Not so long ago, I read a quote from Tony Watt saying that he didn’t want to be remembered as the guy who scored against Barcelona when fans look back on his time at Celtic.After us being knocked out of another domestic cup competition at the weekend, is Neil Lennon at risk of being remembered as the manager who beat Barcelona and took us into the last 16 ?
I’ve been going to Celtic games for as long as I can remember and outwith Seville, I can’t think of any better an achievement than getting into the last 16 of the Champions League. However, this season for me has been a massive let down.
I’m not one of the fans who think that Celtic have a right to win every match but as and when we do suffer a defeat, the one thing that I expect is for the players to go down with a fight.
I also expect our manager to change things to at least allow us to battle. Against Aberdeen, too many players were off form. Too many passes were not reaching their intended target. That’s ok, that sort of things happens but what is not ok is the fact that not enough of the players seemed to be willing to get the sleeves rolled up and get stuck in.
I think back to when Neil Lennon and Johan Mjallby were playing for us. They’d fight until the death and they’d never stand down against an opponent so why have they not passed that on to our players ?
While watching the game, it wasn’t going our way from early on so why didn’t the coaching team make any major changes? During Gordon Strachan’s time as manager, part of my criticism was that the football wasn’t particularly exciting to watch, this season, it’s felt similar to me.
My question now is what do we have to look forward to a Celtic fan? On Sunday morning, my first thought relating to the football was that Fergus McCann is coming back for the opening day of next season but there’s nothing in between.
This seasons signings haven’t exactly lit the heather on fire. There’s no cup football, there’s no European football to look forward to.
Is all that’s left for the season the thought of playing for a record that not very many people care anything about? I’ve said before that I don’t care about records, I’d much rather see us integrate younger players. That is of course, if we have any left as most seem to be out on loan.
The next thing that I want to comment on is the double standards that we seem to encounter when hearing about how fans are treated. Some Celtic fans have been arrested for signing some songs. I’m not looking to debate whether or not I think these songs should be legal or not.
But I do want to know why our fans are often singled out for when other fans can do what they like.
Aberdeen fans singing songs about Jimmy Saville and how we are in the
wrong country, there was songs about ferry departure times. Did anyone condemn them ? Not from our club.
Our club seem quick enough to slate our own fans but seem to be very quiet when other fans are involved.
I guess on a more cheerful note, there’s another home match next week and the result and performance of that match will be sure to dictate how our mood is but with no competitors in domestic football, I feel that we’re badly missing a chance to move forward with our club.
I thoroughly agree with your wonderful piece, but I would also like to add that the last few transfer windows have proved our lack of strength in depth of Celtic squad and Lennons reluctance to rotate the squad if he did this instead of loaning them out to the middle of nowhere I believe we would be stronger and hopefully compete at higher levels in Europe
If it wasn’t for a one horse SPFL, I think Lenny may have been struggling for his job this season. Cup exits to Morton and Aberdeen are bad enough, but he has also presided over one of the meekest CL campaigns arguably ever. It seems coming back from 2-0 down to a team ranked 320th in Europe will be our best moment this season
Good article. Aberdeen fans seem to get away with this sort of thing as merely ‘banter’ as they are portrayed as a non-bigoted team for all the family and I would have tended to agree before Saturday but the chants they indulged in would have been applauded by the deid club who previously used to indulge in these ditties. The biggest insult I can fire back to them is that they behaved like the worst of the huns. Yes, Dons fans, I am calling you huns!
Well if we continue to sell our best players what do we expect,, kelvin Wilson is the only player we’ve replaced, Hooper , Wanyama , now Ledley , in the summer big Forster , will go , possibly van djik , we need to start rebuilding big time , the hubs will be in the 1st division next year, we should be head & shoulders above them but at this rate will not happen , 10 in a row is wat we shoul be aiming for , still early days very early , also champions league alright we r not going to do anything but we should be aiming for last 16, come on celtic get things sorted
totally agree brian we have failed miserably to re-invest and enforce the squad which I feel for a team of Celtics stature is disgraceful
The club should learn from the mistakes of the past, we allowed both O’Neill & Strachan to remain in place too long. Now we are in severe danger of doing the same again with Lennon.
