When Brendan Rodgers left us in the lurch in February 2019 we were fortunate to be able to turn to a known quantity in Neil Lennon as interim boss. His first week was totemic, wins at Hearts and Hibs sent him on the way to the league and Scottish Cup, completing our third successive treble.
Neil took the job on condition he was considered for the permanent position. Celtic agreed, but I doubt they expected he would get the job. Ultimately, hopes of attracting another tier one candidate were dashed, as you and I occasionally observe, Never follow Sinatra. Few wanted to fill Brendan’s sunbed. The choice was between Neil and an earnest candidate who had won promotion to the Premier League in England, before relegation and unemployment. Neil was thought to be the better choice by the club for what would be a pressured season, but it is fair to say there was consternation when the announcement was made after that famous Cup Final win over Hearts.
The fourth consecutive treble, by now an expectation in some places, was not as easy as previous seasons. Newco’s loss-inflated side reached their first final in five years, got to the last 16 of the Europa League and led the domestic table in January. After defeat at Celtic Park to their challengers on 29 December, Celtic won every game for the remainder of the domestic season in league and cup. It was a fantastic response from a manager who looked to be on the ropes.
More impressively, a difficult Europa League group was won; famous victories over Lazio will live long in the memory. Last season, Europe also provided a portent of troubles ahead; an inferior Cluj, eliminated Celtic in the Champions League qualifiers, Copenhagen amazed themselves by doing the same in the Europa knockout rounds. Something was not right.
The capitulation this season has few precedents in our history. Despite retaining all key members of the side, ignominious defeats arrived in waves. Ferencvaros, Sparta Prague, twice, Ross County, twice, Newco at Celtic Park without making an attempt on goal. The Europa League group was an omnishambles until Neil rested players for a dead rubber against Lille and discovered talent waiting in the stands. This helped his cause but not his reputation.
I don’t buy the theory that were disproportionately affected by lack of fans, we made a series of missteps, in magnitude no greater than at the start of Brendan Rodgers last season in charge, but this time our challenger scarcely lost a goal, never mind a game.
With the direction of travel well established, there was a window to change manager in the autumn. When I argued the case to act for the good of Celtic’s season, I was counselled on the need to attract a manager who would work for a club who will sack a manager that’s never lost a trophy and had only lost one league game. There would be some takers, but not the ones you want. I believe this avenue was considered. Our options were John Kennedy as interim or a candidate miles out of their depth.
Among the many emotions Neil Lennon will feel today, I am sure a sense of disappointment in how he was treated by some among us. As well as giving us some great days, the worst that can be said about him is he made several bad football decisions. After what he has been through to be a Celtic player and manager, his treatment in places was atrocious.
I remember Jock Stein’s last four seasons, that produced only one league title, not to mention Gordon Strachan’s four, which resulted in only one league loss. Both were hounded by uncontained angry fans. The only difference now, is that the uncontained have social media to organise around. Neil, is in good company.
He will undoubtedly experience relief, but Neil has opened up previously on his fragilities, I suspect he will be haunted by regret, one of the more pernicious human emotions. However, as the Chairman of the Board once noted, ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few, but too few to mention.. The record shows’, NINE-IN-A-ROW.
Neil, thanks for Lazio, Rennes, the leagues and cups and the many euphoric victories. I cannot imagine how difficult on a personal level this has been, but the very best of health for the future. You will never walk alone.
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Lenny goes with my best wishes – from what I could see he always had Celtic’s best interests at heart.
John Kennedy not only deserves our full support while he’s doing the interim job, it’s what anyone who wants what’s best for our club should be giving. We need to finish the season as strongly as possible and we can all play our own small part in trying to achieve that.
SS- as if things aren’t bad enough, Caldwell getting airtime everywhere……
P8DDY_ on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:01 PM
With all the toxicity flying about on these pages recently, you’ve actually been a voice of reason in the face of some serious provocation.
