Chris Sutton has delivered an ominous home truth to Neil Lennon about culture change.
After losing 4-1 at home to Sparta Prague on Thursday night it could no longer he argued that Celtic had gone through a blip or dip in form. Something far reaching is wrong within the club.
When a new manager comes in he’ll often talk about the need to improve training or change the players diet in a bid to buy time and pin any blame on the previous regime.
Lennon mentioned culture change on Thursday night, this morning in the Daily Record his former team-mate translated that phrase into football reality.
Neil Lennon now has a huge problem. If he’s talking about a culture change, well, culture change usually means manager change. There are issues everywhere.
On the pitch and off it against Sparta Prague, it was atrocious. The management and players must carry the can for the debacle. Neil is my mate. He was my team-mate. But you can’t defend that and, in fairness, he didn’t attempt to do so.
There’s been regression at Celtic this season. Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond will be thinking, ‘How is this going to change?’. This is where Neil is going to have to convince them with his work that he’s the man to turn it around.
How does he do that after talking about a culture change? He needs that change in 72 hours. There are so many things: his words post-match questioning players’ attitude and application, saying they lacked hunger? and calling them lazy, saying they don’t run. Ultimately the manager carries the can.
Later on Thursday, Lennon spoke about a malaise that needed addressed. Culture change and Malaise can’t be dealt with in the two training days between Sparta and Motherwell.
Fortunately for Lennon his appointment was heavily backed by Peter Lawwell, a CEO who isn’t known for admitting to mistakes even when they are staring him in the face.
Dermot Desmond tends to make the big decisions at Celtic as Ronny Deila discovered in 2016, whether that moment has returned or not remains unknown.