It is blatantly obvious the players are under motivated in too many games which comes down directly to be assured places in the team regardless of effort. The time is right NOW to make such a change. Re-invigorate the fans, the players and give a new man a chance to see exactly what he has and needs for the real challenges that lie ahead.
It’s better to make changes from a position of strength than try to attract someone when a club is in major trouble.
IMHO both Celtic & Lennon have already started on a downward spiral, let’s take action before it escalates.
Stevie,
Constructive critisism of Lenny,is valid.Re
team seletion,fight and samaras ?
However,I feel the players let their manager down.Commons is allowed an
off day.He has carried the team.Johansen
is just finding his feet,as is Griffiths.
But,the rest,should have been self-motivated to put in a shift.
IMO 6M has been wasted on pukki,balde
and boeriggter.This money should have
been spent on a target man.A crucial
position that has not been filled.So,yes
Lenny’s tranfers are ?
Maybe,I am too easily pleased,but if you
guaranteed me 10 in a row and qualifying
for group stages of CL every season,and
did not win any domestic cups,I would
bite your hand off for that scenario.
I remember the dark days of the nineties,
when the huns illegally bought 9 titles. I
never missed a Celtic game.Sometimes only 7 of us on the bus going to an away
game.
So,fellow Tims,let’s put a bad defeat into
perspective.At least wer’e not the manky
mob.
Lenny is still the man,to take us to ‘ 10 ‘
Although,the summer transfer window is
crucial for him.
Lawwell,has to put his money where his
mouth is.So, we can pay 8M for a striker ?
Lenny has to demand the funds from him,
as it’s Lenny’s job,which would ultimately
be on the line.
Keep The Faith !!
Excellent piece Steven.
I have a few points to make on the game which I find deeply worrying.
Firstly, Sammy to me, in that game put an end to any credibility that he has earned with his time with us. Slow, Lazy couldn’t be bothered, that just about sums him up. He’s a total passenger and it is beyond me why NL picks him.
Secondly, James Forrest is devoid of ideas and as soon as any team doubles up on him he is totally ineffective. Again at times a passenger.
Thirdly, I sometimes like Efe,s laid back approach but sometimes it borders on negligence.
Here’s some questions for NL or anyone who cares to answer.
When young Darnell Fisher has been playing really well and building a good relationship in defence do you drop him and play a far from 100% fit Mathews??
Johansen is being touted as a creative, progressive midfielder. Why do you play him sitting directly in front of the back four??
I am convinced and the proof is there for all to see that Broony is less effective when Charlie Mulgrew is not playing so why did you not slot Biton in as a direct replacement??
Why do we persist with zonal marking at corners?? We are just not good at it when we play any team with a bit of nous.
We were EMBARRASED by two ex celts in Willow Flood and Barry Robson, Aberdeen fully deserved their win and we have nobody to blame bar ourselves.
Hail hail
A real danger young Daryll will leave for free in summer under freedom of contract – he has not been sorted yet. This is crazy as the lad has bags of potential.
Williebhoy that’s nonsense , why get rid of Lennon ? The board need to spend , we bought , Balde & pukki, near 5 m,we could have bought the Icelandic guy, Shane long, or jelevic , we need to stop buying 8 players and hoping 1 comes good , buy 4 half decent players, Lennon is doing the best with wat he has got , whenever he builds a squad it gets depleted , true fully how many of the players would have stayed if Rangers were in the league , Hooper & Ledley I reckon would have stayed , start building now celtic no more cheap players
Many good points have been raised above but above all is the one that Lenny isn’t good enough for the role. One-off games causes him major problems when you look at the various cup results under his watch – Ross County, Kilmarnock, Hearts, Morton etc.
One of the key attributes that makes a good manager is being able to change tactics midway through a game and Lenny, in all my time watching his teams, is unable to do so.
I agree that players must shoulder some of the blame as well – what does Broony do to merit being captain of Celtic? It disappoints me that our centre mid cannot creates very few chances for our forwards and i find he always has to take numerous touches – he slows us down. I don’t see him encouraging his team mates but he does run about like a headless chicken! Should that make him captain? No, in my opinion.
