Are The Lennon Doubters Happy Yet

I voted NEED MORE TIME TO DECIDE.

If I'm being honest I am still not convinced that Neil Lennon is the right man for the job. He has only been in charge for 20 odd matches so it's still very early days in his tenure. Of course his record in the SPL is VERY IMPRESSIVE but there have also been some nightmare performances/results along the way and they have, more often than not, come in the matches that have really mattered the most.

Ross County - The only chance we had of a trophy thrown away by a lifeless, inept performance.

Braga Away - Any hopes of getting our hands on Champions League money thrown away within 90mins of the season starting due a toothless performance.

Utrecht Away - A tactically inept, shambolic performance that was an embarassment to watch.

These 3 performances under Neil Lennon cannot be ignored imo and are still lurking in the back of my mind when I think about how I feel about Neily being our manager. Utrecht and Ross County in particular were just awful and are the sort of performances it takes a while to forget or to get out your system.

On the other hand, as I said before, Neil Lennon's SPL record is perfect. He's won every game he's been in charge for and he seems to have re-installed some fighting spirit into the team. This is something that had been lost by Gordon Strachan(towards the end) and Tony Mowbray. Neily also has us playing a high tempo style of football again, instead of the walking paced boring * Strachan had us playing, and I am very grateful to Neil for that. I still worry that we are quite vulnerable at the back, this fact was ruthlessly exposed away from home to Braga and Utrecht, and I do worry that Neily might not have the tactical nous to fix that problem - then again he is still on a learning curve and he may prove me wrong on that in time so I am willing to give him a chance.

As for player signings I think it's still too early to judge Neil Lennon. There are promising signs from some of his buys, and the only one I've not been impressed with is Cha Du Ri, so I will give him pass marks so far on this front.

Media Handling - I think Neil has really excelled in this area and looks much, much better at handling the press than either Gordon Strachan or Tony Mowbray. I sometimes see definite echoes of Martin O'Neill when I see Neil doing interviews/press conferences. This has been the area of Neil's management that has impressed me the most.

Are there reasons to feel optimistic about what Neil has done so far? Yes.
Have there been performances bad enough to cause genuine concern? Yes.
Are things looking better now than they looked 6 months ago? Yes.

Overall it's still early days. Neily is doing ok so far and if he carries on learning his trade and improving then he could go on to be a good manager of Celtic for years to come. Does this mean he has earned my unconditional endorsement as our manager yet? No it doesn't......a win on Sunday will move him closer though..........

 

Won every league game so far so yeah I'm happy even if I'm disappointed that we were out of Europe so early. But there's still a long way to go.

 

Good post. And a defeat on Sunday will have the boards in meltdown no doubt.

 

yes, even if the orcs were to win the league, lennys done all he possibly can and will continue to do so.

 

I was happy for him to get the job after the 8 game stint last season , but even thinking he'd earned the job permanently because of that came with doubts about what he could do in pressure situations , just as there would have been with a proven manager coming in from another league..
Knowledge of the SPL and what it takes to succeed is something Lenny had over other guys we could have seen appointed.. He just had to convert it into management and so far you can only say he's been a revelation and the football is good to watch and his signings look the part..

Europe was a bummer because we changed our own mentality for the away games in Portugal and Holland by playing to contain and got what we deserved..
I haven't seen Lenny repeat mistakes too often , or at the very least we can say his mistakes haven't cost us too often.. When you think of the number of points dropped in games at the end of the Strachan tenure and throughout the Mowbray tenure with both those seasons also having pathetic runs in Europe , it shows the fans have been tolerant so if Lenny is cut the same slack he should be allowed a couple of defeats here and there and a number of draws along the way in this seasons title race even if it doesn't give us the title..
You just know his own demands won't allow that though and any dropped points will be seen as a failure.. I've been won over..

