What would the Neil Lennon new year review look like from a Celtic supporter’s perspective? Let’s find out.
This article is written by Kevin Cassidy, a passionate Celtic fan with lots of things to say about how this season has panned out.
You can follow him on Twitter @kevcass7.
Let’s get some things out of the way first, shall we? First of all, this is not an attempt to simply ‘bash’ Neil Lennon. If there was one person in Celtic’s history I would rather avoid criticising then, Lennon is right at the top of that list.
However, this season has just been completely unacceptable. It has become so corrosive within the support it feels like it almost got to the point where you either support Celtic FC, or Neil Lennon FC.
Performing any form of objective analysis on this season is, nearly, impossible. That, however, is what I intend to do. I don’t want to focus on subjective issues like team selections, various runs of form or tactics (a review of any of these does, in all likelihood not bode well for the manager).
I don’t even want to talk about the Dubai fiasco. Neil Lennon maintaining it was a good idea and that the repercussions are somehow not of our own making is reprehensible. Given what folk I know have gone through in the last 12 months it makes me too angry to discuss Dubai in a civil manner.
Instead, I will focus on 6 key points where the season not so much drifted away from us, but fell, painfully, off a cliff edge like a Wylie Coyote plan.
Crashing out of the Champions League to Ferencvaros
Everything about this result and the performance was unacceptable. Possibly more so because it felt all so familiar.
The first goal is something you don’t expect to see from an under 8’s team. The naivety of the second goal was something we’ve witnessed before (see Copenhagen or Cluj from last season).
The sense that we hadn’t learned our lessons from previous experiences gave cause for concern. Some did, and still will, argue that we should have won that game and take a ‘these things can happen’ type of approach.
The result and performance were concerning but the most worrying aspect of this debacle was our manager’s post-match comments. We all know what they were and can guess, especially now, who they were aimed at.
However, they spoke of an, at best, unsettled squad or, at worst, a squad almost on the verge of flatlining. The obvious concern was about players wanting a move for their own sakes – most would think of greed. Yet, these comments made me wonder if some players had had enough of the attitude from the management.
Rumours about the lack of professionalism have been seeping out of Lennoxtown like an out of control overflowing bath. When I heard Neil Lennon speak after the match I straight away thought about our pre-season and the condition of Leigh Griffiths. A player who returned so unfit he was left at home for a trip to England and France.
I wondered about guys like Odsonne Edouard, like Kris Ajer and even the likes of Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie. Players with a real chance of a career in the top leagues. I wondered if they saw this as a warning that they had to get out for their own good, despite possibly agreeing to one last push in the hoops during the summer lockdown.
It’s difficult to argue a poor result this early in the season should result in the manager being sacked, but very clear and stark warning signs were there.
Losing to Rangers at Celtic Park
After the result against them in December of 2019 we needed to lay down a marker, we needed to ‘send a message’. Well, we sent one but not one we hoped for.
We told them that, after two transfer windows, nine months of planning and a whole new formation we still had no idea how to play against their press. That performance was a joke. A joke the ilk Jim Davidson would utter; just despicable.
This game was the realisation of our worst fears – the ones many fans held after beating Hearts to clinch the treble-treble. This result called into question the recruitment of the previous year and of the manager’s in-game management.
The derby ran away from us, pretty much from the get-go, and it took until deep in the 2nd half for any meaningful tactical change to come. We didn’t even manage a shot on target – that, I think, says it all.
While the Ferncvaros result might not have been a sackable offence this one clearly was verging on it. That’s especially true when the result is taken in context; out of the Champions League, abject performances in the Scottish Premiership and a failure to find a way to challenge, never mind beat, an organised and disciplined Rangers team.
The whispers of discontent had turned into the humdrum of a busy pub (god, remember that sound). A section of fans were on the verge of open revolt.
Thumped by Sparta Prague at home
I don’t think I’ve seen a worse performance or result in Europe. This was worse than Maribor, worse than Malmo, hell it was probably even worse than Atrtmedia Bratislava.
This result is still too raw to even analyse properly without me ranting and raving. I mean how on earth did this happen? This was it. This was the ‘Mowbray moment’. I don’t think any Celtic supporter in any form of honesty can say a manager should retain their job after a result like this.
