Neil Lennon

I didn't want Lennon from the start. Felt he was the wrong option. Still do. The thing is though, I so badly want to be proved wrong. Any fan who wants us to fail just so they can say they were right, isn't a Celtic fan as far as I'm concerned. He is absolutely 100% not above criticism and he will know this, and I have not seen anything personal or too abusive posted here or on social media. You'll always get the fandans for sure, but in the main I think it had been mostly centred on team selections and tactics.

 

IN the wake of Celtic’s well-contested 1-0 win over Rigain Latvia on Thursday, Hoops boss Neil Lennon said he and his backroom staff started their analysis for the weekend’s encounter with Hibs on the plane journey home.

Tomorrow (Sunday), the nine-in-a-row champions host Jack Ross’ side at Paradise and the manager expects a good game against a good side – the Easter Road outfit now two points behind Celtic in the Premiership having played an extra game, and having drawn 2-2 at against Rangers last weekend.

“Sunday will be a tough game, and Hibs will be buoyed by a good performance and a very good result last weekend,” said Neil Lennon. “They’ve made a great start to the season, they’re playing with a lot of confidence, and Sunday is a game that’s now at the forefront of our minds.

“It was our immediate focus after the Riga game and were looking at analysis on the plane on the way home from Latvia. It’ll be a tough game.

“We’re in the match rhythm now, we’ve freshened up the team as we’ve gone along, and that’s what we want, we wants the games. The players will do a second day recovery on Saturday, and then they’ll get ready for the game again on Sunday, and between times it’s about showing them the strengths and weaknesses of Hibs.”

The manager said Thursday’s Europa League win over Riga will give his players confidence, as they look to build on their winning domestic form. Still, the Irishman takes nothing for granted and well-understands the threat the Edinburgh side poses.

He added: “Hibs are a huge threat, and they’re as good as any team in the division. I know a lot of the players, I know Boyle, the two strikers, Nesbit and Doidge – Doidge can be a goalscorer and Nesbit has hit the ground running in the SPFL very well. They’re a threat, there’s no question of that.

“I know some of the players very well, but I’ve been gone from there about 18 months now, they’ve got a new manager in and Jack’s putting his own stamp on the team and you can see that with their success. He’s a very good manager.”

 

Did we win the other night?

This * forum is an absolute cesspit of entitlement and spoiled * whiny *.

Its really putting me off posting.

 

I disagree, this is Neil Lennon we're talking about. He got us playing well in Europe last season, big wins and record group stage points. 28 shots on goal against Ferenvaros, Klyimala was injured so playing Christle who was on form was a good idea when no one else was available. No one moaned when Rodgers played Rogic and Forrest up front against Rosenborg home and away as we got through. Last season Lennon achieved big wins in Europe, and record points in the groups. The Copenhagen defeat at Parkhead, he went with 1 up in the first half and changed it. Jozo and Ajer had a horror showing we should have gone through. He took over Rodgers team and sealed the treble treble, big wins against Rangers and Hibs away in the cup when morale was low. The final they did it. We're 2 games away from a quadruple treble and he arguably got us playing some of the best football we've seen in recent seasons, everyone is loving the 3-5-2 especially Eduard. We have had better stats in his season than Rodgers teams. We find ourselves in this play off game against Sarajevo with fine margins. He's sensible enough to look at what people are saying and I'm sure he'll change it up. A win against Hibs will calm the frenzy.

 

Klimala was not injured against the Hungarians, both him and ajeti was on the bench, klimala then went on to play for the polish side while we are told he was not match fit.

You suggest Lennon will learn and it's fine margins that he will get right, fact is four weeks after the embarrassment of getting knocked out of the champions League, we played in a very similar way the other night and risked the Europa again.

The fine margin the other night wasn't a fine margin of a great win, it was a fine margin of a horror show of a performance and a late goal that saved our *.

Anyone honestly defending this side right now is living in a blinkered world.

The playing squad is a shambles, the management hasnt got a clue. Making the same mistakes year after year and even within this season unable to sort it out from a month ago, with Hibs tomorrow and the Huns shortly after, it's two massive games in our season and on the opening season form, we will not get full points from those two games.

That's not knee *, that's a solid analysis of how * we are right now and the management refusal to learn or able to change things positively.

Lennons been a great man for our club, no one ever questions this. But he is not safe from honest criticism, which he is getting and is fully deserved right now.


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BEING criticised in defeat is one thing, but at a club like Celtic, criticism can also be commonplace after a victory.

Nobody knows this better than their current manager Neil Lennon, but he was sufficiently moved by the blowback from their last-gasp 1-0 win over Riga during the week to issue a rebuke to his critics, insisting that his side’s detractors are guilty of underestimating the level of the opposition.