I like Samaras but as soon as he said he wasn’t signing, he should have been dumped. There are many examples of him bringing players in from the cold are countless – remember Matthes for Barcelona. Get Malky Mackay
Neil Lennon, Johan Mjallby & Garry parker
JUST GO FFS!
UTTERLY SPINELESS, CLUELESS & DIRECTIONLESS!
SAMARAS GTF!
Man
On
Net
Talking
Incoherently
Team sheet right away on Saturday,Sammy (had his time,not signed new contract )CM injured,against a strong looking Aberdeen midfield,the two x Celts plus plus Peter Pawlett, throw in Mcginn and a young clever up and coming Manager,and the danger signs were there for all to see.
My Question would be,has NFL took us as far as he can take Celtic ?
And I have complete sympathy regarding his treatment at Tyncastle (twice ) the msm etc.
H H
The usual from Celtic fans.We lose one game have a bad day and all the experts are there with their solutions.This is the best Celtic team we have had in a long time.The manager has produced a winning team and the buys from his scouting system have been gold.We are unbeaten in the League and assured of Champions league next year .Aberdeen were lucky to meet us on an off day ,we had 57% to their 43% possession.If Van Dijk had scored from the corner when it was easier to score than miss ,we would have won the game.We have lost 2 repeat 2 games in domestic competition.Tell me what is the problem?
edward i agree 100 per cent.. were these guys at the game ?
For every Wanyama there’s been a Juarez or Bangura. And I don’t think buying players to sell should be held up as a managerial attribute. Lennon’s hand may be forced in that regard, but I’m not happy at having to sell to lesser teams and don’t consider it anything to write home about.
i stopped reading when you said this is best Celtic team we’ve had in a long time. Our top performers have been sold las 2 transfer windows and their replacements sit on the bench. #deluded.
well said edward hail hail
Best team in a long time.??? Are you deluding yourself . Or maybe you don’t go to games. Lennon is far from a good manager and his record is shocking. As for the duds he has sitting on the bench it makes me wanna cry.
“This is the best Celtic team we have had in a long time”, seriously mate, are you serious?
The current Celtic side still showed on Saturday and has shown for years that if you get in the faces of the team you can bully them to smithereens. I could list more than a few games where this has happened and I am sure you all can.
Whilst most points are valid lets remember, these player’s are brought to our club on a supposedly worldwide scouting program.I don’t think Neil Lennon should be held personally responsible it is a collective decision to hire or fire.What I do concede ,a manager is responsible for the players on the park,although only eleven can play at any one time.Let’s look forward and trust the club management,HH.
I think Lennon has taken the club backwards this season. His signings have been poor. His tactical awareness sadly lacking as proved on Saturday. The blind spot with Samaras. I would like to see a new manager in the summer.
yes i go to the games ,was not there on Saturday,watched on TV,two wingers once a mistake
(my thoughts on Sammy I think are valid)but this mistake has happened before,we are all entitled to an opinion,and im with Joes thinking HH
The players should be ashamed of themselves,if ever Lenny wanted a performance (after Tynecastle) then it was Saturday. Lenny should now realise some of these players are just not up to it.
Great article as usual Stevie
Made some great points, most of them absolutely valid
However, think it is time that we looked at the big picture. Time indeed to look at Lennon’s record.
His CV in cups, both as a player and manager is abysmal.
As a player under both MO’N and Ginger show that we lost more than we won. As a manager his record is even worse.
At the risk of alienting some of my great friends from my years on The HUB, believe it is time for him to go.
He cannot live on the memory of the Barca win. He shoul move on now.
This is where I might upset some of my old friends and comrades.
He signs players, keeps them on the bench, does not give them game time to prove their worth, but instead, relies on those who already there. Players who have shown so often that they are wimps when they have to come back.
Time to move on Lennon while you are still a legend, do this before your team selections and poor tactics destroy the memories
i agree. I wish Lennon all the best but he is not what is required to take our club FORWARD.
Firstly i would like to say, to Edward, “This is the best Celtic team we have had in a long time”, seriously mate, are you serious?
The current Celtic side still showed on Saturday and has shown for years that if you get in the faces of the team you can bully them to smithereens. I could list more than a few games where this has happened and I am sure you all can.
