasist of the blue room. For this season at least. Fergus McCann paraphrased it best : top dollar the lot of them including the management and the board if they can not commit
It has the feelings of coming out of Motherwell in 05 and wee chesney’s Artmedia debacle…..jaded squad, players looking to bounce and we had to win the league and take on a rebuild.
Nevertheless, Celtic improved under Strachan, leading the SPL by as much as 20 points at one point despite playing with a defence that came under regular criticism from the media and fans. Rangers* were in turmoil as Alex McLeish lurched from one disaster to another. Sevco, are a a couple of results away from how we are feeling.
Not all went Celtic’s way, and another low-point was the shock defeat in the third-round of the Scottish Cup to First Division Clyde on 8 January 2006. However, the following month his team made history when they beat Dunfermline Athletic 8-1, a record victory margin for the SPL. Over the period after beating Rangers twice in November, the First Team went through a poor spell for two months where they went behind in too many games, but thankfully we fought back to recover.
Worse was that we kept on conceding goals in all the games. It was not until Celtic played against Rangers* in mid-February that we had a game that they didn’t concede a goal in.Celtic were winning games but the weaknesses of the side was beginning to be seen.
An important point that has to be made is that this was a season of transition, and anyone taking over from Martin O’Neill as manager was going to have a hard task in front of them (a lot to live up to). Spats with Sutton and Agathe, saw both leave prematurely yet both could have contributed more. On the other hand, the players have to take in that the old regime was over and you have to understand and work with the new regime.
With the less than stellar playing achievements of both after leaving Celtic, maybe WGS was right. Sutton in particular can be a prickly character and not predictable, so maybe it was best to move him on. I’m sure Eddy would be an exception but for every VVD or Wanyama there is a Sheffield Wednesday or Hull City Celtic star. I get 9iar was probably transition also, but with the Pandemic, the break up and restart it’s lingered. If Celtic can get their act together this won’t be 10 – it will be 11, 12 and maybe more, the next phase is just beginning.
We have seen this movie Bhoys, Keep the Faith.
The first goal we lost was horrendous. A pack of clustered amateurs, slower on their feet than a week in the jail, showing no spark of nous about the dangerous situation, toddle out in harmony, almost in slow motion, and watch as we lose a wholly avoidable goal.
Rodgers signed Dembele, Sinclair and Edouard who all were/are outstanding successes and will make a vast profit, even with all the flops he signed.
I also like Ntcham but he’s wasted with our tactically inept manager but will also make a substantial profit if sold.
Who has Lennon signed, since he returned, who’s been an outstanding success?
I can’t think of any and, sure, some have been good in flashes eg Frimpong and perhaps the most damning evidence is the legendary status El Hamed was getting when he was out of the team hitting cold reality of last night in being no better than any other defender.
Also Rodgers was great at rehabilitating and developing players eg Armstrong, Brown, Forrest, who were ready for the scrapheap before he came in, along with most of their team-mates to then be turned round immediately into Invincibles.
Who in the current team has developed under Lennon?
The only one I can think of is Edouard and I’d say that Lennon has had next to no effect on that.
Blame lies squarely with NL for last nights fiasco. Team selection,tactics, formation, all his doing. We should have won by 3 or 4.
Now that the CL noose has been taken off, it’s time for 100% attention to be on 10iar.
The team is nowhere near CL quality,being ONLY engaged in domestic competitions can truely return and get THE TEN.That has to be priority FOR EVERYONE,we may never get the chance again…
IF a we had to choose between qualification from group stages CL,or quarters in Europa OR THE TEN
For every right minded Celtic fan would choose THE TEN.
Yes,we would be a better team if we reached the other choices,CL n EL,but,reality is we would be put out in one of the following rounds,anyone believing anything else is dreaming and deluding themselves.
The team choice was woeful,that’s NFL’s team,and I said NO changes at h/t will result in us going out,and it did work out that way,no striker from start spelled it out clear as day.
Can you imagine how many goals we would’ve lost to a top CL team? That’s frightening.HUMILIATED
Lennon selected Christie as his striker.
He’s the manager and knows a lot more about football than the average punter like myself.
But, what got me shouting and, swearing throughout the game was that our striker for the night continued to take the corner kicks as usual – and into the second half.
That’s as nonsensical as having Eddy on the pitch as our man upfront – and Lennon insisting that he takes all the corner kicks!
