Former Celtic great Frank McGarvey has stated that Neil Lennon’s Celtic are more exciting than Brendan Rodgers’.
Rodgers infamously departed the club in a heartbeat midway through last season to become Leicester City’s new manager. But, despite the bad taste of that decision still lingering, nobody could deny his success here. He laid the foundations of the treble-treble, and won seven consecutive trophies in Scottish football.
In his first year, he managed to make us go unbeaten throughout the full domestic season. Lenny, however, has helped build an exciting attacking side that has goals brimming through them.
And McGarvey, speaking to the Scottish Sun, made the bold claim regarding Lennon’s team.
“Celtic have done very well under Neil Lennon. He knows how to manage there and he’s got off to a brilliant start — except for the Champions League KO. But they have got better and I like the way Neil’s teams play football.
“Brendan Rodgers was a very good manager and he’s proving that at Leicester, but I didn’t like his passing out from the back. Lennon’s teams get the ball forward quicker and they make chances and score goals — and the Celtic fans like that.
“It’s more exciting than it was under Rodgers.”
It depends what season you’re looking at
Nothing Celtic have had in a long time can compare to the success of Rodgers’ first year in Glasgow. It was sweeping, clinical, and dominant. Exactly what the fans were hoping he would provide.
Faults started to creep in during the second season. However, that was really only because of how faultless his debut campaign was. Celtic recorded back-to-back trebles, and continued to batter all before them in Scottish football.
However, there was certainly a growing frustration from supporters regarding the regression in the speed of our team. In Rodgers’ third season most notably, we were far too ponderous on the ball and moved it around the back for too long.
The football began to feel a bit stale. However, the frustrating thing from a Celtic perspective was that Rodgers left just as we appeared to be finding our feet again.
Lenny has come in and seen his team smash home 54 goals so far this season. He has the likes of Ryan Christie, James Forrest, and Odsonne Edouard scoring regularly.
McGarvey has a point about our lack of play at the back. Celtic are getting the ball forward quicker and looking to make things happen under Neil. But Rodgers’ time at Celtic was an incredible era for the club. Until Neil’s side starts winning trophies, it’s difficult to rank his team higher than Rodgers in any sense.
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