Being a Monday afternoon quarterback is not a good look.
Therefore, I will leave it to others to dissect, and data scrape what happened at Pittodrie yesterday.
However, when Aberdeen were awarded their second penalty, I felt that a thoroughly decent guy was running out of luck.
In the furore over the magnificent triviality of a football match, it is sometimes too easy to see that there is a human being in the midst of it.
If this chico can spot what the current maelstrom is doing to the gaffer, then others should too.
Neil Lennon stepped up in February 2019 when few others might have fancied the challenge.
The manner of Brendan Rodger’s departure was, quite frankly, shameful and in a single moment destroyed his reputation with the adoring Parkhead crowd.
I’m sure he is troubled by that fact.
No, seriously…
To take the reins with less than 24 hours before a journey to Tynecastle was not for the faint-hearted.
With seconds remaining Odsonne Édouard slotted home.
Just like yesterday, a draw would not have been enough.
It was a vital winning start for the caretaker manager.
Moreover, he did everything that was asked of him after that pulsating encounter in Edinburgh.
In his second term in the dugout, he delivered historic victories for the club that he played for and captained.
First off, he realized that this wasn’t about him and did not change a thing in the Rodgers’ regime.
Neil was quite clear that the formation, tactics, training regime would remain the same.
When he was given the job permanently after the cup final against Hearts many were nonplussed that he was the new manager.
For the record, I was not one of them.
Indeed, when he turned the league campaign around last January, I did allow myself a friendly “told you so” to some of his Celtic supporting detractors.
It is no surprise that over the past week or so those arguments are being re-visited.
Now is the autumn of our discontent.
This piece by James Forrest is definitely worth your time.
I last addressed this issue six days ago, and I stand behind this report, and I’m very happy with the integrity of my sources.
That said, I wish it were otherwise.
At the weekend, the clocks went back in this part of the world.
Of course, the Stenography Corps hope that time will be recalibrated to the early 1990s.
A hat tip to my Jambo mate Matt Leslie for bringing an inconvenient fact to the table on that score.
For the avoidance of doubt, the one thing that Neil Lennon lacks at the moment is time. and that is thoroughly unfair.
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I was dead against Neil getting the job, I felt after Brendan we should have been in the market for a top coach again.
One of my problems with Neil is his inability to get the best from players, I think Forrest, McGregor and Ajer, who were flying under Brendan and who seemed to be getting better with every game, have regressed under Neil, off the top of my head, I can’t think of a single player who has improved under his stewardship this time around, I think his tactics and team selections in big games have been flawed and I feel there is now an apathy within the playing group that has been there the whole season but peaked against Rangers and to a lesser extent against Milan and Aberdeen, this apathy may be caused by lack of supporters in the stadiums but if it is, they had better get used to it quickly. Neil’s the man in the job, he’s been tasked to win the league so let’s leave him to get on with it.
I don’t get this strange idea that Lenny stepped in at the hour of need when others would be reluctant.
Plenty of managers would have jumped at the chance of a plum job such as Celtic, especially unemployed ones.
I’d like to make 2 points in the debate:-
1) Football mates of mine are agreed that it didn’t take a good manager to manage chelsea (e.g.) after Mourinho left (was sacked) because of the strength of characters in the dressing room i.e. Terry, Lampard, Cole and Drogba. If the new man starts tinkering it’s a big gamble: best to let those characters carry on, and of course they did just that.
2) It’s no good referring to past performance because as is standard practice in the finance/shares market there is always the warning “Past success does not guarantee future performance.”. Why is it used? Because you shouldn’t be blinded by what happened in the past.
The Celtic Minded podcast of the last 2 days is thought provoking in a sensible debate. Watch it here:-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9kDb1OwufQ&feature=youtu.be
If the only support left for the manager is sympathy then the denouement must be close.
Lennon still has my full support.
I would suggest a manager that had lost the dressing room wouldn’t have a team that came back from 2-1 down yesterday with 75 minutes on the clock to make it 3-2.
