Neil Lennon has worryingly claimed that he should show loyalty to Celtic’s underperformers against Hearts next week.
The Hoops will face the Jambos in last season’s delayed Scottish Cup final at Hampden. Win and Celtic will manage to have won 12 successive domestic trophies and an unprecedented quadruple treble. Defeat, however, could see our recent momentum broken in extremely disappointing fashion.
The main highlight of Celtic’s recent renaissance has been the introduction of players who didn’t take part in last season’s Scottish Cup of course. The likes of David Turnbull, Ismaila Soro, and Conor Hazard never played a part last term. Instead, the likes of Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham were mainstays.
And Lennon has worryingly claimed that he could throw this season’s strugglers back in and drop those who have helped the team click in the last couple of games.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s coverage of Celtic vs Kilmarnock (13/12, 17:16), Lennon said: “You know I think I should show a bit of loyalty to the players who have been there, done that, and got us there. But we’ll take a look at that this week.
“It’s an important game to finish off the remnants of last season, but it’s a game we want to win.”
Lennon can’t allow sentiment to get in the way now
Yes, it would be lovely if the likes of Brown and Ntcham could just jaunt back into the team (and that’s who Lennon is talking about here), but they simply don’t deserve to be named in it. You can probably throw Ryan Christie into that mix too.
Lennon can’t risk this good feeling we’ve built up just so Broony can get a game and play in the final for example. Why risk us turning into a passive outfit once again just so a couple of underperformers can get back into the team and win a cup they’ve only played three games in anyway.
It would be different if Celtic entered the Scottish Cup at the qualifying stage and had to get through an incredible number of games to get to the final. Then there’s a moral argument to be made. But last season we only won games against Partick Thistle, Clyde, and St Johnstone before we dismissed Aberdeen at the semi-final stage.
It’s hardly some sort of glory run that needs to be capped off by the players who played in those games. It’s essential we keep our current run going, and in contrast it could actually be a good idea to give the youngsters a game in it so that they can experience what it means to be a winner.
Remember, it’s not as if the likes of Brown/Ntcham/Christie won’t get medals if we win the game and they don’t play. Of course they will – they’ve played a big part in the run to the final. But our momentum now is more important, and the best way we keep that going is by keeping Soro/Turnbull/Hazard etc in the team.
We have a full week to prepare for the showpiece event. Lennon has to stick with what’s working.
In other news, Shane Duffy has deservedly been highlighted by a BBC Sportsound regular.
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