“It was a dominant performance with 70-odd percent possession,” he said.


“I wasn’t happy with some of the narratives after the game in terms of headlines where we 'toiled' and 'scraped through' – we didn’t.

“We were in total control of the game. Yes, we didn’t hammer them 3-0 or 4-0. We could have done. (Albian) Ajeti hit the post, we had another chance flash across the line, (Callum) McGregor flashed one across in the first half, the keeper made a decent save from (Ryan) Christie. It wasn’t as if we weren’t creating chances. (Jeremie) Frimpong, particularly in the second half, was a real catalyst for us going forward.


“The goalkeeper wasn’t really called upon. Whatever they threw at us, we defended set-plays very well. It was a difficult pitch. They didn’t water it beforehand and it was very sticky.

“I’m delighted. The atmosphere in the dressing room is fantastic at the minute. There’s a good camaraderie among them and that comes from winning games.

“It’s a great result. I thought we dominated the game and could have had a couple of goals before the winner actually came. It was difficult conditions and a difficult pitch against a very highly motivated team who set their stall out to make it difficult for us.

“We had to be patient and it’s another away win in Europe which is testament to the players over the last couple of years that they’ve handled these occasions very well.

“We’re delighted to be through. It’s a win and a clean sheet. While we’re though, we know there’s more to come from the team.”


Lennon believes that his team will indeed have to show more to progress through the play-off round of the Europa League on Thursday against FK Sarajevo, a team he knows well after overcoming the Bosnians in last season’s Champions League qualifiers.

“I think they are pretty similar [to last year],” he said. “They have changed some personnel, but in terms of style of play I think they are pretty similar to last season. Big, strong, athletic, physical outfit.

“The game is not going to be in Sarajevo, from what we gather it will be in Zeneca. We will prepare as best we can.

“It is a difficult one. It was difficult out there last season, but hopefully that experience will stand us in good stead for next week, but we are expecting a very tough tie.”


A tough tie also lies ahead at Celtic Park this afternoon in Lennon’s estimation, with his own former club Hibernian coming to Glasgow with the aim of leapfrogging their opposition in the table.

Lennon will be doing all he can to stop that from happening, even though he feels he owes a debt of gratitude to the Easter Road club for reigniting his passion for the game again.

"I loved it,” he said. “The players were great, the club was great. We had two great seasons.

“It was difficult to maintain that, but I really enjoyed the players there, off the back of winning the Scottish Cup you could see there was some real talent there. We had a really good first season getting promotion and then the second season was fantastic as well getting into Europe, playing some great stuff, scoring lots of goals and the club itself was in a really good place, so it really refreshed me and I really enjoyed doing that.”

Jack Ross is currently enjoying his own tenure at Easter Road, and Lennon is looking forward to see how his team cope with their current busy run of games against such high-fling opposition.

"It has been a heavy schedule and it's difficult game on Sunday against Hibs, who are playing very well this season and had a very good result last weekend,” he said.

“They will be buoyed by that. I know a lot of the players and they are good players at this level, they have a very good manager and have made a great start to the season. It's a game to get our teeth into and look forward to.

"[Jack]'s done a cracking job and they have recruited well. He's got players who were maybe underperforming previously playing with a bit of confidence and scoring goals, which you expect from a Hibs team. When their tails are up, they are a handful for anybody.”

 

I think some of the talk about Lennon has been abhorrent.
I couldn't care less about 'playing the [insert team name] way'. Winning is the most important thing. If Lennon stops winning matches then it's a problem.

 

Winning is the most important thing, of course. But most ambitious clubs and fanbases want more than that, quite rightly.

When your squad is x times more expensively assembled than 10 other teams in the league, it’s simply not enough to just win. Particularly if you’re going backwards in Europe - which we are.

The examples of Sarri at Juve and Kovac at Bayern are perfect demonstrations of that. Winning and not caring about the style of football is what I’d expect to be the mindset of mid/bottom table teams.

The football we played for much of last season was great and we all hope we can get back to that.

 

were not performing and look like we could lose or drop points every game we play, thats not good enough especially with the amount of money spent assembling our team and the wages we pay, the football being played is horrible

i dont know what the problem is i and every celtic fan just want it sorted, cause it pains us

 

After this season ends Celtic should get rid of Lennon no matter if 10IAR is achieved or not.
They did it to Big Jock and Lennon is nowhere near the manager he was.
His tactics leave a lot to be desired as does his team selection sometimes.

 

We've won something like 5 games in a row. Gonna be a long season.

