Neil Lennon

In that case it would be appropriate to call into question the judgement of our recruitment for paying for a £3.5m player that is seen as inferior striker to Christie.

It's not an insignificant sum for us to spend, after 7 months at the club he should be ready to get some game time, if not then questions need asked of Hammond and Lennon on why he was brought in.

 

Ferencvaros were the worst out the lot.

The only thing Lennon said I agree with is he expected it to be tougher.

They were absolutely horrible. At one point at the end of the first half we kept * it up and they just kept giving it back to us for genuinely about 10 minutes. A woeful side.

 

I agree and it's certainly not the first time.

 

to be honest, as Celtic Football Club, being knocked out by Braga is pretty poor too, they’re a club from a small provincial town in northern Portugal who’ve never won the portuguese league. Seems to have been a lot made of then in 2020, mainly by Rangers fans to boost their own ego.

but to your point, it does make for grim viewing seeing who we’ve been denied a CL place by when just over a decade ago we were beating Spartak Moscow to get there.

 

Amen.

 

Our best players don't want to be here

The players that do, or have recently signed don't get a look in

Brown getting 90 minutes every game

Lenny throwing players under the bus and its not even September yet

Papped out the CL by a bunch of nobodies 2 games into their season, at the earliest stage in about a decade

The season ahead looks absolutely grim already.

 

I’ve absolutely no problem with him and first time round he fixed us after the Mowbray debacle. Second time round he secured the treble after Rodgers walked out and last year was fine, too.

The harsh reality is he’s not a talented enough manager to take us forward as a club long term. He’s fine in the transfer market and will get us the 10 but we will stagnate as a club as we sap 40million out the bank every year. Hope he gets the 10 then walks and we can all move on.

 

I don’t want to sound rash but Honestly if we are gonna have more performances like that, Dundee Utd and Kilmarnock. The 10 looks highly doubtful

 

If Rangers weren’t so weak mentally I’d agree but they will struggle more than last year I think. Last year was their chance.

 

Throwing the players under the bus after his own tactical *. We slag that * Gerrard for doing the exact same *. He should apologise tomorrow for trying to insult our intelligence.

 

* them, if we lose it it’s all down to us and our lack lustre performances. And tbh we haven’t looked the sharpest in 3 matches that I can recall so far out of what 6/7? That’s why I’d fear it’s in doubt. Hopefully I’m wrong but feel there’s only so many times we can say it’s still only early days we’ve all season. We need to be racking up results now

 

I've seen a good few say it but getting rid of Lennon now would be suicide, we need stability this season and Lennon has enough about him to see us to the 10. After that, I'm not so sure anymore. Domestically i think he could continue to dominate but this club needs, wants and demands more than that.

 

Totally agree mate they were absolutely * far worse than cluj and Copenhagen

the worrying aspect is in the previous 2 we got a good 1-1 draw away from home and tonight we started from scratch at home and we actually lost all 3 at home in all 3 we lost a stupid goal to defensive errors managed to get it back by equalising then let aw 3 go up the park again with defensive errors to take the lead again

 

Didn’t think on it like that man, that’s absolutely honking.

Shows an incredibly weak mentality.

 

Tbh mate, this season A would have been happy without the distraction of the champions league , 7-0, 5-0 7-1 in between league games only deflates confidence and the money we get from him never goes on a better player, Europa league is definitely our level and tonight was absolutely shocking but that said call me shallow but I’d much rather win 10 in a row than have a gallant losers decent run in Europe this season

Seville run was great In 2003 but at the end of the day We won nothing that season and the Huns won a treble

 

His position should be in question at this point.

If this was just some freak result with us being completely * and them playing out of their skin, then I'd still be * off, but I could live with it. Whilst there were some undeniably poor performances, the real issue is the completely bizarre, and frankly inept, tactics we've seen time and again. He just refuses to learn from his mistakes.

I thought it was bad enough when he was seemingly reluctant to play two up top against weaker opposition, despite it clearly suiting us better, but tonight's formation was something else. Then you have his refusal to make changes and completely incompetent use of substitutions. I don't know if it's a pride thing, in that he doesn’t want to admit that he's made an * of it, but he regularly sticks with formations or tactics that aren't working. Then when we do get a change it's usually after the 70th minute and, more often than not, it's the wrong player being subbed. It's * us in Europe repeatedly and while we get away with it domestically most of the time due to the gulf between us and the rest of the league, the Kilmarnock and United games should be cause for concern.

