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.”
The support have a lot of thinking to do aswell, do we continue to support the board finacialy do we continue to back the manager, do we continue to attend the games, do we continue to buy the merchandise, as I’ve said a lot to think about.
For me I’ll back team through thick and thin.
KTF.
The board need a kick in the b@ll$,
stevie am not getting at you here but that mentality is exactly what the board want and is the reason we are so bad. they know that they can spend as little as possible and put out a poor team and the fans will keep being there keeping the faith!! well its time to stop and give the board something to think about because quite frankly they do not care. yes lennon will take most of the blame but fact is there has been one constant over the past few hapless managers and that is a board who do not care about football!!!
Jebus
I think I should explain myself further, when I say I’ll back the team through think and thin I don’t mean any individuals just the jersey. The board have a history of not investing in the team, other than Martin O Neil I honestly can’t remember a time when the Celtic board spent heavily to the benefit of any manager or the support.
So what would you suggest we do, because I feel the board will be getting the message just now, look at the attendance at the Madrid game 25 30 thousand at most bit more investment in the team the stadium would be full.
So am in total agreement with you on most things mate.
I don’t care about individuals, manager, players, board members, owners, Ive watched to many come and go who don’t give a
feck. So I back CFC on the park.
i think in there arrogant little minds they will put the udinese attendance down to the kick off time as they are so out of touch with reality.
i have the exact same feelings as you and i can see thats why it hurts us so much when we are being taken for a ride by the board.
It’s a sad state of affairs for us! We are a poor team despite having some good players.
Big Dan, Sammi and Ki Would be the first out of the door because I don’t think they have the heart for it.
The main reason the the Rangers keep winning is because, for what ever reason, they have a settled consistent team who all want to play for the club. We, quite simply, don’t.
We have to ask questions of the board, the management and of course the players.
For Rangers to win 4 in a row in quite simply unacceptable and if it happens, more than likely will, we need to stand against the board. Again!
The board have to take a major share of the blame, penny pinching with both Mowbray & now Lennon. Fans spend a great deal to support / back the team and in return expect much more than we are presently getting.
Giving Lennon the job was a HUGE risk, when we could & SHOULD have appointed someone with a proven track record, someone who KNOWS the game, shown he can work with limited resources instead we are currently throwing good money after bad.
Lennon has been a disaster waiting to happen, as bad an appointment as John Barnes….clueless in reagrd to tactics, no contacts abroad where we might unearth talented bargains.
I couldn’t care less if he is Celtic through & through (Even if he did have a trial with Rangers)…Peter Grant was the epitome of a Celtic man but still not good enough.
Can we trust the board to find the right man this time….having failed several times I suspect it will come down to more luck than good judgement on their part.
To win this league is all that matters and unless we make drastic changes NOW we will once again be failures.
Couldn’t agree more on the board. They seem happy as long as the season tickets sell and supporters buy the t shirts!
I hope that Lennon walks before he is sacked though, I like the man but I think it’s too much for him.
I can’t bring myself to say he should be sacked either. However, I feel he is as good as gone because the current crop of players, in their current frame of mind, are not going to win 24 or 25 games out of the next 29. If you think they will please tell me what your drinking as I want a couple of pints of that.
Lennon talks about the lack of fight, belief and desire but that is his job!! He is supposed to be ‘Celtic through and through’ and needs to transmit that to players who look as if they have given up. If he cannot do this then why was he given the job. This is his best qualification for being appointed because he has nothing else on his management CV.
In any case all this ‘Celtic man’ crap is stuff from a by-gone age. Practically no-one in professional football cares about this any more and frankly it’s time we gave it up as well. As a qualification for playing for or managing a football club a love of the club should be very near the bottom. Get an experienced professional with a desire to win at the helm and he will learn to love the club. Stein, Dalglish, McGrain Larsson, Sutton, Hartson, Lambert etc, etc, etc were not ‘Celtic men’ but became ‘Celtic men’ after playing for the club.
Fully agree about this ‘Celtic man’ crap, sometimes it can cloud your judgement being a fan. Someone with experience and a cool head is what is needed now. We have a window of opportunity with the 2 week break, Lenny should do the right thing an admit he’s just to up to it. We would love him more for admitting it now rather than hand them 4iar.
