Some Celtic fans express anger as Neil Lennon makes squad decision

By David Walton

January 28, 2021

Neil Lennon made a bold decision last night as Celtic secured their first win of 2021, and it hasn’t gone down well with Hoops fans.

Indeed, the 2-0 success against Hamilton didn’t have a particularly glorious feel to it. It was three points and a win which is always welcome, especially when you’ve gone four games without one.

Even so, given the situation surrounding our season, the title race, and the club in general, last night’s win had nothing more than a friendly feel to it. A game of very little significance in the grand scheme. The win being the only real positive as we finally decided not to drop any more points.

However, Lennon ensured that there was a major talking point to come out of it. The dropping of Greek goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas.

The manager threw in Scott Bain after claiming that Barkas isn’t “up to speed”. He also stated that he hasn’t settled [Daily Record]. These are truly worrying claims given we splashed out £4.5m on him in the summer [Scottish Sun].

Neil Lennon decision on Barkas isn’t going down well with Celtic fans

It was an admission that Barkas simply hasn’t been good enough all season. He’s now seen what many supporters have been seeing all season.

But the fact is Lennon had previously made his decision. He put Barkas in for games against Dundee Utd, Rangers, and Livingston and stated he was set for more opportunities [Daily Record]

With fixtures against Hamilton and St Mirren at Parkhead coming up, an opportunity was there for Celtic and Barkas. A chance to bag him a couple of clean sheets and get his confidence going again. That seemed like the logical move to make given Lennon had publicly stood by the Greek stopper not even a month ago.

Celtic goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas / (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Now he’s decided to change things up once again. Bain may have bagged a clean sheet last night, but he’s proven in the past that he isn’t good enough to be number one. He had a spell in the team between October and November. During that period he let 16 goals slip past him in only six games [Transfermarkt].

It’s not a good enough stat that shows Bain isn’t the answer against better-quality opposition. And supporters certainly weren’t happy after Lennon confirmed Barkas was being taken out of the side:

https://twitter.com/KevMurrayOff/status/1354556817737715715

In other news, an SPFL manager has spoken out on a reported Celtic target.