I have said on this site many times over the season, the strongest part of our team is our defence (only domestically speaking – still frail in European terms). We have nothing from middle to front, with the exception of Kris Commons who has simply carried the team all season.
We have a ceiling price, £2m. We wont go over this. Instead of buying a near finished diamond we are buying 3 or 4 to rough diamonds to hopefully turn one of these into a success. Instead of having one wage we have two or three, aka Balde, Pukki and Griffiths.
Big Bad John Hartson has said for years Celtic should bring in a £6m signing every window or season and who am I to argue with the Big Man.
Why bother with a youth team if we are buying all these rough diamonds from around the globe? Why bother. No one is breaking through.
Anyway back to the game on Saturday. Did I see that result happening beforehand? Definitely no.
Did I see that happening when the game started and during. Hell yeah.
First, why the hell did Samaras start? He should not even be on the bench right now. Lennon may have been right if Sevco were still in the league right now. “Samaras is the type of player who will either save my job or cost me my job”.
Anyone with any sort of football brain would have seen after the first 10mins or so that the Aberdeen midfield were gaining control of the midfield, in our faces, bullying and starting to boss it.
They had players receiving the ball, give and go and running beyond the strikers. Showing a willingness to go beyond the striker. Who was the last midfielder we had that done that, run beyond the striker?
At half time a change should have been made to get a midfielder on (Biton), maybe removing Johnasson who was not at the races at all. Too many mis-placed passes, playing what seemed to me further up the pitch, second to the ball (still to get used to the pace maybe). Before anyone jumps down my throat for already rubbishing Johannson then far from it. This guy needs time to settle in and I will reserve judgement.
By the time any changes took place we were 2-1 down. Why wait? You all must have seen what was happening.
Some Celtic fans will say that we have a strong midfield so we can afford to let Ki, Wanyama and Ledly go. Ok, but whats the point of having strength in numbers of many midfielders at the club when the quality of these players is average.
I said before the January transfer window that the next Celtic signings are Celtic’s and Lennons most crucial. We have wasted money over the past few windows with the exception of Van Dyke.
We have brought in so many forwards that only one can claim to be a success, Hooper.
What is really concerning me and similar to another post on this website is that, the Sevconians can only improve coming up the leagues. What looks to me we are becoming weaker and by the time they are back in the Premiership it will nearly be a level playing field between us and them. That should not even happen.
What have we to look forward to this summer, Foster and maybe Van Dyke going? (I can live with Samaras going).
More rough diamonds, more money wasted or will we spend this now £8m on a player?
HH
Sorry Brian everyone is entitled to their opinion and I have given mine…if we all agreed we wouldn’t need forums 🙂
Can you honestly tell me the players are giving their all – not just at the weekend but in too many other games this season. Are we progressing, learning from mistakes of the past – I’d say from the Juventus shambles to the AC Milan debacle it is clear we are not.
Money has been spent on Balde, Pukki etc….have they been given the run of games offered to others. I could accept if they both had 10-15 consecutive games and failed to make their mark but for some reason they have been ignored for Sammi & Stokes neither of whom look threatening. Given the same game time, I’d back the two new guys to outscore S & S current total.
We saw our midfield outnumbered at Easter Road recently, only great goal keeping & the fact they ran out of legs allowed us to pick them off…lesson learned, apparently not as we did it again v Aberdeen.
Totally agree Williebhoy.
We dont learn from our mistakes domestically or in Europe.
The same mistakes keep happening.
When will it all end?
HH
It’s time for Lennon to go in my opinion. His tactical nous was clearly lacking on Saturday and not for the first time either in important matches. Why does he persist in playing Samaras? The guy is not interestd in being here and only makes the team weker with hs inclusion. The players brought durig the summer have not been good enough with the exception of Virgil. A lot of money wasred on bench warmers or “ones for the future”. This years Champions league campaign showed were we are at in terms of quality on the park and with Lawwell’s obsession with bank sheets and profit margins i can see the team stagnating. The crowds are dwindling and the supporters are being fed the usual pre season ticket guff from Lawwell about £6m signings.