NEIL LENNON has warned Celtic supporters they will find it difficult to find better men than under-fire Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell.
The champions’ principal shareholder and club chairman have been targeted along with chief executive Michael Nicholson and finance director Chris Gray by The Celtic Fans Collective who are calling for sweeping boardroom changes.
The followers are angry at the team’s failure to overcome Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty in the Champions League qualifiers and for what they insist was a poor performance by the Parkhead powerbrokers in the summer transfer market.
Nicolas Kuhn was sold to Serie A Como for £17.2million in July with the club’s biggest outlay being the £5.2million spent on Tunisian winger Sebastian Tounekti from Swedish club Hammarby on deadline day.
IT TAKES TWO…Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond.
Lennon, the only man in the club’s history to win a treble as a player and manager, doesn’t understand the over-the-top criticism that is coming the way of Lawwell and Desmond, in particular, and had a short and sharp rebuke when asked about finding suitable replacements.
“Good luck,” snapped the Hoops legend who is now manager of Championship side Dunfermline.
Taking into account his old team’s domestic dominance in the 21st Century, Lennon, who had two stints in the Celtic hot seat, took an overall view of the furore enveloping the club and remarked: “I think it’s unnecessary, I don’t agree with it.”
Lawwell, who retired as chief executive in 2021 after 17 years before returning as non-executive chairman 18 months later, and Desmond gave Lennon his first managerial role in 2010 and the trio have remained close.
ON LAWWELL, the Northern Irishman said: “Peter is not only a great administrator, but very astute.
“I fell out with him loads of times, as you would do, over deals or contracts or whatever.
“But everything he did was for the betterment of Celtic Football Club.
“Every deal, every decision made, the club always came first.”
ON DESMOND, Lennon continued: “Dermot is a genius, for me. Not just from a sporting point of view, but an intellectual point of view.
PARADISE…Neil Lennon with a champions’ flag after the title success in 2012/13.
“He’s very successful, hugely successful, probably the most successful man I’ve ever come across, in terms of what he’s earned and generated and built in his career.
“He’s on an intellectual level of no-one else I’ve ever come across. He is very forward thinking, always looking to the future.
“Dermot is very proactive, I have to say, in supporting Irish sportsmen, whether it be football, golf or Gaelic football.
“He loves his sport and he loves Celtic.”
Lennon, speaking in a report in the Scottish Sun, added: “I think they’ve brought great success. They’ve fought many battles for the club — many battles they’ve won against the odds.
“I just think the success the club has had since 2000 has been incredible. The amount of titles, Champions League, the UEFA Cup Final, player trading, the money the club has, how well-run and sustainable the club is.
“The health of the club is what they think about going forward.
“They know they’re not going to be there forever, but what they’ve achieved on and off the field, it’s incredible.
“There’s no way Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers, Gordon Strachan, managers of this ilk, would have come to Celtic if it hadn’t been for Dermot.
“No way, honestly.”