I hope to see you on here for a long time yet.
31003- I think Eddie Howe will get Crystal Palace job, Hodgson not offered a new contract so far….I think he wants to stay on the south coast as well.
If John Kennedy is so brilliant (and I hope he really is), how the hell did he let things get so bad? Was he dumbstruck??
!!BADA BING!! on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:12 PM
True. Paul67 hinted that none of the managers out of work are in contention.
We can rule out Howe and Benitez.
Youri Tielemans on his manager:
“He has helped me improve a lot, in my development as a player.
“He pushes me every day and that is what you want from a manager.”
And his manager:
“For any player, the level of ambition is key,”.
“Especially for someone like Youri, who is a top player. They want to be in a place where they can learn.
Sounds like the kind of manager we should be looking for!
P8DDY
Rules are broken frequently on here, favourites are treated differently you’re right.
Sorry to see how you’ve been treated, although I didn’t interact with you I always enjoyed you’re posts.
Take care.
SPIDEY101
There are a few worth considering.
One guy I have been impressed with is Steve Cooper at Swansea.
Ran Liverpool academy for 3 years , then moved onto England youth teams.
Doing great job at Swansea
I think something very important is missing on this debate. The smsm will torture any celtic manager that threatens gers. Utterly. Mon was touted for every single top job in England since day 1. Also, new manager will have to deal with msm unsettling his players before any big game against them. And finally don’t forget the refs. Any prospective manager would need to be warned about the likes of morelos, and also their unblemished on-field record of no penalties conceded and no players sent off (except 3 after the game which was coincidentally won by 1 goal). Oh, and that last season celtic suffered 5 games where opposition players were sent off after the game!
Who could cope with this?
And I also think it’s overlooked about frimpong – how many times was he booted off the pitch? Remember the horrific treatment he received, and the truly disgusting roundhouse kick on soro, neither punished by ref or shown on BBC. Isn’t it possible frimpong left because of the on-field abuse and lack of protection from refs, and his own employers who did not speak up about the on-field violence. Consider, for example, that Gérard never disciplines the thug morelos but only complains that morelos gets done after the game. Disgusting from Gérard, and I hope it destroys his chances of ever gaining Liverpool job.
HH
Bada
Shame if true. I think he’d suit us and we’d suit him. Ah well….back to the drawing board
Mibbe Man City have an under 18 coach we could have, plus an advisor.
Bournesouprecipe
The only sad think, I feel, is that John Kennedy doesn’t have a longer period of time to show us what he is capable of. Had we parted with Neil Lennon in January we would have a good idea by now of what he can do. When Ronny Deila was leaving I heard that the players didn’t like John Collins but loved working with John Kennedy. They were hoping he got the job but then of course Celtic pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the appointment of Brendan.
TOSB…if JK has the talent it will show in these last 8 games.
What a goal by Messi..
Amazing. ..
P8DDY_ on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:01 PM
Sorry to see you go, P8DDY. We never had any interchanges but I always enjoyed your posts.
MADMITCH on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 4:08 PM
One thing is for sure is that if DT had the Scottish legal system at his disposal he would still be in the White House.
Deep Fried Mars Bar republic — today and it is getting worse.
_____________________________________________
You’re quite wrong about the Deep Fried Mars Bar republic. It’s ripe bananas you smell here.
Cheers St Tams – will have a look!
P67
‘When I argued the case to act for the good of Celtic’s season, I was counselled on the need to attract a manager who would work for a club who will sack a manager that’s never lost a trophy and had only lost one league game. There would be some takers, but not the ones you want. I believe this avenue was considered. Our options were John Kennedy as interim or a candidate miles out of their depth.‘
Then it was whoever counselled you thus who was out of their depth. And knows little about the modern football industry.
It’s entirely possible to have every sympathy and respect for what Neil Lennon endured as a Celtic player and manager, while at the same time recognising him as being a poor coach, totally unsuited to modern football.
