Neil Lennon knows the seriousness of Celtic’s league position after watching his side lose their third game of the season.
Hearts 2-0 win at Tynecastle today exposed a number of flaws in the Celtic side even allowing for the absence of Emilio Izaguirre, Kelvin Wilson, Scott Brown, Biram Kayal and Joe Ledley.
Celtic’s next match is away to Kilmarnock on October 15 with Lennon aware that any further slip-ups will raise questions about his own ability as much as his side’s title hopes.
“It’s redeemable but I’m not going to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes- we can’t afford to lose games,” he admitted after the defeat to Hearts.
“We lost four in the whole of last season and we’ve lost three already- I know that it’s not good enough and I have to get things right very quickly.
“I’ve got a lot of thinking to do, do I change the system, do I change the personnel but we’re looking for a bit of consistency and not finding that.”
Please dont think any longer just write it down and hand it in tomorrow CHEERIO
I think we have to get ready for the end of Neil Lennon as Celtic manager. It pains me to say this but he appears lost. He doesn’t seem to know which way to turn. Too many players are letting him down, others are unavailable to him. Makes no difference what the circumstances Sally and Rangers will get a huge boost from these performances. Rangers don’t need to play for them to gain a psychological advantage. I know it is early in the season but does anyone really believe Celtic will win 76/77 points from their last 29 games to ensure they win the league. I don’t see Rangers losing more than 3 or 4 and with the same number of draws they look like a shoe in.
I thought it would take 94 points at least to win the league but it may be even less as I don’t see Celtic getting more than 85. And with supporters disappearing weekly this may be a very long season to endure.
We are screaming out for consistency….but the only problem being he consistently picks Dan or Samaras who are both woeful.
Today wasn’t the time to throw Commons in well short of match sharpness, should have been hooked at half time as he was clearly a yard off the pace.
Forrest also flattered to deceive, final ball was too often wasted.
We needed action some weeks ago…now it’s getting desperate
I’m beyond angry with Lennon’s reign as manager. Having attended the 2-0 humiliation at the hands of the mighty Ross County in the cup i have always been apprehensive about his tenure.
I liked him as a player and like him as a person but i believe he is well out of his depth as celtic manager. He seems to have very little tactical know how and his teams seem to lack motivation, passion, commitment and heart. We don’t look dangerous going forward and our defence is alarmingly open.
I honestly don’t see any positives in Lennon continuing. I hope that the board have been prudent enough to have a plan b.
IMO we need a manager who can motivate celtic to absolutely tear spl teams apart and to at least compete in Europe. How about showing vision ambition and audacity and offering O Neill a one year rolling contract?
Just heard Lennys after match commnts on Sky seems it was all Commons fault.Well i thought we were already one down when he got sent off plus was it him who had stokes and Paddy on bench please do the right thing
LENNY GO NOW
I agree John D. Lennon has allowed the external things to take his eye off the ball. If we don’t replace him now, the season is over. He frankly, is doing a lousy job. He never takes the blame always pointing to others. The fact is he is the boss and is allowing a clown like McCoist to be that far ahead of him when really, there is a gulf bigger than the moon between them in class and ability. We all know Lennon has been singled out by many, including the courts obviously, but why should Celtic allow this to kill our chances of things? Lennon needs to do the right thing and quit, even if only for himself. The whole situation with Lennon now has become all about him and his focus on Celtic has gone. We still have time to sabve this season, but one more defeat and thats gone too.
IF mcoist is a clown what is lenny? get him out now or it will be too late. none of this hes one of us nonesense, were all are ,,,one of us,,,lenny picks the team,,hes to blame end of story
Thought Commons was one of the better performers earlier in the game to be honest. I agree with your point that action should have been taken weeks, if not months ago. Celtic still need a goalkeeper, a CB and an experienced striker (Although he didn’t have long I thought Stokes was abysmal today). The worry thing is what Lennon said about belief. These guys have absolutely no fight or belief in themselves. If we go a goal behind we will lose. Players hide, they don’t want the ball. There is something fundamentally wrong and I am surprised because I genuinely believed they would progress this year. I fear it is all too much for Lenny and that it will be back to square one before the split again.
