Neil Lennon

I think Rodgers is a better manager than Lenny but as Sean said, we need realism in Europe and by far the most realistic manager not driven by ego is Lenny.

 

My initial post was about the value of the Barcelona game in the context of Lennon’s European performance as a whole.

When we take into account the other games instead of focussing on individual games such as Barca or PSG (which are the two contrasting games that are often brought up in these types of conversations) then the overall picture doesn’t seem to show that Lennon had an obviously superior record to Rodgers across 4 seasons of European football. That is my opinion but it’s all a matter of interpretation.

 

Fair enough. I disagree and I think both records need to be put in context.

Lennon inherited a complete shambles of a team from Mowbray, Rodgers inherited a dispirited and rudderless side but with a reasonable core of players that could be coached.

Also the wage budget afforded to Lennon was far less even adjusting for inflation and football inflation.
The average annual wage bill Lennon's 4 seasons was £36.2 million, under the rat it was £57.7 million.

 

If I was going to start ranking European seasons for the last decade it would probably go:

1. 2012/13 under Lennon - Last 16 and Barca
2. 2017/18 under Rodgers - CL 3rd and Last 32 of EL
3. 2016/17 under Rodgers - CL 4th but good performances overall
4. 2013/14 under Lennon - CL qualification and 4th finish in very easy group (by CL standards)
5. 2018/19 under Rodgers - Last 32 EL after decent group stage performance
6. 2014/15 under Deila - Last 32 EL - decent in groups

—————-//////——-///////——(a line break to signify the very poor campaigns)

7. 2011/12 under Lennon - Sion would have resulted in no European football > decent performance in EL thereafter
8. 2015/16 under Deila - EL qualification but poor
9. 2010/11 under Lennon - Utrecht and Braga defeats meant no European football BUT there is, of course, understanding for this season due to overhaul.

 

To contextualise it further, you could also say that Rodgers had to navigate more qualification rounds with generally harder teams. Getting the likes of Rosenborg at QR2 now. Rosenborg a bigger and better team than the likes of Helsinki and Helsingborg who were final round(s) qualifiers.

As for the wage bill, I am still attempting to work out the finances and how inflation works in relation to Celtic. Celtic doesn’t seem to adhere to any general rules seeing as we seemed to spend much more in the early 2000s on players relatively speaking! But that is for another thread.

 

Aye. It's getting laughable now how people are acting like Lennon was far better in Europe. Because he really wasn't.

Rodgers got us European football after Christmas 2 out of 3 times. He qualified for the CL 2 out of 3 times.

Lennon got us European football after Christmas 1 out of 4 times. He qualified for the CL 2 out of 4 times.

As has been said before, but some people don't want to read it, Lennon had the higher highs, but he had the lower lows in Europe. And, if you're being honest Swerve, Rodgers had the tougher CL groups by a long shot.

 

So now we're deluding ourselves? Come on to * man

Why are we even comparing them? Who said far better? Everyone is in total agreement Rodgers was an incredible appointment. I don't see the point. We were never getting two managers in a row of that calibre. I was just pointing out Lenny is more realistic and adaptable when it comes to tactics especially defensive. Even the biggest Rodgerette will have to admit he does not know defence as well as he does attack.

 

What’s that?

Lennon vs Rodgers you say?

Europe records you say?

Liking the new direction this is taking!

 

I agree lennon had the higher highs and the lower lows but to me Rodgers had the easier groups we had spartak barca and benfica to me they are harder than say a group with anderlecht or bmg... Even though Germans are notoriously solid but Rodgers in first season should have made europa..... Mcgregor should have scored.... And should have got both results against anderlecht...... And BTW should have got the result against zenit after first leg of we scored more than one at home like we should have we would have been through

Sent from my AUM-L29 using Tapatalk

 

Bring back Strachan.

 

C’mon to * man

Every man and his dog must surely be able to accept that Rodgers inherited a much better group of players and was backed more than Lennon, surely?

You don’t need to spend your Saturday night working out ‘Celtic inflation’ to figure that one out.

 

Some of the things said in here border on racism in my opinion

 

It’s just as well I haven’t read any of the posts

 

That’s not really the point at hand anyway.

Rodgers was backed more than Lennon - and so he should have as he reached the very lucrative CL 2/2 initially. But football inflation is very much something which skews fees too.

Overall, is there much evidence to suggest that Lennon had a much superior European record across the whole?

 

Cant say Lennon wasnt backed when he first came in. He nearly bought an entire team with the mcgeady money. Rodgers just added a few we sprinkles of high priced purchases (for us) I'd say both equally backed and both equally * over from strengthening from a position of strength. Usual for our board.

 

Surely , surely they can't repeat that * going into the next two seasons.

 

He absolutely didn't.

In the 2012/13 season, there were 2 teams in the group who we could expect to compete with - Spartak and Benfica. Two teams who you would fancy us to have a real shot of beating at home. In 2013/14 we had one of the poorest Milan teams in years and Ajax. Again, two teams you we could definitely do something against. Each season there was only 1 team who were far, far better than us - Barcelona.

A group containing Barca, Man City and Monchengladbach absolutely wipes the floor with Lenny's two groups. Two top sides and the 4th best team in Germany at the time. The next season we had PSG and Bayern - arguably two of the favourites for the entire tournament.

tl;dr - Lenny's groups had 1 European force in it. Rodgers' groups had 2. We clearly had more difficult groups under Rodgers.

 

Rodgers played with a backbone of a team created by previous managers. Lenny started with Scott Brown(missing for the biggest euro win along with our top scorer and left back) and basically had to build a team. Comparing how they done statistically will never take this into account.

It would be interesting to see how the snake would have done if he started with Mowbrays squad. Imagine Scott McKenna and Hendry playing tika taka in the champions League

 

Why the * are ye all wasting your time debating past champions league seasons. Complete pointless discussion and it’s going round full circle

Would be interesting to hear how we think Lennon could improve on certain areas rather than hearing about his faults.

 

Personally i didn't want Lennon. Not because i thought he wouldn't win the league but because i think it is a step back the way. All Managers have their faults, even Rodgers. Now that Lennon is here the support need to get behind him.