Celtic fans reacted with dismay to a report that the hoops board are prepared to leave Neil Lennon in charge until the end of the season.
The Daily Record picked up on a report that appeared in the print edition of the Daily Mail, a publication with a strong track record of anticipating the decisions of the Celtic board.
Lennon has been defiant about his position since the first signs of supporter unrest came to light in November. At that stage a case could be made for ‘Keeping The Faith’ but with the season descending into a shambles it seems obvious that urgent change is needed.
Over the last three seasons Celtic have failed to take advantage of a seeded route into the group stage of the Champions League, expecting a new boss to build a side capable of navigating through the tougher qualification route available to the SPFL runners-up is a far taller order.
A major rebuild has been anticipated for some time with Kris Ajer, Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie entering the final year of their contracts and Scott Brown turning 36 in June.
Two years ago Leicester brought in Brendan Rodgers to take charge of their last dozen matches, having assessed the squad he made the changes from the inside with a fifth placed finish last season and a team again in contention for a top four spot and automatic Champions League entry.
A similar task is required at Celtic but despite creating a number of unwanted records this season the club is in no rush to make changes with the manager’s job the obvious starting place.
Celtic ‘would prefer’ to keep Neil Lennon until the end of the season ahead of operations overhaulhttps://t.co/061OBmDMTW pic.twitter.com/8ya7HSgIGy
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) January 22, 2021
The season has ended.
— CG44 (@Ticketustastic) January 22, 2021
The common sense thing to do would start the overhaul now to be ready for next season but usual celtic, we’ll go into CL qualifiers playing midfielders in defence. Common sense left this board some time ago
— Crackerman (@mostlyceltic81) January 22, 2021
Perfect, that would give the new management team about five weeks to prepare for the European qualifiers. The type of forward planning we’ve come to expect.
— Bucket Nut (@Clarrknulp) January 22, 2021
Risking Europe then, which is par for the course really.
— Jim Toal (@JimToal3) January 22, 2021
PR statements through the Record or Sun instead of engaging with fans directly @CelticFC are a disgrace @CelticSlo
— Para Handy (@Peeanay) January 22, 2021
So once again we enter Champions League qualifiers unprepared and in the middle of an ‘operations overhaul’. There’s another year without Champions League football ?
— James McErlean (@jamesmcerlean12) January 22, 2021