Neil Lennon

Don't want him anywhere near the job come summer

 

Valencia * rogered us at CP man!!

We were very very lucky to get an injury time winner at Rugby Park during the post break ''wonder run'' under snakey and the Huns * destroyed us in December to go level mate. I mean, c'mon to * mate!!!

 

Yes we had bad games under Rodgers. We have played well in three games under Lennon: St. Mirren and Aberdeen x2.

 

Your opinion mate!! Agree to disagree!!

 

So we have played well in more than 3 games under Lennon?

To be fair I really couldn't give a * what anyone thinks about Rodgers or Lennon, so long as we don't have anyone cheerleading for Lennon to get the job.

 

Hibs in the cup and Tynecastle away get credit from me off the top of my head!! I'm not convinced cunto would have got us through them.

Probably struggle to find 3 decent performances under that * till the end of December. You get what i mean!!

 

The cup semi-final is by far the most convincing performance under Lenny.

At Pittodrie we should have been 2-0 down before we scored. Second half was good. Easter Road (in the cup) we were good in the second half, meh in the first. St Mirren was the opposite - absolutely collapsed in the second half for a decent period.

Other than the cup game against Aberdeen, we haven't had a solid, convincing 90 minutes.

 

Why not???....they're entitled to their opinion as much as you or me. For example, i'd persoanlly take him in a heartbeat over the likes of Clarke or Moyes!!!

 

Rodgers second season especially at home was * abysmal, add to that the worst start to a season in over 20 years this season. No matter who is in charge our squad needs a massive overhaul.

 

Folk acting like Rodgers wasn't getting pelters at the beginning of the season for our form.

 

Whoever is in charge in the summer a big rebuilding job is needed to the team but would like to see quality brought in than quantity so over to the board .

 

My 2 last European games where under Rodgers and they where * depressing!! Valencia and anderlegth at Park head. Lenny's European games some nights the roof near came of the stadium!

 

Don't know why Lennon felt the need to come out with the spoilt fans pish sitting on the verge on treble treble Rodgers showed what can be achieved when you spend money and appoint someone who knows what they are doing.when your budget dwarfs everyone else's you have every right to expect to be hammering other teams

 

He could have worded it a bit different to be fair.

There was a lot of pressure on him to win the lge, and plenty of pressure still to win the cup and secure the TT, in fact his career at the club probably rests on the game in two weeks.

He say's he dosen't do social media but he will read newspaper headlines and hear passing comments, couple that with loaded questions from the press and it's bound to have an effect. But your right he shouldn't have made comments like that about some of our younger fans, even if he might have a point.

On the other hand you can see with comments like those that he has a massive passion for the club and a real desire to be given a chance........ Is that enough to bring the club forward? .....I believe so.

 

NEIL Lennon last night made an impassioned defence of his managerial record in the face of growing dissent from a section of Celticsupporters who want someone else as the club's permanent manager.

The Northern Irishman is in his second interim period in a job he held from 2010 to 2014, a period which saw him win five trophies and enjoy some success in Europe including the famous win over Barcelona.

Lennon is not immune to the chat outside of Celtic. Despite his record since coming back being an impressive one, he’s lost only once, the title has been won and they are in the Scottish Cup final, there is strong feelings in some quarters that the 48-year-old should be moved out after May and replaced with a ‘high profile’ coach.


Asked if he felt frustrated by having to justify is record in management, Lennon said: “Yes. You are always looking to prove something to yourself every year or every time you go out there but the level of doubt surprises me.

“I won three titles in a row not so long ago, I got to the last 16 of the Champions League not so long ago. I won a Championship with Hibs, got the highest points total last year. Last year, not like ten years ago.

“I got them into Europe, got them through two rounds for the first time since the seventies (1970/71). I think I can do the job alright. If people want to have an opinion that’s fine, the evidence is there to the contrary.

“It’s the new age, the new breed. I’ve been here since 2000 and we’ve won 14 league titles and I’ve been involved in ten whether it be as a player, coach or manager. We won them all comfortably. And I lost four and they all went to the last day.