He should GO now. He is tactically hopeless and his constant team selections are baffling.
Is it NL’s fault that we didn’t buy that Polish goalkeeper or even look at a center-half during the summer. Every single fan knew during the summer that we needed the three quality players that we were promised by Pinnochio Lawell. NL is going to end up just another scape goat for our lovely board.
Yippee ! We’ve got zero debt ! Who does that benefit? DD ? PL ? Certainly not the fans our our football team.
I said when he was appointed…it was a cheap option for the Board …and a heart ruling head situation for the support.
The Celtic job is too big for a novice ..as we’ve proved many times in the past….and are proving again..now.
The expectation level and pressure to win every game can only be handled through experience …or a newcomer with genius…and Lenny has neither.
We’ve tolerated his inadequacies because he’s one of us..and because of the despicable way he’s been treated in this country…but the Club has to come first now…and he needs to go.
I have to agree about the lack of experience. You cant have the whole management team and the whole football team all trying to learn at the same time. We desperately need quality and experience somewhere, either on the pitch or in the dugout. But surely there’s got a be a better option than going through the whole new manager, new players- the board pulls the financial plug in the second season farce again. It’s getting truly pathetic.
What about a really experienced, high-powered director of football ? Somebody that the board would have to listen to.
a character like mon was the answer… trouble is that mon frightened the board, he was his own man and that is what the board/ any board cannot tolerate.
not saying the neil is a yes man, but certainly not the big character of mon.
but here we are again, a bluenose team that is as bad as we can remember and now maybe on the way to another SPL.
sick, aye, well sick but the buck stops above the manager… ITS THE BOARD PEOPLE _ ITS THE BOARDS FAULT !!!!
btw, i’m a diff johnd… tho pretty much agree with my namesakes posts… for what that is worth.
Agree that the board has to shoulder some of the blame but Lennon has been allowed to assemble an entire squad since taking the reins. His away record in scotland and europe is shocking. Poor team selections and an aura of apathy from a lot of the players.
I’m sick of investing hard earned money in trips over when we are trailing a pathetic rangers (and Motherwell.)
I take the point that MON scared the board but have they now finally learned their lesson after going for the cheaper options in Mowbray and Lennon?
Any suggestions on a new manager?
We are in deep deep trouble because Neil didn’t stand up to the board during the summer over his budget. He should have said back me or fire me, they’re going to fire him when he should have walked.
For the first time in my life I thought people were agreeing with me but it turns out it was John D!!!. Although, I too, concur with my namesakes opinions.
DerryCelt, I am at a loss to think who would come to Celtic. I really think that it is time for a foreign coach/Director of Football combination. We must stop thinking in terms of Scotland and England and adopt a more European approach.
England is relatively unsuccessful as a European force despite all the cash they have, remember only two English clubs have won the European Cup in 20 years, and only three times between them. There are many managers doing excellent jobs for unfancied teams who are doing well in European competitions.
Maybe one of them would want to come in. I think waiting for Owen Coyle to get sacked at Bolton is definitely not the way to go (although members of the Board may disagree, after all he did support Celtic as a boy! As did we all).
I agree, Coyle is not the man Bolton seem to be imploding. MON would be an ambitious and audacious choice IMO but probably unrealistic. I think he would definitely steady the ship and would bring us success over a year or two.
In the long term we should look at the European context as you say there are plenty of precedents of unfancied teams doing well. Look at our own Shamrock Rovers at home!
Next manager must have experience and confidence and a decent track record. Somebody to make parkhead a place to fear.
Our season is shot if we lose one more game and that, is a ludicrous fact to face on the first week in October!
MON walked away. He has done it over and over again with different teams so I wouldn’t hire him either, but we are making poor teams look good.