Being promoted beyond your skill set is a curse.
PL and DD cast that fateful spell, in the showers we’re told, having binned all other applications.
How much more unprofessional could they have been?
I’m not interested in discussing the notion of Neil Lennon’s ‘legendary status’ or otherwise. He’s principally a very poor coach, found out big time by a rookie manager with little more than competence and well-drilled journeymen at his disposal.
In this way, at least, Neil Lennon’s final season has been the embodiment and metaphor for the fundamental malaise that besets our club.
When the call came at the start of this unprecedented season, near 60,000 answered. Sadly, the rest of the Club failed to do so. Spectacularly.
HH jg
John Kennedy can win the remaining 8 games, but he will still not be acceptable to the majority of fans.
We need change, not more of the same minus circa 25,000 less ST holders.
Imo of course.
HH.
what an almighty mess this season is. There’s only one way to look now – up as St Tam’s says.
JAMESGANG on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:40 PM
a very good summary, however can I ask, how did that very poor coach and manager win 5 trophies in a row ?
and why did it take the rookie manager 3 seasons to best the 2 celtic managers ?
Football is a results driven business YET clubs have different operating models. If a manger identifies the transfer targets and/or decides who stays and goes – then he should be fired if the team doesn’t get, players don’t perform and results are negative.
If he doesn’t pick those players and he is has to keep players who he knows don’t want to be there – should it really be him who loses his job?? I don’t think so!
Celtics issue has been the arrogance of Peter Lawell to enforce himself into the football side of celtic! He did an amazing job with our finances but he gambled season after season with the team. Fortunately for him we had no challenge from rangers or we had Rodgers and Lennon to drive the players to victory.
This season it caught up with us – if anyone should be out of a job it should be Lawwell fired , hammond fired and the board questioning desmonds leadership.
what a shambles of a season and I find it hard to believe that PL has left the club in such a mess from a significant position of power. Worse, he has given a financial lifeline to our closest challengers at a time when they were facing admin #2 .
Time for big changes and a stronger Celtic top to bottom!
ST STIVS
Would you rather Neil had been retained or do you agree his time was up?
Can I delete my post a wee while ago re a rookie, Mark Guidi (I know),threw in a very interesting name IMO, Xavi Alonso…..getting rave reviews at Real Sociedad B team….
SAINT STIVS on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:47 PM
JAMESGANG on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:40 PM
a very good summary, however can I ask, how did that very poor coach and manager win 5 trophies in a row ?
and why did it take the rookie manager 3 seasons to best the 2 celtic managers ?
———
Good evening
Imho
1. Because he seldom faced much of a significant challenge domestically.
2. Because although he’s now got mere journeymen, that’s an upgrade on the previous clowns in blue who we’d regularly pump 4 or 5 nil. It took some time (and apparently an excellent right hand man with whom he actually communicates) to bridge a gap that should have been unassailable. He’s started that process by the end of Rogers’ tenure.
HH jg
!!BADA BING!! on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:56 PM
Can I delete my post a wee while ago re a rookie, Mark Guidi (I know),threw in a very interesting name IMO, Xavi Alonso…..getting rave reviews at Real Sociedad B team….
——-
To clarify….
As manager, false 9 (on the bench of course) or left back???!
All deftness aside, I’d welcome a fresh perspective and approach that such an appointment may offer.
HH jg
Deftness!
Daftness
Ffs iPhone!
Real Sociedad b team?
Is that the under 18’s?
If so, we’ll have him!
PHILBHOY on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 7:50 PM
ST STIVS
Would you rather Neil had been retained or do you agree his time was up?
————————–
It is now, it could have been after any of the defeats this season, I would have understood it,
However what I couldnt understand was the personal vitriol from our own fans when he did not just fall on his sword when they thought it should be ended.