So, who took the corners when Griff was sole striker?
Talk about naive, with 15mins to go against a team who broke with pace, we leave a player on the park who has already been booked, marking their paciest attacker. Our paciest full back, Frimpong was left on the bench until we were behind 2-1 Elhamed couldn’t bring the goalscorer down outside the box as he was already booked ,he should have been subbed earlier.
Quite simply, ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’ … For the things Lenny gets wrong, I can forgive him, remember what Pope said, “ To Err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine”. I can’t think of a bigger Celtic supporter than Lenny, and for all his failings or indeed his accolades, he feels it, just like the rest of us only for Lenny he has a more personal, probably distressing version when it goes wrong.
Not many men can say they have fought the war Lenny has fought and faced, and to keep on coming back with his whole soul in it, how can you condemn him?
The board, no comment, what’s the point, they do what they do. Some people should face the fact, Celtic is not a champion’s league team, it is an indulgent distraction and nothing more than a shop window for the want aways.
Now may be a good time to read, “An Essay on Criticism” by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) most illuminating, and as they say, it covers a range of good criticism and advice, it may well calm some in doing so… Including Lenny….Hail Hail
Groundhog day indeed. The situation at CF is bizarre. There was 2 of them. Give them 45 each. Not only that Christie was the only player who could have broken the line from a midfield position. Ludicrous. His comments after the game were horrendous. To whom was her referring? Whatever we make of these players none of them have whined for a move in public. In private? That is their business but I am skeptical even of that. Was he referring to Callum? Who knows. He needs to keep calm. If we had VAR we would have been through. But the Dundee Utd game showed the problem. Yes some lax finishing like last night. But in the first minute Utd put a ball in that Julienne just got to and would have resulted in a goal. In the first minutes of the second half Ntcham put a similar ball in and no Celtic player was within 6 yards of it. When you have the bulk of possession you can afford a central striker. Or two. That decision beggars belief, it really does.
You pride yourself in being an objective journalist Phil and on nearly every occasion “call it” right. However, in this case you are very far from that. The manager maligned 13 professionals and pointed the finger at honest players within the team who admittedly didn’t perform- disparaging the honest pros along with the so called culprits. If there are a few who don’t want to be there, then name them or better still don’t select them. Lennon’s team selection was a disgrace – playing a midfielder upfront when he had 9.5 million pounds of striker on the bench – two strikers he bought and one of whom won the points on Saturday.
He has refused to accept the blame and threw the players under the bus and I believe he will have lost the dressing room. I believe he lost the plot because Eddy is off to Leicester as a result of the Chilwell transfer going through and was conveniently injured last night. Lawwell possibly put a block on Eddy playing so as not to jeopardise the sale.
The manager’s selection and unwillingness to change it till 79 minutes (Ajeti) was shocking but his post match comments were disgraceful. I consider you an excellent journalist Phil but I think your loyalty to your countryman has influenced your “piece” today.
Surely we have a duty to criticise when we feel our club has failed because of stewardship whether that be Lennon or Lawwell or both.
Your unwavering support for Neil Lennon does Celtic no good Phil and this attempt to spread the blame around even less so. Celtic failed last night because Neil Lennon failed, he spectacularly failed to pick the right team, he failed to bring in the necessary personnel, he failed to motivate his players, he failed to stop the team sheet being leaked and he failed to take the action that everyone watching could see was necessary.
Have other key figures at Celtic failed? Yes, most of all Peter Lawwell by consistently hiring the wrong manager, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a pattern under Neil Lennon and it’s unacceptable.
Lennon has been a great servant to Celtic and his place in our history is secured but that doesn’t mean we have to let him threaten this most important season with a disastrous failure that would wreck more than his reputation, and is avoidable if the right action is taken.
Celtic have regressed under Lennon. At this rate I don’t just fear losing 10IAR, but being well beaten by Sevco in ALL Glasgow derbies this season. Lennon does not seem to learn from his mistakes and his tactics and judgement are predictable. Most teams in the SPFL now know how to play them.
Sorry Phil, I know you are a big fan of Lennon, but past achievements as both player & manager are that, in the past and he is not the man to take Celtic forward.
Some may not agree, but we need someone of Bendan Rogers calibre and we need it soonest. The season is young, make the change NOW and there is time to ensure we make the history we all crave and not witness an epic failure.
