Charlie Mulgrew defends Neil Lennon’s second Celtic spell, blames dressing room

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Charlie Mulgrew has defended Neil Lennon’s second spell at Celtic.

Lennon’s return to the Parkhead dugout was initially on an interim basis in 2019, when Brendan Rodgers jumped ship to Leicester.

Infamously, Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond offered him the permanent job in the shower area, after he delivered the Treble Treble with a win over Hearts.

Initially, the decision was vindicated by an emphatic 2019-20 season cut short by Covid. However, a disastrous 2020-21 season behind closed doors, saw Celtic blow their chance at winning ten in a row.

It started so well, but ended in disaster… has your opinion changed?

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Charlie Mulgrew says Neil Lennon was at Celtic in a ‘difficult time’ in 2020-21

Mulgrew said on the Go Radio Football Show: “Yeah, I think that second time around was ten-in-a-row. He stepped in at a difficult time.

“He’s done well, and then he’s not won that title, which is not going to go down well.

READ MORE: Hearts’ Oisin McEntee says he grew up watching Celtic, reflects on ‘amazing’ Parkhead feeling

“But I swear by that the changing room he had at the time didn’t help him. I think during the [first] time, [there were] a lot of British boys that knew what Neil Lennon was all about.

“He’s a straight-talker, which we liked. But no, he’s been a brilliant manager. His career speaks for itself. He’s done well at Hibs…”

Asked if the French players at the time didn’t want to be there, he replied: “I think Neil Lennon, if he builds a changing room of British-based boys that understand what he’s after… he didn’t have that, second time around.

“I don’t know [if Olivier Ntcham was difficult], but I do know that when you don’t have a British base and lads maybe aren’t used to getting spoken to a certain way or getting told straight, you need a British base.

“Like, there was me, Scott Brown, Joe Ledley, [Kris] Commons, Paddy McCourt, Mark Wilson.. And we would say to the lads, they would be a bit annoyed sometimes with certain team talks or whatever.

“We would ‘listen, it is what it is. He wants the best for us. If he doesn’t tell you, 60,000 fans will tell you. You need to hear the truth.”

In his own reflections on that campaign, Lennon has said that a number of players were in search of a move away in the summer of 2020, but no offers were forthcoming.

The unprecedented financial effects of the pandemic had an impact on the club’s ability to facilitate sales. This was out of Lennon and the club’s control, and undoubtedly a factor in how quickly things unravelled.

However, to reduce it simply to a lack of a British dressing room is lazy and reductive. Scott Brown was still at the club (ironically, one of the team’s biggest problems that campaign).

So too was his heir Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Greg Taylor, James Forrest and Shane Duffy. The dressing room wasn’t dominated by foreign cliques to the extent that Mulgrew suggests.