Equally, if we started this season by saying Neil is stepping down, and here is the new guy, we know it is a gamble about the ten, but you supporters will understand Neil is not a progressive manager, and we want to concentrate on the new model, and well its not about the 10, it is about making the Champions League stages, I wouldnt not have bought into that. That would have been an eh wut ? 4 conesuctive trophies and we are binning him.
I felt the same going back to the “Hampden cup win” delivering a treble and many tell us the were gutted, and wrong appointment, how could we do anything else , seriously.
So all in, he goes now, we will be in limbo for weeks, the PTSD sufferers will now turn on Kennedy.
I do know something , whoever comes next wil be the wrong appointment for many.
David Webb, reportedly being interviewed for the Sporting Director role, looks a pretty impressive guy and has worked with Eddie Howe in the past, and Poch and others.
Good interview here if interested.
https://cfbfootball.com/2020/07/14/david-webb-looking-to-the-future/
Here’s hoping.
HH
If he is doing well we better hurry up.
ST STIVS
OK.
Do you think his managerial skills were improving?
Would you have retained him?
His record in Europe, this time, is pretty poor.
Was that at a level that you thought was ok?
For Celtic.
tosb @ ages ago
The only sad think, I feel, is that John Kennedy doesn’t have a longer period of time to show us what he is capable of. Had we parted with Neil Lennon in January we would have a good idea by now of what he can do. When Ronny Deila was leaving I heard that the players didn’t like John Collins but loved working with John Kennedy. They were hoping he got the job but then of course Celtic pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the appointment of Brendan.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
I don’t fancy John Kennedy’s chances with the wantaways, stayedtoolongs,.and downright bad buys, he’s already part of the management structure, that was unable to sustain prolonged success.
How he even becomes a contender for permanency with a few games left, beats me.
We will be told by the custodians of our club.
As ever CSC
Saint Stivs @8.07
There was another option, the one that I favoured.
At the time of the first Glasgow derby, it was already clear that our chances of the 10 with Neil Lennon at the helm were increasingly precarious. But….the season was not get lost, the lead recoverable.
To not act then was professionally unforgivable for me. Potentially cost us tens of £millions. Certainly cost football bragging rights immortality.
HH jg
This one’s for you P&DDY my friend; today’s lenghty Lennon piece for those who might fancy reading it but don’t wanna click on the link.
——-
Neil Lennon should never have been appointed Celtic manager in 2019.
Neil Lennon should never have got to put “Celtic manager” on his CV in 2010.
His entire managerial career is because of two men; Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond. He is their creation, their experiment.
That experiment would eventually cost Hibs a year. It got Bolton relegated.
But it has largely been at the expense of Celtic.
As such, the name “Neil Lennon” ought to be the first line of their obituaries.
Neil Lennon never merited a job the size of Celtic on either occasion he got it, and this is why I’ve never been his number one fan as a boss. It’s why I lamented his appointment the first time, it’s why I celebrated his departure and why I never expected to see him in the dugout at Celtic Park again. I thought, wrongly, that we’d got off lightly.
When Celtic gave him the post on an interim basis in 2010 I was partly content because it looked to all the world like a temporary thing, the kind that would throw people as one of those quiz questions years down the line.
The decision to give him the job for the following campaign was one of those times when Celtic has genuinely shocked me, and we paid for it with the loss of a title.
In the aftermath of the Mowbray appointment, they owed us big time. Lennon is what we got; a manager with zero experience, completely unschooled, a babe in the woods. It was a ridiculous decision.
He survived the crisis of his first full campaign, where we lost the league, because he managed to squeak out a trophy. He had drifted into another crisis within months, and he should have been fired then and never allowed back near the place.
And then something happened that transformed Lennon’s fortunes.
Rangers started to collapse as internal and external pressures began to come to bear, crushing the club like a used beer can.
Lennon was lucky. We’ll never know if he’d have won the 2011-12 title without that little push from destiny.
What we do know is that with virtually no real competition he contrived to grossly underachieve in the years that followed.
