Neil Lennon

And plenty have been overly critical despite what is actually a difficult set of circumstances.

He’s inherited a winning team, but one that has been reasonably turgid for the vast majority of the season. It’s a side that’s looked like it’s needed freshen up for about 18 months now, and pretty much everyone would agree will need significant personnel changes this summer. Besides that, it isn’t exactly a side that’s noted for its tactical flexibility - they’ve spent almost three years learning a particular playing style, that has broadly been very successful domestically at least - and people are surprised when Lennon can’t kick it in another gear in a couple of months, without adding any of his own players.

He will have to more than grind out a few results to get the job on a permanent basis. He’ll need to sector the treble, and he may well need win at Ibrox too. Keeping in mind Rodgers performance there this season, where we were fortunate to leave without a hiding, that isn’t an easy task.
He will undoubtedly get some goodwill in terms of what he accomplished last time, and quite rightly so. Nobody has a signing record on par with Lennon’s in the post-MON era. When you’ve got a squad that needs strengthened quite significantly this summer, that’s no bad thing.

 

People are making out we should be thankful he came back to help out.
The facts are he had no job, the timing was right, I can assure you if he was still at Hibs we probably wouldn’t be having this debate.
He walked away before as well, I know the circumstances were different to BR but nevertheless he did.
I love the guy but was worried the first time he managed us, about the pressure he was under & would take this into consideration as well.

I have changed my mind now, after the recent performances. I was willing to give him a chance (although I couldn’t affect the decision) I want a better manager now for Celtic, I want someone between him & BR or better than BR I don’t want NL.

 

He beat Hibs at home - so did Rodgers.

Hey beat St Johnstone away - so did Rodgers.

He beat rangers at home - so did Rodgers.

He beat Dundee away - so did Rodgers.

He drew with Aberdeen at home - Rodgers beat them.

He beat Hibs away - Rodgers lost there (to a side led by Lennon nonetheless)

He beat St Mirren away - Rodgers drew with them.

Hey drew with Livingston at home - Rodgers beat them.

So looking at the exact same fixtures over this season alone, and bearing in mind that this is a team created by Rodgers over the course of 5 transfer windows, backed in the transfer market to an extent we’ve not seen since the MON days, their records are:

Rodgers:
W - 6
L - 1
D - 1

Lennon:
W - 6
L - 0
D - 2

Sooooo.......

:lenny1:

 

There you have it. Call off the manager hunt. Lennon is better than Rodgers.

In fact, wait a minute.

Lennon drew with Hibs away at Hearts - Heckingbottom won.

Lennon lost at home against St Johnstone - Heckingbottom beat them away.

Lennon lost away at Livi and drew with them at Easter Road - Heckingbottom beat them away.


Let's just skip Lennon and go for Heckingbottom.

 

An unnecessary *-post.

We have people here saying even comparing the two - lennon and Rodgers that is - is ridiculous. It clearly isn’t the case.

Lennon is better at aspects of football management than Rodgers believe it or not, just at Rodgers is better at aspects of football management than Lennon.

Their results this season across a combined common 8 fixtures demonstrate that their results domestically this season, using a team created by Rodgers, are actually very similar.

 

A *-post? Tell me the difference between what you posted and what I posted? Both are comparing two managers at the same club and their results this season.

Rodgers is a far better manager than Lennon. Just because they had some similar results doesn't change that fact.

 

Exactly. A lot of people forget some of the real turgid football we played under Rodgers. Some of the football was really boring at times and as you point out the matches Lennon has played vs Rodgers against the same teams is pretty similar. The big difference and what marked Rodgers out as top class was when it really mattered domestically- when we really needed a performance in the cup especially he pulled it out of the bag. More often than not we won well on top of that. But performances in the league have not regressed under Lennon. They have stayed pretty much the same.

 

It uses a smaller sample size, disregards the fact that Rodgers team is basically designed to fit one very specific style of play, and ignores the most important fact - Lennon actually was manager here at one point and did an excellent job whilst here.

With Celtic, Lennon has demonstrated a better ability to setup a team in Europe than Rodgers and a better eye for a player than Rodgers. He’s done this with a significantly smaller budget than Rodgers, and whilst inheriting a * horrendous Celtic side.

In the interest of balance, Rodgers has demonstrated a quite significantly more consistent domestic record than Lennon.

 

Never mind all this * for tat, if Lennon wasn't a Celtic legend he wouldn't be anywhere near the job looking purely at his managerial credentials.

Watching us get humped time after time at Hampden and throwing a league title away at ICT last time was enough for me. Lennon' stock has fallen dramatically since then and we should be aiming for better.

 

Hmm. 2 out of 9 domestic cups. The 2012/13 European campaign was fantastic but an outlier. Played some very good football, played some abysmal football.

Certainly wasn't excellent. Particularly when you consider the strength, or lack thereof, of the league for half of his spell.

 

If Lennon gets the job he’ll get us playing well and add some quality (hopefully), but we wont dominate and smash every team, it will likely be a long season with some * games where we struggle.

He clearly doesn’t know what his best team is just now, doesn’t help that a lot of our forwards are dipping in and out of form.

I hope we look at other possible managers but ones that have proven track records not a project manager. This is the trouble, I think we’ll go for Lennon because we know what we will get instead of taking any risks when we will be going for 9 in a row next season.

 

Lennon would be a risk. He has lost league titles here, he won 2 out of 9 cups here. He had us 15 points behind in November at one point. His Hibs team were in free fall before he was shown the door. Lennon can be great when things are going well and is capable of good things as a manager but equally his teams can be rotten and can go through patches of form that can and have cost titles. He is the very definiton of a risk.

 

Absolute nonsense. Lennon did very well as a manager here before and did very well with Hibs before this season and even then things were not as bad as made out. Making out he is only here cos he is a club legend is nonsense. His previous record here stands up to scrutiny despite your 2011 ICT swipe.

 

Lennon

League: 3/4
Cups: 2/9
Champions League group stage: 2/4
Champions League knockouts: 1/4
Europa League group stage: 0/2*
Europa League knockouts: 0/3

Domestic record:

P197 W148 D25 L24 W%75.1

European record:

P36 W15 D6 L15 W%41.7

*without the Sion reprieve

Rodgers

League: 2/2
Cups: 5/5
Champions League group stage: 2/3
Champions League knockouts: 0/3
Europa League group stage: 1/1
Europa League knockouts: 2/3

Domestic record:

P128 W103 D17 L8 W%80.5

European record:

P42 W16 D8 L18 W%38.1

There is a fairer comparison of the two.

 

So when you post similar and use it for your argument it’s evidence Lennon is the right man for the job but when Doofy does it it’s unnecessary and shitposting?

 

Lennon isn’t a risk, we have a far superior team that will be added to. He lost 1 title considering he took over from Mowbary in March that hardly counts, then finished 1 point behind after many * ‘honest mistakes’. And considering he turned that whole squad around he done well also being his first full season as a manager. Then not to mention his European record better than the rat.

I do agree about the cups, he too often took them too lightly but there’s a new winning mentality within the team now that can use just needs to get them motivated again.

And yes the football isn’t always great but he gets the results.

 

Promotion from the Championship and a 4th-place finish?

Tommy Wright secured three consecutive 4th-place finishes and won the Scottish Cup with St. Johnstone. Should he be in contention for the Celtic job too?

 

It’s beyond doubt that Dermot Desmond would pick Roy Keane.

 

That is the ultimate fear.