Neil Lennon **The Official Thread**

There is absolutely no one who could motivate the players. It goes against everything we know about motivation. How motivated would you be at work if you new that no matter how well or poorly you performed on a day to day basis the workplace would be fine?

He inherited one the worst Celtic squads in my lifetime from Mowbray. He rebuilt it entirely and we're seeing the best of that now with us once again being back at Europe's top table.

 

Spot on Markybhoy, a fan, and a supporter, are supposed to stand by their team, and that team includes Neil Lennon, who has just taken us to glory again by winning the League, taking us to the last 16 in the Champions League, guided us nicely into the Scottish Cup Final, took us to League Cup semi-finals, stood up for the Club at every turn, fought against vile evil threats from the creepy crawlies, stood proud to be a Tim though didn't he. Some of you lot on here, should hang your heads in shame

 

Spot on.

Obviously a lot of the results of this season have been unacceptable but the fact that we have won the league before a ball is kicked is the prime reason for that. Absolutely nothing to do with ability, tactics or anything like that. Not saying it is right but it's a plain and simple fact.

 

Why do you want a manager that is in this situation?

Would you not rather have a fully experienced one?

 

He's already proved he's good enough to manage Celtic and the likelihood is he's only going to get better at the job the longer he does it.

Why wouldn't I want him as our manager?

 

How do you work that one out? If I were manager of Celtic I wouldn't act like a * on twitter arguing with huns and dismissing every Celtic fan that doesn't happen to have a pair of *.

If I were manager of Celtic and I'd received parcel bomb threats from filthy hun scumbags I certainly wouldn't walk out onto the field at Ibrox a few days later and entice them by covering my ears. What was up with him simply ignoring them? Is that too much to ask?

I take ned back. I'll call him an instigator instead. And for the touchy souls amongst us, that isn't me implying he "brings it on himself". The treatment he's received in this country at times has been disgusting. That treatment doesn't make him exempt from criticism though.

I think he's arrogant. I think he's a tactical nightmare. I think he's threw away several trophies in charge of Celtic. I think we could get a better manager. I think to finish with the lowest ever points total for champions in the SPL this season is an absolute disgrace. I make no apologies for any of my opinions. If people disagree then fair play, that's what forums are all about.

 

If someone had sent me potentially viable explosives through the mail I sure as * wouldn't be "ignoring" them!

 

Well for a start I want a manager who knows how to conduct himself on and off the park in an exemplary fashion. As manager of Glasgow Celtic FC I would think that is a prerequisite.

It now looks like Lenny's big mouth is going to get himself banned from the Scottish Cup Final now. He just can't help himself can he ?

Don't you think these lengthy suspensions and seats in the stand that Lenny is incurring is having a negative impact on himself and the player's performance on the field, think about it ?

Don't you think he is cutting his throat by this indiscipline, and setting a bad example to the players and squad by being unruly and objectionable ?

And what club in the future is going to want to employ Lennon as a manager with a record like his ?, think about it ?

 

It's not a fact, it's your opinion.

Lennon's failure to give them a good kick up the * is huge contributor to the situation on domestic front. It doesn't matter whether the league is done before the season even began, players have the responsibility to play at certain level.

And yes, tactics and subs have were a factor as well.

 

I think he's proven himself to be an average at best manager at an absolutely massive club with next to no competition.

In a season without the huns to have finished with the lowest ever SPL points total for champions is an embarrassment. The excuses like we were taking it easy and only focusing on Europe don't wash. Every big club has to contend with Europe and domestic matches.

He moans constantly about inconsistency. The inconsistency perhaps stems from the fact he never plays the same 11 in successive matches.

Tactically he's proven to be inept. Yesterday when we're 3-1 down he brought on an attacking midfielder and put him at right back. He put the right back at centre back. He put the centre back and centre mid and put by far the best centre mid in the country at centre back. Stupidity.

