Lee Naylor has given a fascinating insight into Celtic’s season of disaster to Mark Wilson and Simon Donnelly on The Huddle podcast.
The defender enjoyed four season’s playing for the hoops, signing for Gordon Strachan, falling out of favour with Tony Mowbray then returning to favour under Neil Lennon as he replaced soon-to-be World Cup finalist Edson Braafheid.
After moving south to play for Cardiff and Bradford Naylor became an agent with Mikey Johnston one of his clients.
Speaking with Wilson and Donnelly he referred to Celtic as we throughout the chat, sharing his disappointment at the way this season has turned out plus giving a little insight as to what goes on behind the scenes when you are looking to deal in the transfer market.
Peter Lawwell wasn’t mentioned by name at any stage but it was clear from his comments that Lennon had little influence in the recruitment of players.
Equally the club was unable to move players on despite Lennon highlighting the issue in August after losing to Ferencvaros with five weeks left of the Transfer Window.
CLICK HERE for Naylor’s agency profile.
10 min 15 seconds
When you have got five or six wanting out the door then you can’t recover from that, there’s absolutely no chance that you can recover from that.
Then on top of that you have players that have come in and just been well below par. You can’t make up for that in a season, you are always on for a downfall.
31 min
I’m pretty shocked that nothing is in place but I have to watch what I’m saying because I have to deal with Celtic. To be at Celtic you have to have a certain mentality, you need to have a certain mentality to withstand what is needed to be a Celtic player.
You need people in place who understand certain players and how they play. You have to have a certain mentality to be a winner, you have to filter through all the rubbish to get through to the good players that want to come and make a difference.
34 min 15 seconds
I put a few in at the start of the season but there was no takers. There was a centre midfielder and striker. They were top, they would have fitted in well. Nicky Hammond was there at the time. I don’t know if Lenny had much say, to be honest.
It depends on what a manager has to say, if he’s ruling the roost but I don’t think Lenny had much say, especially this season, and I think you could tell.
Asked if the players in the Dressing Room would have realised that situation Naylor replied:
When the players come into a dressing room, it’s tough I need to think how I phrase this, it’s one of them, I have to deal with Celtic.
At that point Wilson and Donnelly took over which probably tells an awful lot about the conflicts of interest inside the club this season.