“So there’s no reason for me to sit here, or anyone else for that matter, and think that I can’t do the job going forward because the evidence is there that I quite plainly can. But if there are doubts there they are the ones with the doubts, not me

But there is a new breed of fan on social networks, it’s not the real world. It’s not my world. I deal in the real world and theirs is a knee-* world of unrealistic expectations


There has been a clamour for the club to push the boat out for a marquee manager with the likes of Rafa Benitez being excitedly mention on various social media platforms, with Slaven Bilic claiming an interest in the job.

Lennon admitted: “They want the glamour name, a lot of them. Whether that would guarantee success is another matter. Rangers brought in a big name this year and they’ve got no trophies to show for it so it doesn’t guarantee it.”

And added: “I know the culture here. The culture is changing, there has definitely been a sea change since I left the club and a culture within the younger support as well. So I’ve had to adapt to that a little bit more.

“I find that a little bit different but in the main I have really enjoyed it. I enjoyed winning the league and I’m looking forward to the next ten games. I'm very calm.”

Lennon knows full well that even if he delivers the Scottish Cup and a third successive Treble, the Celtic board may well turn to someone else in their quest for ten in a row and progress in Europe.

What is in the former captain’s favour is that Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s majority shareholder and the one who will make the final decision, will not be swayed by any public opinion.

Lennon said: “Of course they won’t. They might have another person in mind which is absolutely fine, I’m totally comfortable with it.


I’m here until the 31st of May, we’ll maybe sit down after the cup final and discuss my position or what the future holds for me. Until then I’m doing the job I’ve been entrusted with.”

Lennon insisted it wouldn’t be strange to him if Desmond and the board didn’t offer him a deal.

He said: “I can absolutely imagine that. It’s their club. It’s the fans’ club, it’s not mine. It’s not about me.

“This is the world we’re living in at the minute. Barcelona could win the double but a lot of their fans are calling for Ernesto Valverde’s head because they got knocked out of the semi-finals of the Champions League.

"Expectations, whatever you want to call it, are sometimes unrealistic.

“But it’s the modern-day fan. It’s fast-food stuff, they want the next thing very, very quickly and it’s not the real world."

Lennon will be without several key players for Sunday's final league match against Hearts at Celtic Park.

Once again, Kieran Tierney and James Forrest will sit out but the manager believes his key men will be available for the Scottish Cup final next Saturday when they again face the Tynecastle outfit.

Lennon said: "They (Tierney and Forrest) won’t be available this weekend. They will do some conditioning week over the next couple of days and they’ll then come into the fold on Monday or Tuesday. Kieran and James should be fir for the cup final. I’m very confident about tha



Odsonne Edouard, Johnny Hayes and Mikael Lustig all have tight hamstrings, which is a thing here at themoment, and we won’t take any chances with them. They will be back in training at the start of the week.”

Lennon is considering giving 16-year-old Karamoko Dembele could make first-team debut on Sunday, whichwould make him Celtic's youngest ever player.







PAUL McStay is in Celtic’s greatest team because he was ‘The Maestro’ for 15 seasons and 678 games.

At his peak, this Larkhall lad from a famous Celtic family was one of the best central midfielders in Europe wanted by, among others, Liverpool and Sampdoria, but who choose to stay at the club he loved and to play with such elegance in front of supporters who worshipped him.

On Sunday, this legend of Kerrydale Street will walk back onto the pitch he once graced so wonderfully with the Scottish Premiershiptrophy which he will present to the current captain and No.8, Scott Brown.


McStay won eight trophies as a Celtic player. His misfortune was to come up against the best Aberdeen and Dundee United teams that will ever be and then Rangers and their millions, while Celtic stumbled from disaster to the brink of bankruptcy.

I estimate that 80 per cent of what most would consider Celtic’s first-team have the same amount of more, a few quite a bit more, medals than this icon. Think on that.

There are Celtic supporters of a certain age who weren’t there in the 1990’s. Their eyes glaze over when being told tales of going six years without a trophy, Old Firm humiliations, fan boycotts and that time a fox ran across the pitch – later voted player of the season.

To paraphrase a song, they really should know their history.

“Spot on. Absolutely spot on,” was Lennon’s firm answer to whether the younger generation of Celtic supporter have been spoiled


They will miss it when it’s gone. Absolutely. That’s always the case in any walk of life really. What the younger generation of our fans shouldn’t take for granted is what these players are doing and what they have done.