For much of it, we were awful to watch.
We wasted a lot of time on Lennon the first time around.
When he departed I celebrated because I thought modern football was leaving us behind because of him and I was glad to see him go.
I thought I understood the Deila appointment and was pleased with the direction it seemed to be taking us in. He had ideas. He was a revolutionary choice, and if he’d had a little more gravitas and a little more experience he would never have accepted some of the restrictions that were placed on him. He might have been able to win over the doubters in the dressing room.
Ronny Deila, nevertheless, will go down as one of the luckiest appointments in the history of Celtic.
Without him, there would have been no quadruple treble.
He dragged us out of the mire the twin appointments of Mowbray and Lennon had sunk us into. He modernised the internal structure of the club. He put the onus on player fitness and clean living.
All of this was transformative.
Not everyone got fully onboard with Deila, but enough did that Rodgers didn’t have to gut the whole club. We owe him more than we’ll ever be able to repay. He had a major task in front of him when he took that job, and there are people inside Celtic, and who were instrumental in bringing Lennon back here, who know that full well and a lot more besides.
Lennon left one almighty mess behind him.
Few to this day appreciate how big that mess actually was, or the scale of the problems Ronny Deila had to fix.
Delia inherited a grossly unfit team with abysmal professional standards.
Had Deila not set about radically changing that, Rodgers would have taken over a very different first team squad, one which was still stinking of bad habits and a devil-may-care mentality. There is no way in the world that we’d have had an Invincible season had Brendan Rodgers inherited a club still reeking from fast food, fags and long sessions in the boozer.
It appals me, it absolutely appals me, that Celtic’s board gave Lennon another shot at the job knowing what he left behind him.
They can say all they want, try out all the phony justifications that they like, about him having “grown” and “improved”; I’m sorry, the historical facts and the record both give lie to those statements, revealing them for utter falsehoods.
Lennon didn’t just fail at Bolton; he was like a wrecking ball hitting that club.
By the time he left he’d lost the dressing room, argued with the directors, slagged off everyone via the media and they were facing relegation.
That was his record there.
Those who say Bolton were not in great shape before he arrived are correct; they were a damn sight worse when he left though.
I’ve never understood, anyway, those who defend Lennon on the basis that Bolton were a shambles.
Bolton were the best offer Lennon had. They were the only offer Lennon had, and so those who hailed his re-appointment are kidding themselves on that he was some kind of coup.
He finished fourth in his first season in the SPL at Hibs, after getting them out of the Championship, but that too covered a multitude of sins and I’m going to offer up a story right now which sums up his tenure there for me.
The second last game of his full SPL season was against Hearts at Tynecastle.
That night was a serious warning to Hibs fans about their manager, and it was a serious warning to the Hibs board as well. Because Lennon was a flat-out disgrace that night.
From almost the first moment he took his seat in the dugout he was arguing with the fans behind him, noising them up, gesturing at them … this is a guy who was attacked by a fan in that same ground when manager of Celtic, and so he knew that it was a volatile place and one where acting professionally was well advised. Yet he was so bad that evening that a security staffer had to have a word with him and tell him to wind it in.
His tactics that night were astoundingly poor.
For starters, he played Steven Whittaker in midfield in front of vastly better available options, another example of Lennon’s tendency to shove square pegs into round holes.
It was a rainy night and not great underfoot conditions; he didn’t even do the simple thing and make sure the players had the right footwear on.
After the game he blamed them for going out with the wrong studs, in a sterling example of his finding excuses for his own mistakes by directing the blame at his footballers instead.
During the match, he subbed off his captain Paul Hanlon and in front of the Hearts support, his coaches, their coaches and a dozen others subjected him to a furious public haranguing which must have been utterly humiliating for the footballer.
His side lost the game. Hearts two goals were because of defensive errors.
In the after-match interview on BT Sport he lamented the second because it was from a set-piece.