We need an immediate change. We are being embarrassed in Scotland, playing right into the hands of the bigoted authorities. We were embarrassed in Europe once, then got a second chance and we do it all over again!
The board know this is a business, but a failing business is facing them today. This toothless team are being managed by a man who has, not for the first time, taken his eye off the ball. Itis basic arithmetic, he has to go. He is a failure.
We need to spend 10 million on 3 players in january and not drop another point for at least 15 league games or this title is gone, Lennons tinkering has cost us,I know he has had little choice in certain games because of injuries like today but he would have that bit of breathing space to get a bad result today if he had not tinkered in previous games.
Seriously worried, we look like we are getting worse by the week. How can we be losing title after title to that s#it team across the city? Drastic, miraculous improvement needed or sadly Lennon will be gone.
I can’t believe he went with 2 wingers at Tynecastle, that’s the last place where you should be doing that.
He did that at Inverness as well and that cost us the league.
Lessons are not being learned!
It’s a difficult but not impossible situation we are now in.
We look unfit & bereft of ideas and fight. I get the feeling that everyone, board, management and players are a yard off the pace.
I was worried that we hadn’t bought a quality striker for this season and whilst that’s not helping, more worryingly we’re not creating chances. Banguara’s header was his first chance in 3-4 games, Samaras is still there despite 3 league goals in 18 months. Commons’ tackle showed he wanted off the park, it was inexcusable, I doubt of he’ll play for us again.
Lennon won’t & can’t be sacked, he’ll consider what to do over next two weeks, he might walk.
It’s hard to know how he has coped between SFA, press, judiciary and various bampots threats & actions, but he’s looking ragged at the minute.
I think he’s too close to the players and is overcomplicating tactics and selections.
Now might be the time to bring in a director of football & O’Neil would be my preferred option.
Sentimental I may be but I’ll never call for Lennon to be sacked and I’m embarrassed that so many here have!
Why embarrassed that so many fans are calling for him to be sacked.Facts are we are now 10 points behind them and third in a 2 horse race.Todays result was not commons fault but yet again Lenny blaming anybody but him self [it wusney me it must have been chelsea fans ]
I’m embarrassed as there Celtic fans here are behaving like ‘chelsea’ supporters.
I didnt blame Commons for the defeat. I dont want a player who doesnt want to play and he wanted off, therefore his tackle. Only one thing could have resulted from his lunge and he knew it!
Lennon understands the situation as well as anybody, he’s right about the lack of fight within the team, maybe you think different?
Of course the buck stops with him, but supporting Celtic means behaving like a true fan, to me anyway!
Sometimes being a true fan means having to make difficult and emotional calls and for the sake of the club i think Lennon should go. The problem is lennon recognised two years ago when humbled by Ross County that the team lacked fight. In all honesty, despite a few decent signings what progress has been made since?
Being a true fan in my opinion is wanting the best for the club. I like Lennon, i think his heart is definitely in the right place and that he wants success more than any of us but the job may have come too early for him.
We need a manager who can make us look unbeatable in the SPL and a danger in Europe.
gerryd i agree with you.The rangers support and bigots and all the abuse couldn’t get NL to go.He should never walk and he won’t.
Give him time,and funds he will turn it round.And shame on you all who think he should go.
Blame the board,which contains the richest shareholders in British football.Put you’r hands in your pockets,bring back MON as director of football and watch us wipe the floor with the govan mob
It’s amazing how fickle some of our amazing supporters can be. Neil Lennon is Celtic through-and-through and I have every faith that the team will eventually grab a pair. If only we had a couple more Kayals and Mulgrews (Wanyama looks the part too), then we’d have the gusto and determination to pull through all of these difficult situations.
Today was disheartening, but in Neil Lennon I trust. Every day of the week.
HH
Nobody has said, Neil isn’t Celtic through and through, just not up to the job!
Also, you either have a pair or you don’t.
We don’t!!!