‘Bugging me for a long time’ Lennon’s incredible call out puts Lawwell firmly in the spotlight
Neil Lennon faces a very difficult task in the dressing room with problems that go above his pay grade to the boardroom.
The Celtic manager is a highly emotional character, what he says in the media is often a mask over his real feelings. At Dundee United on Saturday he praised the players for a great performance that took until the 83rd minute to score against a team that was in the second tier of Scottish football last season.
Lennon’s real emotions were probably much different to the ones presented to the cameras at Tannadice.
After watching a similarly wasteful performance last night compounded by the most basic errors the Celtic boss didn’t hold back.
He didn’t just criticise aspects of his side’s play- he went to the heart of the players professionalism. All that was missing was the naming of names which leaves almost the whole squad open to deeply damaging claims.
The Daily Mail reports Lennon saying:
There are some players who may want to leave and have made inroads into that over the last six months or so. If they don’t want to be here, we have to do something about it.
If they are making waves to leave the club they are obviously not committed. I’m putting it out there because it has been bugging me for a long time.
Celtic had a record amount of time to prepare for this season, they were given extra time and home draws to assist their seeded route to the Champions League group stage.
Players that have an eye on a move elsewhere should have been moved on with replacements brought in for the pre-season trip to France. There were no new signings at Loughborough or the three matches in France.
January signings Ismaila Soro and Patryk Klimala have made the same impact as Marvin Compper.
The season to date has resembled a shambles.
If the situations created by Leigh Griffiths and Boli Bolingoli are anything to go it seems that no one is running the show.
Whatever else he lacks, and it’s a lengthy list Peter Lawwell knows how to sell footballers.
Whoever Lennon is talking about needs moved on ASAP with fresh faces brought in. If Lawwell shows the levels of leadership that allowed Griffiths and Bolingoli to crash the early weeks of the season then there is much deeper pain to follow than watching Ferencvaros join the Hall of Shame that already features giants such as Cluj, AEK Athens, Maribor and Malmo.