It appears that new signing Jonjoe Kenny hasn’t quite gotten to grips yet with just how important this season was for Celtic.
The right-back, who arrived on loan from Everton on January deadline-day, has made a decent start to his Parkhead career. Kenny has played 90 minutes in three games against Kilmarnock, Motherwell, and St Mirren respectively. He has a 100% record in Glasgow too as he continues to rebuild his own career.
But what we walked into last month was nothing short of a total mess. 21 points behind Rangers, out of the Betfred Cup to Ross County, and out of Europe in embarrassing fashion before Christmas. And all in a year that was the holy grail – our big 10-in-a-row campaign.
However, it’s clear Kenny hasn’t quite managed to understand the gravitas of that achievement and what it means to Celtic supporters emotionally. He’s been discussing the season so far, and admits he can’t quite get this torrential rainfall of criticism the club has received at all levels.
As quoted by the Daily Record, Kenny said: “I don’t think Celtic need to prove anything. They’ve won nine league titles, Nine In A Row, Trebles. There’s a big fuss going round but what can you expect? You’re making a big deal out of one season.
“It wasn’t even one season, it was six months. We want to finish on a little bit of a high and that’s all we can really do right now. You can’t forget what this team have done over nine seasons. They have won trophy after trophy and that’s the standard the club have set.
“A drop in form is only natural. Things like that are going to happen in life – not everything will be perfect. We can’t forget what the club and the players have achieved.”
Jonjoe Kenny knew to the Celtic scene; certain things will be new to him
Perhaps this could be described as one of those culture shocks players from England get when they come up north. The pressure is just different in Glasgow, especially in this year of years.
If this was any other season for example and in any other circumstance, the criticism wouldn’t be so incessant. But you simply cannot overlook the context of the bigger picture here.
10-in-a-row was everything to the Hoops fans. It was never just another year. And the fact we’ve allowed Rangers to rise from what was then the Scottish Third Division to stop us reaching the 10 is unforgivable in our eyes. Failing to strengthen and allowing complacency to creep in. Refusing to make the tough decisions this season when it was clear things were going wrong.
Celtic aren’t being launched with criticism for a few bad months. This is the culmination of years of complacency finally catching up with us. Years of failing to build from a position of strength that would’ve left Rangers in our wake.
We all hoped we would reach the 10 before that happened. However, the fact we won’t be is yet a further slap in the face to a fan-base that has been singing about the potential achievement for the best part of nine years.
Not to have a pop at Kenny of course. He’s new to all of this. But if he’s wanting to know why there is such fan apathy and media criticism this season – this covers it.
In other news, Lennon has discussed the subjects of his recent one-to-one meetings with Peter Lawwell.
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