After last seasons narrow defeat I expected much this season and was really looking forward to steamrollering the hun. What has happened to the team that showed so much promise last year?
I have not felt comfortable watching us once this year. We are too flat, too predictable, no spark, no verve, nothing. Its getting painful to watch. One other thing that worries me is the amount of times we passback to the ‘keeper. Big Dan is the biggest offender, so far we’ve got away with it, but its only a matter of time before someone cocks it up.
NL does not seem to have the tactical or inspirational qualities to turn things around. As a player he was a squareball man, seems he is carrying this characteristic into management.
Sorry Lenny but its time to to.
How long is it going to take for people to realise that playing football is a completely different skill to managing a football team! The board, with the fans approval, appointed Lennon, a man with absolutely no qualifications whatsoever. Why is anyone surprised the huge risk failed?
In his first season the league was already lost and we had only the Scottish Cup to play for. Lennon was outwitted by the manager of Ross County. That was the first clue not to take the experiment any further.
I remember last season the 0-0 draw with Rangers. Sammy missed a penalty that would have sealed the title but at the end of the match Lennon acted as if we had won the title already. All we needed to do was win our next 5 games. Of course we fell at the first hurdle in Inverness. The build up to that game was embarrassing, Lennon acting like a lost schoolboy, asking the press if they could tell him the definition of “bottle”.
We are an embarrassment in Europe due to bad tactics, nearly every game that seems to matter is lost, anyone with any football knowledge can see that Mistakeovich is finished, Sammy is a headless chicken and our team lacks motivation and direction. We have a clueless manager with a rookie backroom staff blaming the world for all our failures.
Someone please phone Martin O’Neill and ask him to at least lead us for the rest of the season. Lennon can go back to helping the reserves?
agree 100% will never forget him praising Sammi for being brave enough to step up for the spot kick Yes and he was happy with the draw as thats what he had set the team for dropping an on fire Commons and of course Stokes for you know who
Sion, St Johnstone, Athletico, Rangers, Hearts.
It’s only October but that’s five games we’ve lost already this season.
In each of the five we have been tactically hopeless, the team selections have on the whole been baffling, and the way we set out just totally wrong.
I never expected Lenny to be some sort of tactical master, nor do I believe that in football management that’s the most important attribute to have. What I expected of Lennon is that he would create a great team spirit, a fired up, determined and extremely motivated unit who would fight for each other and every inch on the park no matter who the opposition. Whilst we saw that in glimpses towards the end of last season, it’s clear that team unit is non existent at Celtic Park at the moment.
In fact it’s almost the complete opposite. We have the whole Commons situation, who on his day is arguably our best player, but it’s clear there has been some rift between him and the management. If rumours are to be believed this one actually turned physical between Kris and a member of the coaching staff, but I’ll give us the benefit of the doubt here and hope there’s no truth in that.
So on the whole, we are absolutely shocking tactically, as a unit we are disjointed and our defence is as bad as it’s ever been. Combine that with a clear lack of fight, motivation and team spirit and it’s just not looking good Lenny.
I haven’t heard any of the rumours about rifts but the way we are playing, the lack of desire, the lack of belief (I though the game in Madrid was the most frightened I have ever seen a Celtic team play) and the lack of fight indicate that all is not well behind the scenes. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to a bad defeat. It is the manner we have approached practically every game that is alarming. Every team in the SPL will believe they have a chance against Celtic now. They don’t believe they can beat Rangers. They are defeated before they go on the park. It was the same for us when we were 2-1 ahead at half-time. We never looked like we believed we could get a point never mind win. This is the real worry.
If Neil Lennon has Celtic’s best interests at heart and cherishes the fans respect for him, he should do the honorable thing and resign rather than letting good memories turn sour. If he resigned now 100% of the support would respect and applaud him. It takes a big man to admit he is not cut out for the job. I hope Lenny can show us he is a big man?
I can’t believe some of the comments here. Ten games in and people are clamering for NL’s head!
If I recall Ferguson went through exactly the same when he joined Man Utd as their manager and look at what he achieved.
You don’t turn into a bad manager over the course of a few games – time for the real supporters to get behind Neil & the glory hunters to go elsewhere.