His decision to play a bombscare like Ambrose after just stepping off the plane against Juventus was embarrassing. The final was on the 10th of Feb and our game was on the 12th. One of Juventus' key men had arrived back from the ACoN a day before Ambrose did and wasn't even in their squad for obvious reasons. Lennon's risk would have been understandable if it were a world class player who we could not function without in a game of such magnitude but a mentally and physically exhausted Efe Ambrose? Again, stupidity.

Don't necessarily agree with the thinking that like a youth player he'll progress and get better. That's not how it works. Sure, you get more experienced but experience doesn't guarantee ability. Besides, experience is irrelevant if you don't actually learn from it. For what it's worth, how experienced do you need to be as a manger to know that a player playing in Africa on the 10th of February shouldn't be playing against Juventus on the 12th of February? How experienced do you need to be not to make the tactical changes he made against Motherwell on Sunday?

 

You'd entice them instead? You'd stir it up even further?

I'm not saying ignore the bombs or the scum who sent them. I'm saying keep your head down, be the bigger and better man and show them up for what they are. Don't walk out onto the pitch at Ibrox and revel in the bile. It does nobody any favours.

 

I disagree with all of this bar the twitter point, but you have a right to an opinion and rather than it being "a * disgrace" I think it's important that people don't just toe the party line.
I've never bought into this "how dare you say that to/about a fellow Celtic supporter" pish that dominates a lot of disagreements on here. If you want to voice a particularly strong opinion that doesn't fit what the most vocal on the forum think, then do it.

I don't think the league campaign would have gone any better unless we had someone like Sir Alex Ferguson. You can be sure he'd have the players motivated enough to win every game, but the fact is we could never get a manager who absolutely commands that level of respect, of which there are maybe 10 in the world. I don't think Lennon could have done any better with some of the half hearted performances of the team, and I can see why he didn't drop them too.

 

I don't necessarily believe that the abject performances this season are primarily down to Lennon not being able to motivate the players. The actual performances at times have been poor. Slow, side to side passing with next to no creativity in the middle of the park to break down sturdy teams who come to CP with the intention of parking the bus and leaving with an 0-0. Don't even get me started on the defending. Motivation is certainly a factor though where he and the players need to have a word with themselves. I've paid over a grand this season for ST's, packages, cup games etc and they've been putting in half arsed performances in pretty much every domestic game? It's not on.

With no rangers, a poor SPL and a good Celtic team, I've got to question why they weren't motivated to go and have a season for the ages. Dominate everything in sight. Put on a show for the loyal fans.

Why? The lack of title competition should have saw youth get prolonged runs in the team. More so when the more senior players have been putting in performances unworthy of a place in the team. Obviously we were going to win the league anyway so why not make a point out of the slackers? Why not give someone else a deserved chance? It sends out the wrong message that you can * about in the domestic matches and keep your place.

 

We're going to sell a few of these players in the summer, and dropping them will lower the asking fee we can get. It's basically play Hooper every game and try and get 7-8million, or drop him for his half hearted performances (where he's still scored a fair number of goals) and only get 3 or 4million. Likewise with Wanyama except we'd be losing out on about 8 million by not playing him.

 

It's simple motivation theory - if you're going to reap the rewards (league titles) no matter what your level of performance is then you're not going to be busting a gut when you don't really need to.

If we had a credible challenge to our title then our performances would have been so much different.

I'm not saying it's right, far from it when our players and management staff are earning obscene amounts whilst supporters spend a small fortune following the team, but that's the way it is.

If I could get away with putting in as little effort in at work as I could then I would, as would everyone else that has a job.

His unrepentant nature is one of his most endearing qualities. The fact that he has stayed in Scotland for over a decade now and faced all sorts of abuse, assaults and threats shows that he is the bigger man, and always will be. Cupping his hands to his ears during one game does not detract from that, despite what you seem to think.

 

I can see why you are upset at having paid over a thousand pounds to watch that utter dross in the league.

It's called favoritism.Lennon has his own little clique of blue eyed players whose faces fit, while players like Stokes and McGeouch never get a look in.

