Chris Sutton believes that Brendan Rodgers has left behind a bigger mess than Ronny Deila.
The Irishman delivered seven successive trophies taking turnover to over £100m but left in haste at the end of February with the Celtic squad dangerously thin.
Only Scott Bain, Kris Ajer and Ryan Christie have broken into the regular side since the Invincible season with the last three transfer windows adding to the wage bill but not the quality of the squad.
Whoever gets the job on a permanent basis faces a big rebuilding job on two fronts- bringing in new faces and trying to move on players sitting on lucrative contracts.
In the Daily Record Sutton compared the current situation with the position that the club was in three years ago:
Lennon is copping the flak for a ?stuttering end to the season but these people need to open their eyes. This hasn’t just happened in recent months – the rot had set in more than a year ago.
Celtic already have more points than last season, so it’s not only this term. No one can deny Brendan Rodgers was an outstanding coach for Celtic and his success speaks for itself. You can’t argue with seven trophies on the spin.
But he also allowed the club to regress over the last 12 months and has left a total mess for whoever is in charge to mop up in the summer.
In fact, you could argue Celtic are in worse state now than when Rodgers came in on the back of Ronny Deila. There is an awful lot work required at the club but it’s extremely harsh to be aiming the negativity at Lennon.
He laid his credentials on the line earlier this week and while he was well within his rights to stand up for himself, he shouldn’t have needed to.
Who else would have put their neck on the line like he has? When he took charge at a minute’s notice back in February, the only thing he could do was mess it up.
Celtic had breezed through a gentle run of fixtures when Rodgers did a runner but since then he’s had to play 12 matches and all but two of them against teams in the top six.
Despite intense speculation Celtic haven’t made any comment about a manager since appointing Neil Lennon as caretaker in February.
Following next Saturday’s Scottish Cup Final an announcement is expected by Celtic supporters.
