Celtic will lose their best players if Neil Lennon remains manager of this club.
With just two days until the transfer window closes, we’ve lost one of our best youngsters in Jeremie Frimpong. Say what you like about the young Dutchman, but he was one of our most-used players in 20-21. His potential, with the right coaching, is of a European standard.
That progression, though, won’t come with us.
And what of our current crop? Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer et al? They’ve had to drag us forward in games we should’ve have either lost, or tried to keep respectable. Edouard divides opinion but the fact is that he’s our best player. If I was his agent, watching Celtic today, I’d be on the phone.
And that’d not just be because of results. It’d be mostly because Neil Lennon continues to blame our players for his own tactical ineptitude. It’s not Edouard’s fault when his strike partner is taken off for a midfielder, then a different midfielder comes off for a striker. What is Eddy meant to do with that?
Even Lionel Messi would struggle under this management, looking around at his revolving cast of misfiring team-mates, and not knowing what position some of them are meant to be playing.
Celtic need reinforcements, but who’d take the risk?
At the moment, we stand to lose big time on Edouard and Ajer. Both are out of contract in just over a season’s time, and so they won’t be sold for their true value.
The Bhoys need bodies in, but when we’re battling with clubs like Leeds and Bournemouth, what’s the more tempting offer right now? We’ll have a more difficult route to the Champions League, and we were simply dreadful in the Europa League. So, yes, you could join for the big European nights, but it might damage a player’s stock in the long-run.
How did we get here?
Only last season, this squad made light work of the Scottish Premiership, while progressing past the group stage in the Europa League. Has Lennon just turned on his players? Did something happen during lockdown that removed every particle of confidence from these footballers?
Lennon is squarely to blame, here
On BBC Radio Scotland, Neil Lennon said after today’s defeat:
“I wouldn’t disagree with that. They’re human beings, at the end of the day. Maybe they’ve felt it more than others, or maybe some don’t understand the monumental achievement of what could’ve been.”
Well who’s job is it to motivate the players? Who’s responsibility is it to make sure the players know just important 10IAR was, while making them believe they could achieve it?
Neil Lennon. Yet, with every opportunity he gets, he publicly blasts the playing staff. Not once has he held his hands up after a disappointing result and say “look, I got this wrong.”
It says everything that there has never been an approach to steal Neil Lennon from Celtic. Never has his job security at the club been threatened by another club’s advances. That’s very telling. Every other week, some Premier League “giant” were wanting Brendan Rodgers, and that pressure eventually told.
Maybe it’s because players don’t like working for Neil Lennon. Of course, they’ll never say that publicly. However, in those same public spheres, Lennon dispenses blame like Paradise Windfall tickets.
God only knows what he says to these players behind closed doors.
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