 

Honestly some c#nts on here ,we are 2 games away from winning everything domestically for 4 years ,4 * years , there is so much at play that is affecting our game atm ,1 being fans not present ,although maybe that's a good thing judging by some on here .
The fact that teams are not even attempting to play against us ,hoping for mistakes or a counter attack to get anything must be soul destroying to players.
People saying the manager has no clue ,we have strengthened a key area for helping against teams camped in and giving us more threat at set pieces .
I honestly feel the character and nature of our fans has changed over the years and at times I struggle to see the difference to the fans of that other club across the city , something i always could point to as us being the good guys ,its so hard to see this now , the big thing I see is anxiety about this title and fans not having the bottle , their team playing well and getting better which had to happen eventually , we are up there to be shot down , everyone wants us to fail ,that pressure is excruciating , and another factor in our game not flowing at times .
Its time to stop the * and sniping , and get behind the team ffs , if this is the reaction to not hammering teams ,wots it gonna be like if we drop points ,i cant imagine .
We lost big foster , and added to defence ,the team are suffering from having to get used to defensive changes and I believe that caused the biggest problem ,the cl exit .
We need to let the manager and team develop , we all want to win beautifully ,but this season in particular , winning will do for now .

 

Your right, they were on the bench. What I meant to say is that Lennon said after the game Ajeti and Klyimala were not match fit. I assume to play the 90 minutes. Ajeti had just signed and was on an end of season break. If Klyimala was not match fit he had to play Christie. We did dominate Ferenvaros. It was fine margins, you could say Ajer was put of position when their first goal went in, and their second goal, their player was running at full pace and so was El Hamed, it was a very good counter attacking goal they scored. I know how frustrating that is after we dominanted them that's the fine margins.

Against Riga he's picked a team that's won a game, away from home in Europe. You can take a lot from that game. That Forrest wasn't effective, Eduard is having a dip in form, Scott Brown isn't as effective. That Frimpong would be good to start. All these things can be tested out today against Hibs. It's too early to stick the boot into Lennon over his European record were more than capable of going on the same run as last season. Everyone loved the Europa League anyway as we won games! We will qualify.

 

Dominating against the Hungarians is not something we should be content with when it's provide us with a defeat.
It was a horrible performance, no tempo, no creativity, no fire power, no urgency, nothing. Having possession is absolutely useless if you don't do anything with it.

You're starting to sound like you accept that defeat as if it was a narrow defeat against Juventus and we held our own so it's alright.

Same goes for Riga, a narrow scrapped win, that performance was far too much like thee Hungarian game, which is why so many of us are actually concerned and not happy with the club at present.
Nothing was learned from four weeks ago, nothing.

We shouldn't be taking from the Riga game that Forrest, brown, Édouard aren't up to it at present because we knew this four weeks ago.

We shouldn't be taking from the Riga game, equally, that Ely, ajeti and frimpong are playing well because again, we knew this before the Riga game, hence they should have all started.

A game against Hibs, a challenger at this time for our league title is not a game we should be testing things in, it's a game we should be fielding a settled side full of confidence.

We do not have confidence. We do not have a settled side. We do not know our best formation and/or players (well Lennon doesn't, your average fan can spot it a mile off).
And this isn't on the back of a one off game against Riga, it's on the back of the entire opening of this season where we have looked * poor.

I miss the days we would be proud to go toe to toe against Juventus, barca, Inter...

Now we have some fans accepting mediocrity against a Hungarian team, because we had possession.
And a scrapped 1 nil win against a Latvian side who played their first game 5 years ago and during their first season went by a name of two older clubs with a * "/" in it.

They are a side on a par with Gretna making it to the uefa cup.

A side we normally would meet in the first two rounds and would be seen as early pre season glorified friendlies.

I mean no real disrespect to them at all, but the reality is they are a * poor side that we really should not be sounding content with that narrow win under those circumstances.

Again, a month after the champions League embarrassment we continue to do the same mistakes and the management is not learning.

How folk are happy with this is beyond me.
I'm genuinely not confident of the result today as Hibs are a much better side than Riga, on the back of Thursday night game, I worry that any side with some ability will actually be able to hurt us.
That's the concern, that's not acceptable at Celtic.

And also, everyone accepted the Europa League run, on the back of another embarrassment in the qualifiers last year. That's not a measurement we want to stick to.
And I have no idea how anyone can say with any confidence that we will qualify when we have now proved we are not learning from our mistakes and continue to look * poor.

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Time to put a team out that utilises the class we have in our squad.

 

We're not playing well and we're scraping wins against poor opposition. The reason I'm complaining is that I can see the losses/dropped points coming when we play better teams. If I was confident we'd keep winning playing this way I wouldn't complain but I'm not. We need to fix things before we start losing not after.

 

We played against one decent football team this season. And lost.

 

Good.. all you do is cry about any criticism of Lennon. You havnt a clue IMO