It's not the way a good professional manager should be conducting himself at the top level, it is all very Gordon Strachan like to my way of thinking.

 

I think this ^

negates this.

Football is much different from other lines of work in the sense that you can't get away with putting in below-par performances because in the grand scheme of things "it doesn't matter", especially from perspective of fans where it just isn't an excuse, for the reason you said (fans' money and effort).

And to me it's more normal, so to speak, to try and take as much as you can from lack of competition and give an effort to reach as highest point tally as possible than to slack off and wait for the summer to spend their 'hard earned' money on holiday.

Maybe I'm an idealist, but it's an insult to the fans and reeks of lack of respect. Of all people I'd expect Lennon to understand it the most and tell them how much they should cherish having the opportunity to play at the club like this. Apparently not, his motivational skills have failed big time in SPL this season on numerous occasions.

 

This bit especially irks me about the league season. We are miles ahead of anyone in this league yet we play such dire and unattractive football, there is no incision or variety in our play most of the time, its so predictable.

I mean we play long balls to Sammy ffs, we are Celtic not Stoke, play football on the ground and show the fans we are actually a footballing side.

I keep hearing we are this attractive footballing side but in reality we are anything but, we just have far more quality than the rest of the spl.

 

After ONLY Lennon's third season as a rookie manager with us you want him moving on?! Then what? We bring in an "experienced" manager who will go through the whole rigmarole of bringing in HIS own players and playing the way HE wants to play, basically being back to square one? So what will then happen if he doesn't deliver the Treble in his first season? Will we oust him and bring in someone else? Aye, that's all we need - a tip back to what it was like in the 90s when we were averaging a manager a season.

"We dropped 33 points." Boo-*-hoo. We still won the * league - again. Who gives a * if we win the league by the biggest points total ever or the smallest? We still WON the * thing for * sake!

"Two Europa Leagues where we got humped twice over". What Europa League were you watching? We drew twice with Udinese; drew once and won against Rennes. If it wasn't for some absolutely ridiculous refereeing we would have gotten out the Group Stages. "We were fortunate to beat Helsingborg". Really?! A 4-0 aggregate is a lucky result is it? I suppose the other work that he done in the Group Stages by beating Spartak Moscow twice - both home & away - and beating Barcelona 2-1 were all lucky as well

Also, I'm not putting down what Strachan done for us, but saying that him getting us through to the last 16 of the Champions League TWICE (compared to Lennon's ONCE so far) is hardly a "common occurrence".

I guess you must regard these two Celtic greats as not being able to conduct themselves in an exemplary fashion either



Or is it different because Stein and McNeill were "experienced" managers so it's ok for them to do things like sticking up for the team?

Aye, because he's got a mad group of players going haywire on the field every time they play, getting sent off week in, week out because they have been feeding off of Lennon's "unruly and objectionable" behaviour

Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the most "unruly and objectionable" managers in the game but I'm sure he doesn't set a bad example towards his players with his nature. Or again is it different with him because he's "experienced"?

I'm sure if Lennon was available then he could get a pick of a lot of clubs to go to. If he sticks with us and continues to do a good job and get better & more experience then he will have decent clubs banging his door down to sign him. Paolo Di Canio was booted from Swindon Town and was later hired by Sunderland and he's more volatile than Lennon, so Lennon would have every chance in the world to go to another club if he so desired.

I think some people need to give themselves a shake and actually see what he's done for the team instead of continually focusing on his "unruly and objectionable" behaviour and us got getting near 100 points every season.

I think talk of getting rid of Lennon or him moving on is * ridiculous, and I'd rather have a passionate manager like Neil Lennon in charge of the team than someone like a Tony Mowbray.

 

Can we stop bringing up the bomb threats and things in the mail, it has absolutely * all to do with his performance as manager this season.

He is on a massive ego trip, cannot motivate the team and is now starting to make a bit of an idiot of himself. He needs to go, while his stock is high enough to see him take over a decent job.