To put it in modern parlance, i think it’s time we unsigned the manager. When we lost to Cluj it was ‘just one of those things’. When we lost at home to the slack jawed yokels just weeks after being overrun by them in LC final you start wondering if the manager’s up to the task. When we lost to Copenhagen it was clear that NL was out of his depth, which is, in hindsight, when we should have told him his time was up at seasons end,…And now this latest debacle with team selection, tactics and after match comments. I can’t see why he can keep his job.
But to be fair, Lawell must take his huge share of the blame and cease this preposterous waste of money on ‘development players’. We always claim we are a well run club…WE ARE NOT. Shved; 2 million wasted..Bayo; 2 million wasted. Soro and Klimala; 5.5 million wasted and that’s just 4 players which if i understand correctly our manager(s) never had a say in their signings.
He wasn’t out of his depth first time round against Barcelona. Or last year against Lazio.
Last night Celtic were in complete control of that game when they equalised and for some completely inexplicable reason the PLAYERS, not Lennon, dropped the tempo and allowed the opposition to get a second wind. It was akin to having a boxer on the ropes, waiting for the blow that he knew would finish him off, and just stepping back.
The blame for last night’s defeat should be laid firmly at the feet of the players. The attitude and application of a number of them was appalling. They are highly paid professionals, supposedly, but the kindest description of them after the way they took the foot off the pedal, is naive.
This is all on Lennon, he should never have got the job in the first place. The change needs to be made now before our season implodes.
Surely then its all on Lawell – the poor mans jock Brown
Bring in a new manager now and the ten dies three games in.
Europe is a complete irrelevance this year. NOTHING matters but the TEN.
Achieve that and sevco have NOWHERE to hide. We’ll have the Consecutive Titles record back. We’ve done the European Cup. We’ve done (at least) a Triple Treble. We have ALL the One-off Trophies. We’ll be within a couple of seasons of the dead club’s Scottish record number of trophies.
They will have NOTHING to brag about.
Screw Europe this season it’s an irrelevant distraction we DON’T need.
Some of the ideas elsewhere in print bear thinking about.
Was Edouard left out to prevent him being cup tied by another club with available funds? Losing a possible £30 million in CL money by leaving him out? That means his transfer fee would only balance the books.
2CFs in the dugout but only match fit for the bench? Signing policy always leaves the team sort and unprepared. Was Craig Levein picking the team?
Surely the speed of the FV attackers was no surprise, but not catered for.
I’m sorry, but Lawell never picked the team on the night, but his long term influence on signing policy lets him down
Edouard played last week!
Uefa did away with the ‘cup tied rule’ a couple of years ago I think…
Playing in the qualifying rounds doesn’t cup tie a player in either the Champs League or Europa League proper.
Brown, Taylor and Forrest can’t be anywhere near Celts in big games. Will cost us . HH
If certain players want to go, why were they picked last night. Ajer instead of Bitton for instance. Personally I prefer Bitton. As for two strikers not being fit enough. We’ve had Klimala since January, according to all reports he trained like a bear during the shutdown. Yet he’s not fit enough. Exactly what are the trainers and manager doing? Another weird line up, another defeat
Ajer was one of the few successes last night. Big Julie is okay in opposition boxes but a powderpuff defender when put under ANY kind of pressure. Elhamed was worse than a man short last night.
fault lies fairly and squarely with Neil IMO.Look at the defending at the first goal-appalling.WTF were the players doing while Broonie is trying to mark two players by himself?Who coaches these players?Second goal was equally bad.Undoubtedly playing in the SPFL doesnt help players to improve,the opposite actually,however basics should be the minimum at least.Dreadful.
Where to start with this clusterfuck last night..!!
Let’s look at the no striker issue shall we? Klimala will never make it at Celtic and I’m gonna put this out here….Ajeti has had roughly 25 minutes in a celtic top and if I can remove his fortuitous goal against united, he has looked worse than Du Wei at Broadwood stadium.
I am not surprised Lennon didn’t start them both last night….
Taylor at left back is bang average for me, he has minus pace which is a joke.
