Chris Sutton has defended Neil Lennon but warned his former team-mate that the next few fames are going to be crucial.
Before the next International Interruption Celtic face Lille, Aberdeen, Sparta Prague and Motherwell with confidence fragile as the manager admitted at Pittodrie yesterday.
While results have been worrying the flat performances of the team and apparent detachment of the manager have caused more alarm fuelling rumours that the problems aren’t confined to the pitch.
Lennon is without first team starts such as James Forrest, Odsonne Edouard and Chris Jullien but that doesn’t tell the full story of recent results and a season that has barely got out of second gear.
Sutton has observed at close quarters the final days of Brendan Rodgers and Ronny Deila but feels that that stage hasn’t yet been reached for his former team-mate.
Picking up on Sutton’s appearance on BBC Five Live, The Sun reports the former Celtic striker saying:
Do I think he should walk right now? No I don’t. Do I think he is close to losing his job? Well, we all know the pressure is really on when you are the manager of Celtic or Rangers as they are both huge clubs. The issue this season is the team have not played well and in the big games Celtic have failed it is as simple as that.
The performance wasn’t good against AC Milan in the Europa League. In the second half I thought it got better as Neil changed the system to a back four.
They have a lot of issues still to resolve and the result against Aberdeen, I don’t think Neil should be sacked off the back of that performance. I thought it was okay, albeit Celtic wanted all three points.
You can’t sack a manager, if they win the game in hand, who is going to be three points behind Rangers at the top but the next few games are going to be crucial.
Sutton will be part of BT Sports coverage of Thursday’s match away to Lille.