If you watch that interview and the one I posted on here from Bolton, where he moaned about the prevalence of those mistakes in their team, capping it with the brilliant observation that when he first took over those mistakes hadn’t been present at the club, try not to laugh. Or cry. Half of the goals we’ve conceded this season came from set plays.
In the much deeper interview, the one he did with the print media, he lambasted his own board and demanded that he be given money to spend in the next campaign.
Although he’d defended his players in the TV interview he slated them to the papers, invoking the studs excuse among other more general criticisms. He accused them of having a weak mentality.
That was Neil Lennon perhaps six months before we gave him the “temporary” post when Rodgers left.
A little over a year later, we appointed him manager for the second time, partly on the basis that he had “learned” and “grown” and “improved.”
Yet in between that night and that day at Hampden he detonated the Hibs dressing room as he had the one at Bolton, and then had a public screaming match with the Hibs CEO Leeann Dempster.
We’ll never know how bad his behaviour was that day; we do know Hibs suspended him immediately pending an investigation and then, in the interests of putting it to bed, agreed on a “mutual consent” statement to avoid anyone further embarrassment.
From that flaming wreckage I couldn’t see any way of him salvaging even the most modest, meagre career in the game, not as a manager. It was only weeks later that we re-appointed him, initially on an interim basis, in the aftermath of Rodgers’ midnight flit.
Yet from that, somehow, has been born one of the most egregious myths in the history of our club; Lennon, the white knight riding to the rescue, as though we were in freefall instead of sitting at the top of the league and on the brink of another cup final, as though nobody else out there would have even wanted the job.
But not one of the dozens of other out of work bosses available at that time, nor the ones who had jobs but would have been easy to convince to make the leap, were even approached about the gig.
We appointed Lennon just hours after Rodgers left. We didn’t even attempt to find someone else; Lawwell picked up the phone and he only ever had one call in mind.
So who did who a favour here?
We snatched Lennon from a dole queue.
He didn’t ride to the rescue. He didn’t swoop in on his shining steed to save the day. That guy couldn’t believe his luck. We offered him career salvation and at a time when it had tanked.
Our directors were well aware that appointing Lennon brought with it problems.
They were aware that it brought with it a drop in standards.
They showed it in the early decisions they made, when they told him who his assistant was going to be, when they denied him any of his pals as part of the backroom staff. They knew what went on at Parkhead last time, and at Bolton and at Hibs, that’s why they stopped him from bringing back Garry Parker.
But what does it tell you that they hired a guy whose judgement was so distrusted on even that issue that they made his compliance with it conditional on his taking the job?
What does it tell you that the directors knew they couldn’t leave so simple a matter in his hands and hired him anyway?
If his first appointment shocked me, I was horrified by the second one.
There was no valid argument in favour of, and no logic to, Neil Lennon’s second appointment.
There was nothing whatsoever to credit it in football terms. It was a decision without the slightest merit. Indeed, it seemed to many of us at the time to be a supreme act of folly.
There was much evidence to suggest that it would be a disaster, which is exactly what some of us predicted.
So why was it done?
Why did our directors go from Brendan Rodgers to hiring a failed manager from Bolton and Hibs who’s only career success in the dugout had come from their own decision to give him the Celtic job once before?
It seems clear to me that Desmond and Lawwell, and the CEO in particular, forgot somewhere along the line that Celtic was a PLC and that they were only cogs in the wheel.
What they came to believe instead was their own hype and their own press, wherein they thought that all the success at the club was down to them.
Lawwell in particular resented the accolades and adulation Rodgers received and chafed at not getting the credit.
He has long interfered in transfer matters, a field in which he’s not remotely qualified.
A cowed and subservient press corps helped to feed his ego and that of Desmond until they were at the point where both believed that Celtic was theirs to do with as they pleased.