Again, like Ferencvaros, we’d seen the script before. We could see it coming but my god did it hurt. This was bordering on ineptitude.
Had Neil Lennon come out at this point and said that he’d taken us as far as he could he would likely have gone with goodwill: he’d have put the club before himself.
This was the point where we could salvage the season, we were teetering on the abyss. We needed leadership. Real leadership.
Thumped by Sparta Prague away
Bloody hell, not again. We started so well and then… oh I don’t even have anything to say about this that hasn’t been covered.
I should point out that I am not normally a man who advocates or takes joy in people losing their jobs but football is a different business.
If this wasn’t the turning point for the fanbase as a whole, I think it was for many.
This was a result so bad that, even now, when I’m in the supermarket looking for some beers for the weekend I have a bout of PTSD when I see Staroprmamen.
Knocked out of the League Cup by Ross County
The final straw.
This was the last realistic attempt to save the season. The last chance to keep our fate in our own hands. This performance just typified the season- abject, apathetic, abysmal – unacceptable. If the players had shown as much defiance on the park as the manager showed in his press conferences we might have been in a better position.
If the Sparta Prague game at home was the ‘Mowbray Moment’ then this was that again with Inverness Caley in 2000 and Artmedia away added in. Speaking for myself this was when I started to really turn against Neil Lennon. I had gone from wanting him to leave because it was the best thing for all parties involved to just wanting him to ‘get tae’. I couldn’t stand listening to him. I can see what is going on, Neil, and no amount of spin will do you any credit.
Well, I say I can see what’s going on, that’s if the dodgy stream I’ve paid £600 for (never mind all the adidas stuff I’ve bought) actually works.
This is where Lennon started to run the risk of ruining everything he had achieved at the club over 20 years – and that hurts to say.
I still have the black Umbro away kit from 2004 with ‘Lennon 18’ on the back. I was born in 1988. My dad is a Celtic lunatic, not fanatic, lunatic. My first game was Stirling Albion in the cup at Hampden in August of 1992. I had my first season ticket the following year and was in the Jungle for its last match. I am a veteran of ‘The Hampden Season’. This was one of the angriest reactions I’d ever had to a Celtic result.
Losing to Rangers at Ibrox
Even the most ardent of optimists must have looked at this game and thought: “WE. MUST. NOT. LOSE.” And lose we did.
The performance this time was alright and on another day we could, and should, have won. But come on. If we are going into a game in any season on January 2nd looking at it as a match of ‘save our season’ proportions then something has gone seriously wrong.
This was when I started to believe Lennon was being let down by those who have a duty of care to him. I began to feel about Neil Lennon the way I felt about Efe Ambrose: what was the point in getting angry at Ambrose? It wasn’t his fault he was not good enough – it was his manager’s fault for continually picking him. Such as it is with Lennon and the Celtic board.
Even now, even at this point, a change in manager could possibly have sparked a turn in fortunes where we could at least put some pressure on them, make them win it, see if they had the bottle.
Turns out Celtic had the bottle, just a pity it was on our tab, at a poolside bar in Dubai.
What can we conclude?
There are only so many ways one person can say ‘this is just totally unacceptable’. I see many people say doing something like this is ‘cathartic’. Nah, not a chance. It’s just reminded me of how much we have messed it up this year. It has just reminded me of how much contempt the board have for us.
Let’s address this in ‘business speak’, since it’s all the board seem to acknowledge. Everyone, from folk working in bars being assessed on offering a double, to a lawyer being assessed on getting the best possible settlement for their client, to the government …. Well aye, maybe not the government. But they are all assessed on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). From August to January Neil Lennon has surely failed in all of them?
In any other walk of life, your backside wouldn’t have hit the pavement on the opposite side of the road.
The much talked about review will likely not see the light of day and I will tell you why – Peter Lawell has had to be the fall guy for Lennon. I mean, I’ve had some iffy performance reviews but never have I had one that bad that my immediate superior felt the need to tender their resignation. To add some context to that I used to work in a well-known fish and chip ‘restaurant’ that once sold a banana supper masquerading as a fish supper.
Ultimately, what is most concerning is that this season is pushing boundaries for what constitutes an acceptable standard for a Celtic manager.
We can only walk-on in the hope that next season will be better.
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