Neil Lennon has hit out at what he calls the hysteria from some Celtic fans for a boardroom overhaul of the club.
Chief Executive Peter Lawwell is now into his 18th year running the club but while recent domestic success has been celebrated the club’s European record shows how fragile that success has been.
Over the last two and a half seasons AEK Athens, Cluj and Ferencvaros, all unseeded have ended Celtic’s hopes of reaching the group phase of the Champions League before the Play Off round.
This autumn the club racked up four consecutive home defeats for the first time since the fifties, in Europe as the top seeds they finished bottom of their group with an 8-2 aggregate from Sparta Prague in the middle of a depressing sequence.
Since losing out on John McGinn the club has signed Youssouf Mulumbu, Vakoun Bayo, Marian Shved, Timo Weah, Oli Birke, Jeremy Toljan, Andrew Gutman, Manny Perez, Chris Jullien, Boli Bolingoli, Hatem Abd Elhamed, Greg Taylor, Ismaila Soro, Patryk Klimala, Vailis Barkas, Albian Ajeti and David Turnbull.
Only Jullien has made any real contribution to winning trophies although Soro and Turnbull, with less than 30 appearances combined do look like they could have a role at the club.
At the AGM Lawwell highlighted how the club had spent £35m in the last 18 months, with a 23 point gap at the top of the SPFL table Lennon feels that it is hysteria from fans to criticise the running of the club.
We had @DavFlan at today’s presser.
He asked Lennon about the huge discontent within the support being out of the title race at this point in such a monumental season.
??The audio will be discussed on The Preview
??Full unedited audio also available on Press Gang Podcast pic.twitter.com/lZeQlUTSHf
— The Cynic (@90MinuteCynic) January 26, 2021
The Cynic: There is significant discontent from within the support, many of us feel that we shouldn’t be all but mathematically out of the title race at this point in such a monumental season. Can you understand why the majority of fans are demanding such change at the football club.
Neil Lennon: No (long pause)
The Cynic: OK
Neil Lennon: We’ve won nine league titles in a row and four consecutive trebles which no other club has ever done so I don’t understand why, because we are having a difficult season, you know, there is this sort of hysteria to change the board, change the club from top to bottom.
That’s not what I’m seeing, I think that I know the club well enough. I’m not going to cut corners in what I’m saying. I understand that people may want to change the manager, a change of managerial staff but the way that the club has been run over the past 20 years has been absolutely fantastic.