What is least surprising: Celtic falling to another woeful European defeat against a side we should be beating? Or another former Hoops star coming out and defending Neil Lennon?
That’s probably a tough question to answer. But, luckily, we got a taste of both on Thursday night.
As Lennon’s disjointed side fell to a crushing 4-1 home loss to Sparta Prague, it was Paddy McCourt who leapt to the defence of his former gaffer.
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Former Celtic man Paddy McCourt / (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
And the out-of-touch message didn’t go down too well with vast swathes of the Hoops faithful who have, quite simply, had enough.
McCourt tweeted: “Disappointing night tonight but still only one game away from the quadruple treble and still well in the race for 10 titles in a row.”
While both of those statements are true, it simply didn’t wash with the online Celtic support.
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Join the forum now >>Here’s what some of them had to say.
10 in a row ??? Your kidding yourself, this team will never get to 10, we need change now, this squad don’t know how to play for Celtic, we really need the fans back in the stadium to show the players what this club means to them, maybe then they will want to play 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
— Bucky (@Jimbucky1) November 6, 2020
Wake up Pat, clearly a laughing stock! 4 goals at home to Sparta Prague (Lowest ranked team in the group) things have to improve or both silverware are in jeopardy
— Johnny Kyle (@JohnnyKyle1) November 5, 2020
Means nothing paddy when we know the future is extremely poor. We’re conceding nearly every single game and it’s more than 1 goal. We are shocking and let’s not sugar coat these issues mate.
— 🏴🇮🇪 Neach-Dìon na h-Alba (@DC94__) November 6, 2020
People were concerned about the 10 and tonight unfortunately proved them right.Somethings gotta give.
— Sanfranceltic (@Sme51899360) November 5, 2020
Pad come on, all of that is in jeopardy with this management team. Don’t like saying it but we are in serious trouble
— 🍀jinkynewton🏴🇵🇱 (@jinkynewton1) November 5, 2020
cmon paddy that only sits for so long. Been awful majority of season. Something needs to change. We are way off 10 in a row right now
— Celt (@eastendbhoy8) November 6, 2020
Sparta Prague thrashed us on Thursday / (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
C’mon paddy that’s a crazy comment
— Ryan O’Lone (@RyanOLone2) November 6, 2020
Sugar coating the cracks paddy.. it’s clear for all of us to see, the rangers are well up for stopping 10, can we say the same for our beloved team winning 10?! #Gutless
— Grainne (@Geemc90) November 5, 2020
Everything to play for domestically Paddy, not with Lenny at the helm though, there’s no coming back from this one.
— Paul (@Paul96256082) November 5, 2020
Behave!!!! The cracks are getting wider every game now.
Lennons time is up.
— Keith Robertson (@Krobertson5808) November 5, 2020
Take off the green and white tinted glasses Paddy.
— Conchobar Ó (@GogleddIwerddon) November 5, 2020
Paddy wake up pal. Change is needed
— george docherty (@georgedoc16) November 6, 2020
It hurts to say it, but change is needed now
I’m trying really hard to back Neil Lennon here.
I love him. He’s contributed so much to Celtic over the past two decades in so many different roles.
I can’t help but feel that time has caught up badly with him here, though.
Any other manager would be gone at this stage – after one win in six, and awful home defeats to Rangers, Ferencvaros and Sparta Prague in three months at the start of this season.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon / (Photo by Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images)
Add that to the Copenhagen and Cluj fiascos from last year and you’ve got five strikes. That’s far too many.
Sadly though, Lennon isn’t going anywhere in the next while. Even if we drop points at Motherwell on Sunday he will be kept on in the false hope that he can turn things around.
We’re too far gone now. Ten in-a-row looks a long way off at present.
Something has to change or we’re going to be cursing one of the worst seasons in the club’s history.