I have no doubt that both think highly of Lennon as a person. No doubt that both of them believe he’s a decent football manager. Yet this is part of the problem; they didn’t go looking for the best person they could get, they threw the gig to their pal, someone they got on well with, but also someone they knew they could control easily.
That has always been my primary problem with Neil Lennon.
He was handed the Celtic job by his mates, and by bosses who knew they could pull the strings.
This wasn’t a decision made on merit for the good of this club, it was made so that Lennon could establish a name for himself and so Lawwell and Desmond could play Football Manager for real, controlling the whole operation through a proxy.
It was cronyism.
That’s what pisses me off the most, it’s what’s always pissed me off, because of the echoes of Allan MacDonald giving the job of Director of Football to his mate Daglish and him offering the manager’s gig to his own pal John Barnes.
It reduces Celtic to a wee private member’s club run by an old pal’s act, giving gigs to their chums and risking everything on the back of favours and mutual understandings … and that has to end before the Lennon nightmare will truly be over.
Kennedy has to follow him out the door when his caretaker period ends. If Scott Brown is going to be a coach somewhere it should be somewhere other than Celtic until he’s achieved enough for him to come back home.
Lawwell is gone.
McKay should establish himself as his own man, on his own turf, and draw clear lines of demarcation between his responsibilities and those elsewhere. To know, first and foremost, what it is he doesn’t know.
He needs to build relationships with not only the fans but the other directors and not rely on the “judgement” of Desmond over in Ireland … he needs to make his own position fireproof by putting in place a structure that leaves no room for doubts about where one person’s responsibilities start and another’s end.
Lennon is the creation of Lawwell and Desmond; without them, Lennon’s football managerial career would have been in the lower leagues somewhere until he’d been sacked enough times he moved over to a more permanent gig doing analysis on the telly.
But these two men decided that they could “develop” a football boss in the same way they believe they “developed” players. It was them running Celtic just to prove that they could.
This was not a conspiracy to hand Ibrox a title.
The idea that this could end like this would have scared the shit out of these two men.
So this was not deliberate sabotage.
This was just two egotistical bastards taking a blue sky punt partly because Lennon was their pal and partly because they were so convinced of their own genius that they thought they could do it all, and run the club through him and actually get away with that.
It was, quite literally, a giant experiment with our club as the laboratory.
When Brendan Rodgers was clearly getting set to leave Celtic Park, those two men had a responsibility to sit down and find the best possible replacement for him.
Instead they took one look at Lennon and could see him standing there hoisting the tenth title trophy above his head, and heard in their own minds the adulation he poured on them at the after-match presser.
They imagined themselves taking the bow with him. They were more concerned with massaging their own egos and sharing in the credit than with getting the decision right for the good of the club.
They asked the wrong questions, so of course they got the wrong answer.
But Lennon wouldn’t have been the right answer no matter what criteria they were using. His two tenures at this club may have delivered a handful of trophies but they were major mistakes.
Time will tell how well and how long it takes us to recover, because this has been a flat-out disaster, costing us time and costing us money and ultimately costing us an historic achievement which would have been the crowning glory in the lives of so many Celtic supporters of all age groups … that is unforgivable.
All three of them carry collective responsibility for it, and none ought to be forgiven.
These three men have had a high old time at our expense.
I’m just glad that this part of the nightmare is finally over.
Two down, one to go.
PHILBHOY on 24TH FEBRUARY 2021 8:15 PM
ST STIVS
OK.
Do you think his managerial skills were improving? No, he could not deal with the various crisises both football and non-football.
Would you have retained him? No, but we had to have someone coming in.
His record in Europe, this time, is pretty poor.
It was painful, woeful, abject, THIS SEASON,
Last seasons results were pretty damn enjoyable.
Was that at a level that you thought was ok?
I did not, but then again, I would not then turn on his lifestyle, weight, wealth, smirk, hair colour, west end house, drinking habits, body language, mental frailities or any other multiple insults thrown at him.
For Celtic. Always.