 

I think everyone had their reservations, but I never doubted he could do the job. Only thing I have doubted is the lack of funds invested in the defense. Not convinced with Cha, how Loovens can be called a footballer is beyond me. Impressed with Izza, and big Maj is good but needs a good partner coz you can see he is not convinced with Loovens.
If this gets fixed in January then I feel Lenny will be a huge success for a long time. After yesterday's game you could see how much it meant to Lenny and his coaches, and the look of a great team spirit amongst the lads again. It looked like the "them (SFA/refs/etc, against us" is pulling us closer together.

 

never doubted knew he'd come good

 

Yes I agree.I think Lenny is doing everything he could possibly do, and will continue to do so. Even if Rangers win the league. It would be a bitter pill to swallow for us, but at least we know that Lenny is giving it his best shot. You can't do anymore than that.

 

voted no! why? he was my choice to lead us from day one and i am 100% behind him.

 

I'm sure Gordon Strachan(in his last season) and Tony Mowbray were giving it their best shot too. If Neil Lennon doesn't produce results he will have to go, irrespective of how hard he's trying. Giving it your best shot is nothing without the results to back it up.

 

I'll wait til the going starts getting tough, then we'll really see

 

Click no had some doubts at the start but we were never going to get a world class experience manager after the mowbray situation look at hodgson now liverpool fans want to sack him after 8 matches would have like lenny to have had a good mentor but now feel he has earned the right to manager the club himself and we know how much he loves the club, I think the board need some praise as well as they never bow to the pressure of having an overrated has been take charge lenny has been a breath of fresh air since he started and taking Ross county and europe into account think he was tactically niave but if he learns from this they should hold him in good stead for the future, think being a celtic fan you expect to win all games and can underestimate opponents some time but these results will always be at the back of lennys mind.

 

Always thought he was right man for the job.

 

he's inexperianced and still he is playing better football than strachan and mowbrey who both had impressive cv's he can only improve over time future loooks bright.

 

After mowbarys efforts I think the club had hit rock bottom. Lets face it we are a club rebuilding for the future with a young squad. Knowing Celtic fans a majority will expect instant success but lets give Neil time and he will deliver. He's learning his trade as we all have in our own careers and he will blossom from there.

Come Sunday he would take to the field and face rangers hiself just to prove the doughters wrong.

Lets get behind him even in tough times and prove things get better with age. Lets have Celtic park rocking again

 

I think there could be a thread this season, the complete opposite of this - asking if the Lennon doubters got it right. There's tough games and possibly rocky times ahead.

He's the most likeable person to ever manage Celtic since I've been going to the games, he's Celtic to the core and that's brilliant.

However, throughout the course of this season, his managerial ability is going to be tested to the absolute limit. We're up against one of the most experienced SPL managers and players who have done it all before.

In my opinion, he's doing a fantastic job in the SPL so far but everything else still against us. What I say is, bring it on. Back the manager now and back the manager if we go through a period of bad results and performances - and hope we're on the top of that table come the end of the season.

I trust Lennon and the current squad though.

 

I think wat lenny lacks in experience he makes up with the knowledge of the club wat hed done with naylor and wilson yesterday was a masterstroke shows wat a good motivator he is just like his mentor MON dont be surprise in january if we sign couple of players who have not been performing to standard, maybe rooney or torres, kidding aside with the financial situation this might be way of getting class players on the cheap.

 

Whats the point in moaning about him he cant do any worse than last year, just let him get on with it.

 

same here i missread the question.Of course lenny is the right man,no doubt.

 

I'm an ex-doubter who has been largely won over.

He's got us playing some right good football, and we've won all 15 league games under him.
Heh, if you were going to be criticising that, you'd slot into Hard-to-please.

It's not just man-management either (which I knew he'd be good at anyway) but the signings have been very impressive for my money. The loss againt Ross County was small potatoes as far as I'm concerned. The euro games simply came too early - you can't expect a team to just gel immediately, with no competitive games behind them.

So yeah, a doubter converted. Didn't vote ccos the question in the title was the opposite question from the on in the poll & I gt confuse.