What's truly worrying me though is the team selection. Brown is clearly struggling and it's literally costing us games, Forrest needs a break (and some competition) and he's forcing players into the starting XI regardless of whether or not it works. Why is Christie being forced out of position instead of playing Klimala, an actual striker? I'm sorry, but I don't buy the 'he's not match-fit' excuse. I'm not expecting him to last the full 90, but I'm genuinely struggling to believe that we couldn't get at least a decent hour or so out of him. The guy seemingly has a good attitude, he's putting in the effort and he's previously scored for us. What more can he do? If he turns out to be a bit of a dud, so be it; but at least give him a * chance. How many players have we bought over the last few years and barely given a runout? If you're Klimala, Soro and Connell you’d honestly be wondering if you've made a mistake.

Tonight was an utter disaster, but those post-match comments are even more concerning. Not only is it a blatant attempt at deflection, it's dressing room poison. This result likely ensured certain players will be leaving (i.e. Edouard) but all his comments have achieved is potentially weakening our negotiating position and stirring up drama. It honestly reads like petty high school bullshit. Between this and our * domestic performance, there's definitely some alarm bells ringing.

He won't be sacked over this and he certainly won't walk. Regardless of how this season pans out, he needs to go next year. There's been clear regression and we're in desperate need of new ideas.

 

Klimala isn't "match fit" because Lennon hasn't been playing him alongside Eddy in league games where we should by playing two up front every * game. It's his * fault Klimala isn't match fit!

 

He came out after the game talking a power of * about certain players not playing like they want to be here yet doesn't start the guy who spent the entire covid break putting extra work in to improve his physicality for the league because he felt he needed to improve there. He has a guy who didn't play much last season and rather than let his head drop and wait to get out out his misery, has put work in and effort for the manager and the team. His decisions have contradicted his own complaints tonight. Those comments haven't sat well with me and I think he's a bit of a coward for them. He has one striker who has worked his * off to try and get a chance here and one who has just scored at the weekend yet started none of them. Worst case scenario, if they aren't really that fit, is you sub off the fitter one at the 60 minute mark and get the other on. That would fit his unwavering desire to refuse to play the 352 that turned around the season domestically last season after we became stale too.

I can't understand him. He's baffled me tonight beyond belief after praising him so much for his work domestically after January. He's a shitebag in Europe. Shat playing the 352 against Copenhagen (Opting for * right back Ajer with Frimpong on the bench and the centre half where Ajer should have been gifting a goal) and he's shat it tonight by showing a pathetic lack of faith in anyone but his personal favourites (I mean come on to *, he'd rather play an attacking mid who is at his best facing goal as a false 9, like he's playing draft on FIFA). Rodgers is an * and had flaws with no plan b but no doubt we'd have gutted this mob tonight had we had a manager with similar coaching ability to him

 

The result ain't unexpected, regardless of being 1/3.

Have to say we look like going full circle back to Ronny days with players looking jaded.

Even the team is a majority of Ronny and BR team, no mark of NL about it, goalkeeper because they all left and LB for KT who left, RB who got old. The rest is just a team that has started to stagnate again.

The recruitment at the club is bizarre, guess the Schved deal with BR doing a press conference saying he didn't have a clue about him was the writing on the wall. That seems to have continued with NL not freshening up the team or having any trust in newer faces.

Tonights striker debacle and most worryingly that press conference to me doubts this season big time now.

Lenny for me was the guy I wanted to do the 10, but when he came through the door I mentioned I didn't trust him to do it, I'm hoping I'm proved wrong.

But tonight and with the probable loss of our best player I can't see it at all.

 

I couldn't agree more. I wasn't keen on giving him the job in 2019 - I doubted he would be able to lead us to 10IAR (unless Rangers get into financial difficulty again). I have never rated Lennon as a tactician - I don't ever recall seeing a game where we were being outdone tactically and he has made a change and turned it around. He usually only makes like for like substitutions and, even then, almost always too late.

I don't know why anyone is surprised that he is blaming the players - that was his usual refrain when he was here the first time and we had a bad result. When he came back (very luckily in my view) - he held back a bit but I'm afraid he still reverts to it (when we lost to Cluj last year - another tactical disaster against an average team).

Even a couple of weeks ago at Kilmarnock - him + JK were simply staring into space when our tactics didn't work and the substitutions that day were baffling.

I have no hesitation in calling out Lawwell but so far we have forked out 4.5m on a goalkeeper and 5m on a striker and we are at least talking to Turnbull, Duffy and possibly Hickey.

I don't think at this point, he can be accused of not being willing to spend in pursuit of 10IAR.

However, you can have great players but if you don't have tactical ability - they can be wasted. I also think his tactic of blaming the players won't work - he could end up losing the dressing room as he did at Hibs.

As someone else has pointed out - you could see Edouard, Ajer etc thinking about moving on. The SPFL is no great attraction and now there is no ECL either. Let's be honest - Lennon is not a renowned coach, good players are not going to come or stay just for the opportunity of working under him.

I have no doubt that PL will stick with him. However, as much as I hate to admit it, Rangers have improved. If they don't collapse like they did after Christmas - 10IAR is in real danger.