“It’s remarkable. I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking about a treble Treble. The great teams we’ve had over the history of the club never achieved anything like that.

“Winning the treble was like the Holy Grail back in the day. Now these boys have won two in a row and are on the cusp of a third. It’s incredible. Maybe there is a sense of entitlement among the younger fans that we never had before.


I think there is a new breed of supporters, whether it be here or elsewhere.

“Since 19 or 20 years ago, the only thing they have really seen is success. They don’t remember the 1990s as the older generation probably do. I can’t take it for granted. They might. That comes from an immaturity from their point of view.

“In present-day football there is always a furore after one game, whether it be social media or phone-ins. I live in the real world. Social media is not the real world. I think it is poisonous myself, but good luck.”

Not winning nine and then ten will be deemed failure no matter who sits in the manager’s chair at Celtic. Lennon knows this and realises that there are quite a few in the stands who love him but don’t fancy their hero being up to breaking the record.

Lennon, with a sigh, said: “But again we’re running away with ourselves. People are talking about ‘we’ve got to get to 10’. Well no, we’ve got to get to nine first and we can talk about ten after that.

“The modern-day fan is taking it for granted that we’re going to win the ninth. You’ve got to stay in the present. We’ve got to freshen things up, squad-wise, there’s no question of that. Then we take it from there.

“The first port of call after the summer is getting into the Champions League and that would be the focus for any Celtic coach or manager rather than concentrating on the league.”


Last week, Celtic came away from Ibrox with nothing but bad memories. It has happened before, not that you would have known by the reaction of some supporters.

As the Celtic manager said: “Martin O’Neill lost there. Gordon Strachan lost there. Tony Mowbray lost there. I’ve lost there. Brendan lost there. It happens.

“We only got back in training on Wednesday, we had a small group in, and it’s gone. The players had the handbrake on, there’s no question about that.

“Psychologically, we weren’t there. We did an analysis of the game and it lasted three minutes. We just showed them the first three minutes because that’s the reason we lost the game.”

Lennon seems relaxed about it all. He has been the most talked about football person in Scottish football for almost 20 years, but it must hurt when those who follow the team take apart every performance and judge him and a team that is tired and isn’t his.

He said: “It’s unbelievable. Maybe it’s because Brendan has left, and I’ve come in that we’re getting analysed to death from game to game. The league was done a week earlier. We won the league comfortably. I read we’d stuttered over the line which is complete nonsense.

“The league was done in a good fashion. I understand them coming down a little bit. They have to get back on it for the next ten days or so and really focus on winning the Scottish Cup.


And as for Rangers…

“There was a lot of talk when Steven came in about putting in a title challenge and there being a feel-good factor around it, but the players have seen it off again this year. We are two trophies in and going for a third one for the third successive season.”

Quite. Those Celtic fans who are spoiled should be given DVDs of the 1990s.

 

Yeah, there were plenty of headcases wanting Rodgers to leave and to get Lennon in at that point as well

That patch was a complete anomaly on Rodgers’ record and performance as Celtic manager. A complete anomaly.

Rodgers instilled a ‘big game’ confidence in me and many others that has completely dissipated in my opinion.

 

That’s a clever soundbite, bit smart * for my liking though, if it is completely true.

Should be looking at the whole performance to see what not to do in the future, be it Sunday, but definitely the 25th. Psychological or not, I don’t want that game to be “gone”, it was a * shambles of a showing, and none of them should be allowed to forget it.

 

I'm getting more and more nervous about the final. As for that interview the least said the best.

 

Valencia were playing chess while we were playing checkers. Wrong game to hold up as an example of Rodgers success here.

Don’t like Lennon’s comment regarding the post-March analysis. If we seriously did 3 minutes of video then we may as well have done nothing. Proper analysis is meant to focus on consistent and repeated mistakes or strengths. Stevie Wonder could tell you what went wrong for the first goal.

 

Exactly what Rodgers said he was doing, yet we’ve ended up with gaping holes throughout our squad and not much quality. This is a huge summer for us tbh.