Theres a desperation to our defensive play this season thats given away cheap penalties at Rugby Park and Pittodrie, the players need to stop focusing on the 10 and just go out and play their normal game.
Also, in the last four seasons we’ve dropped points against them at Celtic Park so the idea you just show up in those types of matches with the spine of your team missing and win is far from the reality.
Our fans need to stop buying into the hype about the team across the city and remember what our players and manager have achieved in the past few years.
He might have a team that can’t hold onto a lead and lose a wretched last minute goal.
Patience empathy and respect…characteristics if this site and the right response, I think, to the current difficulties. Lennon and the team deserve as much. I remain optimistic not least because of the second half against Milan and our scrape at Pittodrie. We will prevail. Hh
Lenny will get us there, the criticism he is getting is wrong. 2 goals yesterday in open play with quick passing and Rogic and griff back showed us what we had been lacking last few games. The manager has a new side and those 2 coming back into the fold, he will find his best 11 in no time and that spark again.
There is real quality in the Celtic team and I believe we will cope with Covid more than Sevco and Aberdeen. The disease will impact them as it did us thru the season.
2 CH mistakes this season have cost us 4 points. It is patently obvious however we need more goals in the team.
Hi Phil,
Hope you and the family are staying safe.
I think the panic is a lot to do with the fact the league could be called at any stage because of the Pandemic. We don’t seem to have grasped that fact. Lenny doesn’t look motivated for some reason and I feel for him. Was Strachan his choice? Is John Kennedy his choice? The management team seems thrown together in my opinion and who makes those decisions?
I watched as two of our games were postponed because of the actions of one of our players while 2weeks previously Sevco fielded a whole team that hadn’t been tested or had negative Covid results to allow them play. Again the protocols seemed to escape them. Imperfectly registered Covid tests. We had how many players ruled out of the Glasgow Derby due to the Pandemic? Ryan Christie wasn’t allowed play but Tierney was? I am not making excuses for the manager he has made some questionable decisions no doubt but I felt we were really up against it that week. I would have faith in Neil Lennon turning it around as he has done before but something doesn’t seem right with him st the moment.
Happy Halloween 🎃
I don’t think the league will be called unless at least half of it is played. If everyone has played everyone else home and away there is at least a semblance of fairness. To call it with only a quarter of the games played would be absurd.
The writing was on the wall when we failed to secure Forster (not Lennon’s fault). Then Ajeti and Duffy who have not played for a year effectively. Add the lack of a dominant central midfield player, Brown hanging out with the central defenders and Ntcham useless. That is the spine of the team. But Celtic knew that. Duffy is now a parody of himself, but it is not just him that is the problem. If you can bear it watch that 3rd goal at Pittodrie. What are Frimpong and the rest doing? He needs to sort out that right hand side defensive position immediately or he will not see out November as manager
Your support of Lennon is admirable, However even you must see he has lost the plot. A manager with the biggest budget and the best players in a league of diddies and the only team he has to compete against is neck deep in debt, yet he can’t get his tactics or his players up for the biggest game in the league.
My granny could win this league with Lennon’s resources and when he didn’t have these resources ( hibs ) he was found out, and was fortunate Rodgers did the dirty on Celtic, opening a door for his return, sadly for Celtic and their fans he was the cheap option.
BR NEVER once got the better of him in a league game, when he was st Hibs with limited resources.
I must have dreamt being at the match when we beat his Hibs side 4-2, and afterwards the ‘Real Celtic Man’ Neil Lennon said it was hard for Hibs to “play against 12 men”, insinuating we get favours from refs.
I said that day I never wanted him back.
There was also a 1-0 but why let facts get in the way.
Personally, I’ve no problem with an opposition manager speaking up for his team, irrespective of who they are and the laughable nature of their comments.
Funny how we lose 1 league game and draw another and the whole press are wanting lennon sacked but slippy g is still a worldbeater having won nothing as a manager but still gets all the praise he doesn’t deserve. When he loses to us there’s always something else printed to distract the fact he’s shite but hey hoe it will be 10iar HH