Scott Brown’s legs have absolutely gone
Rant over, hail hail
All down to NL. Bad tactics & subs too late. It’s disgraceful for a manager to come out and blame an individual player for a defeat. He more or less laid the blame at Elhamed (Under the bus anybody). Yes he was at fault for the second goal but he had no support and Managers always make an excuse for the player. Lennon never accepts he might be to blame for any poor performance or defeat.
What about John Kennedy, he’s supposed to be a defensive coach but Celtic always defend corners poorly and have lost a goal in nearly every game played. Funny how when BR left and took so many backroom staff with him he never took Kennedy.
Kennedy kept the head down when Ronnie left too and managed to escape any criticism. How he has managed to be at the side of the pitch all this time is anyones guess. Does anyone know what he brings to the squad?
NL was appointed with one objective , take us to 10IAR. It was a pragmatic but not a progressive appointment. Hiring the ex Bolton and Hibernian manager was always going to have the risk of potential disappointments and it’s probably no surprise that most of the disappointments have been in Europe where tactical naivety is usually punished. However , a progressive manager will learn from mistakes whilst some continue to repeat the same. At Hibernian NL rounded on his players when the focus was on his management and it appears that this mistake has been repeated. The last time it cost him his job , what might the stakes be for Celtic this time around? The risk to 10IAR is NL and not Peter Lawwell!
The disorganised signing of players is an issue. What is Lennons real position, is JPK the boss and Lenny the front man. There is no direction at signing players, Turnbull, we need a central defender. We lost aJohnny Hayes, Sinclair all good players that would have made a difference last night, but that was penny pinching. As for the ticky tacky football that is purple, it allows defenders to take their shape. We have lost to a Cluj Copenhagen and now Ferencvaros, caught out by long balls and defenders not concentrating.
Lennon is not without fault in this. A lot of fans are now fed up with the hagiography surrounding him: he is just as at fault as the CEO. The CEO, of whom I am not by any stretch of the imagination a defender, did not pick the team or set out the tactics for Cluj, Copenhagen or last night. Lennon is making the same excuses as he did at Hibs and doing exactly what Gerrard does by throwing players under a bus. The difference is you mock and criticise Gerrard but for you Lennon is beyond reproach.
I agree with your last line Maimonides, not one word in the article about dreadful team set up NFL. Not the quality we need.
This is Lennon’s bag, simple. He had the resources on the pitch and bench and didn’t deploy it’s that simple.
To be frank I couldn’t give a fuck for CL, yes it’s a nice evening out or a jaunt to Europe but in my mind and plenty of fellow supporting friends minds the 10 is what we want this year.
EL will do as a wee evening walk along the Gallowgate for me.
Hail hail
Squarely with Lennon. His after match reaction was both damaging and embarrassing.
Agree 100% forget Europe this season it’s the 10 that counts
If that’s what you want Bandito then you are easily pleased. Beating Sevco should not be limit of our ambitions. The team is in poor shape, in poor spirit and the manager doesn’t really have any new ideas. Team selection last night was shocking and basic defensive errors (again) cost us dearly. PL knows the ten is enough to keep many fans happy and is not interested in investing to do any better.
PL is not daft. No matter what the fans want, he is running a business with shareholders to keep happy. SO does he spend Millions winning a league that virtually no one outwith Scotland cares about, simply to get one more step up the Euro ladder, or does he do just enough to keep winning a diddy league and keep his shareholders happy?
No Scottish team could justify spending huge sums trying to compete with the big Euro teams and no matter how much they moan about the gulf in finances, it directly compares to the gulf between Celtic and the rest of Scottish football. So there is no way anyone can justify complaining about the gulf when a similar gulf stops teams competing with Celtic.
Take your medicine and be happy with winning the league as that is all you have. Finances are tight ( see my other post ) so suck it up and focus on stopping Sevco.
No offence, Bandito, but that’s the kind of backward mentality that holds us back and allows our CEO to do things on the cheap.At the start of this and every other season our main objective should be CL group football.
You guys are totally entitled to take a position in anything I say, granted.
For me, sometimes ambition can dull the senses to what’s happening in front of you is all I’m saying. 10, for me and a few friends is our only ambition this year.
Screw the EL this season as well. The10 and NOTHING else matters this season. We can think about and concentrate on Europe forever after this season. This is the only chance we’ll have at the TEN.
WE MUST TAKE IT.
I’m generally not a believer in short term aims. But this season, much like 97-98, IS an exception. ONLY the Title matters.