Neil Lennon

No but you don't highlight it more than once then play the same side by and large..

I don't think we look that much more solid at the back but. Slightly better arguably? Yes..

Bain is still having to keep us in game's and we've more than rode our luck let's be honest. Sheep away. Hibs away. Dundee away. Killie at home straight off the head where it's been mental how we've no went behind..

Also think we look easier to get by through the midfield than we did a few month's back..

 

if its true he gives izzy a new deal then lenny shouldnt be the manager and what next give lustig and who else who is * done and wonder what ledley and stokes up to these days for * sake

 

I think people were expecting too much if they were expecting Rodgers leaving to have no effect.

Before that is not now mate. We had a season of that - the Invincible season. We can’t pretend the last two seasons has been like that year mate. You’ve said it yourself a lot of the time, we’ve looked sluggish and slow. Not all the time but it’s been there, we’re basically the same at Parkhead as we were last year under Brendan.

Better under Lenny away from home than we were under Brendan this year. I don’t think guys like Lustig, Wanyama, Van Dijk, Broony, Ledley, Sammy etc were unprofessional under him either. How have we improved in professionalism?

Diet, * knows mate but if Lenny had them eating kebabs every week it didn’t seem to effect us when we came up against the best of the best.

Even his 2nd season in the CL, we weren’t chasing shadows. We had a lack of quality that we didn’t have the previous season.

Your 3rd paragraph there seems the most unprofessional thing about Celtic in a long, long time.

 

Really? Each to their own. Think we’ve been solid at the back and barely conceding. Stopped making chances for other teams out of our own stupidity by and large and we look so much better at set pieces.

Can be a subjective thing I suppose but the stats seem to back it up as well.

 

You’re genuinely the only person I’ve saw that seems to think we’re solid at the back.

The amount of easy chances we’ve given away is worrying. Especially when we suddenly look * clueless going forward.

Bain pulling us out of a whole doesn’t mean we’re ‘* solid’.

 

Some of the results in the Champions League and Europa League proper under Rodgers were disappointing.

In terms of finishes, he has a better overall record than Lennon. We would have had no European group stage football in half of Lennon's seasons, but for a technicality.

 

Of course at the beginning and adrenaline and defiance got us through the first week..

There's been too many below par performances though since though..

It was poor at the start and it's came to light why since with the snake and breakdown. Post January though we'd been excellent at home, which is overlooked..

Weren't we eating burgers and chip's at Lennoxtown and player's always came back pretty chubby for pre season? That definitely doesn't happen now. We're always in pretty good condition. He's even admitted as much about the changes since he's been back in..

The Congerton thing and almost downing tools having to be brought in with Lawwell by Desmond was 100% unprofessional. I completely agree on that front. Disgraceful actually..

 

That's a rookie manager who had to replace a full team being compared to a supposed top level manager with loads of experience who through his time with us relied on players from the previous regimes.

In reality the rookie took us further in Europe where the experienced one never even came close to that achievement

 

We didn’t manage the players diets as far as I remember but there was body fat expectations and fitness levels expectations. I don’t think Lenny’s team looked unfit, micromanaged Ronny’s looked much less fit. Rodgers fitness levels in his first season was something else but that generally slid the longer he was with us.

The sports science and stats, how we measure performances etc have all changed * considerably and that was both Ronny and Rodgers which I like but if it was down to that or implementing a proper recruitment structure in place like Park and Lenny did then I’d think that’s far more important even if I’d rather both. Rodgers is notoriously OCD when it comes to measuring that side of things.

We had an extreme run of easy games at home after the break, we had a couple new faces in on loan, it gave us a shot on the arm and we were building up a confidence again, a freshness, especially with how Christie was doing as well... Rodgers left and I think that just swept that away. Tbh, with how Rodgers was performing all season I was expecting a dip to come whether her was still here or not. It was the story of the last 18 months.

Were you expecting us not to have any issues with Rodgers leaving, I know that seems like a loaded question but I’m genuinely curious about what people were expecting?

 

The first two performances were good, but we were laboured against a mediocre Ajax side, and the last two games were humiliations.

 

Sion was one technicality, what was the other?

Ah, wait. I get ye. Never mind.

 

Lennon's infallible, I know.

Four legs good, two legs bad.

 

Body wise we look much fitter than we ever did under Lenny. Even Broony was fleshy then and the likes of Commons and Hooper for example came back to training in ridiculous states at time's..

Being able to eat burgers and chip's at training in conditions like that are as unprofessional as I can imagine..

I couldn't see a dip coming with the snake if he had carried on till the end of the season. He seemed to of got back in to professional mode since the January transfer window but we all know what happened after..

I'm no saying I expected it to be plain sailing at all. Results wise over the piece it's been pretty good. Stepping away from it though and it hasn't been impressive though..

Struggling to score or finish most team's off. Being easy to play against. Being opened up too much middle backwards. Crossing to an isolated number 9 who I can't remember the last header he won, nevermind scored from? Playing guy's past it. Strange subs or timings of them. You could go on and it's why I have so many doubts..

 

Both had different circumstances to deal with though. We now get 2 super teams in the CL groups rather than 1.

I don’t think there’s many managers out there that would get our current team through a group of Barcelona, Man City and Gladbach or PSG, Bayern and Anderlecht tbf.

 

Care to comment on what I posted? I certainly don’t suggest he’s infallible when I refer to him as rookie

 

My main point would have been we are comparing a rookie with an experienced manager. We need to make some allowances much as we would bring a young player into the team. In reality the decision to appoint Lenny at the time should have appeared crazy. Certainly a lot more of a risk than it would be to give him the job now.

 

Twice, not three times.

Was a tougher league the first 2 seasons they were down. They won the league with 1 more point than they had the previous 2 years in 2nd and 3rd. Dundee Utd were torn apart squad wise, Hibs done some great deals.

Stubbs won them the Scottish Cup and got to the league cup final in the same season before Lennon came in. Shows how strong their team was. Lennon barely did better than Stubbs did. 1 point more, but considerably worse in the Cups.

 

It’s a lot riskier now for me.

At the time it was a risk worth taking. Lennon’s audition for the job was very good bar one result and we had nothing to lose as we had just finished 2nd.

We’re now going for 10IAR and could be going for a quadruple treble next season, there’s a lot more pressure now than taking over a Tony Mowbray team.

 

Watching the Liverpool Barcelona game got me thinking of the oft posted "we need a quality manager to attract quality players". Yet would it be possible to get a manager to attract two players that could play in the champions league semi finals to the backwater of Scottish football?

 

I meant more the fact that we appointed a manager who had never managed before to take over a team who never looked any better than 2nd best. Now at least we know what we would be appointing.