On five different occasions I told one of the two men who decide the fate of the Celtic manager that I thought it was time for a change. Memorably, on one occasion, I was told, “Get a grip of yourself”. I did not always get a response as, despite how I feel about Celtic, a manager’s fate is a private matter.
On none of those occasions did I write on CQN that the manager should be sacked. If I was an impartial observer, that would be different, but my objective is always to see Celtic flourish and I considered the effect a campaign to sack the manager would have on results, our league challenge and, in on one occasion, the man himself.
The impact of these campaigns falls disproportionately on that individual, often when they are at their most emotionally vulnerable. It hurts when those once close to you want you out, you look harder for motivation and as for focussing a dressing room!
Those who make the decisions are less emotionally vulnerable. They usually have years of experience shielding themselves from being buffered by adverse sentiment, if they didn’t, they would not be able to do the job. They alone know their options and they are never blind to the consequences of failure. They do not always get it right.
We cannot show our support for the players or the manager at games and they will not be meeting fans in the street; all sentiment is delivered by media, new and old. This is the only communication we have and I know the players consume what is written online this season. This sentiment is not to blame for bad results, but it will not help resolve the situation.
Celtic are low percentage bets to win the league and I want the players, manager and board to take whatever steps necessary to change this, it is not too late. Nothing would give me more pleasure than Neil Lennon bringing us 10-in-a-row, it would be the ultimate way to achieve an historic record. If he gets there, the rest of us will have a role in making it happen.
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Change is inevitable, it always is at some point.
However, don’t think I have ever seen a Celtic manager treated so abysmally by ” the best fans in the world “
Cheap Trick’s 2 most famois songs were “Surrender” and “I want you to want me”.
Something apt in that.
SPIKEYSAULDMAN on 25TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:32 PM
Fiver
It wouldn’t make you a hun rat – but a rat nonetheless
——-
SPIKEY
Free speech and all that
I won’t take it personally 🤣
GREENPINATA
The “best fans in the world” ponied up for season tickets when they didn’t even know if they’d see football. They have spent record sums on merchandising. The club itself paid tribute to the fans loyalty in the latest finanial returns. The fans have done their bit.
And the support is promised to the club, to the institution, it’s not to a personaility cult.
Neil Lennon has been treated no differently to any other manager who is floundering.
Who would win in a Dignity Fight between appointing a manager in the shower and appointing a manager on a golf course?
Can’t believe that Griff is injured again, this time a knee injury that rules him out of tomorrow’s game.
If there is one thing most of us agree on, it is that we need a Griff/Edouard partnership if we are to get back in the race. The reality is we will be lucky to see Griff playing more than a couple of consecutive games. He is made of glass these days.
A Fiver For Your Thoughts ….
It won’t do any good but I’ll bite just this once.
The Green Brigade could have issued a statement and left it at that.
They didn’t.
They left a banner outside our beloved (and currently empty) Celtic Park and then publicised the fact.
Does this approach help an already under pressure manager deliver the improvements we all crave?
(A manager who, by the way, has supported the GB in the past)
Nope.
Could easily be perceived as attention seeking.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
No doubt in my mind Covid saved Gerrard’s managerial career. defeat at Ibrox and a 20 point league win would have brought that era to an embarrassing end . Might even have finished him as a manager permanently, returning to punditry after a failed go at management , the same as so many pundits do.
Even the most rabid hun would be hard pressed to disagree.
That was March.
Here we are November and he is managing a team of invincible sweeping all before them . a “superbly ” coached team of carefully chosen players who are gelling as an unbeatable team. Tavernier, the serial loser, now one of the best in Europe From absolute dud to the new Klopp in 7 months.
Not for me.
That’s football. a game of margins where you go from hero to zero on the twist of fate,
Remember, If the injury ravaged Celtic team won the first Glasgow Derby we would be top of the league (assuming games in hand are won). We would be talking about how we will kick on after our indifferent start now we have a full squad back and Sevco will crumble when the inevitable injuries come to their squad.
Instead we have the torches and the pitch forks marching on the castle.
Game of margins.
Lenny always infuriated me when he would go up to the GB and plant the League Trophy in front of them. It gave them too much status and perceived importance. My seat is at the other end of the stadium and I would sit thinking – why not at this end, Lenny? afterall I have been here for nearly 60 years.
The problem as I see it is that individual players have, from time to time, been singled out as possible causes of our problems. Barkas was the first to go, yet replacing him with Bain has made no difference. We still concede at almost every second shot on target. Duffy was next for the chop. Yet again it has made no difference. Scott Brown could I see you in my office please. Have a wee sit on the bench Scott. Made a difference? No. Now then Mr Ntcham, you can be in-out-shake it all about, no that doesn’t seem to work. French Eddie, you seem to be in a drought, off you come, it must be your fault.I’ll replace you with a guy who clearly can’t play as a lone striker so now he’s pi**ed off. I’m losing count now, how many pi**ed off players do we have?
The problems for anyone to see are in the formation.
It would be in everyones best interest if the manager tried to bend just a fraction because that is the only thing I have yet to see. As someone succinctly observed, at 2-0 down on Saturday we brought on a forward to replace the only forward we had on the field. And to close I would suggest that Leigh Griffiths is as fit as anyone, the manager just refuses to play with two forwards.
SFTB – golf course of course. It is where gentlemen conduct business. Showers are full of grime and dirt and sweat and flicking towels . . . at least they were the last time I was in a communal one.
HOTEL DE PARIS:
That’s why I believe today is very, very signifcant … these are Lennon’s most vocal supporters.
That’s serious stuff for him.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 25TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:40 PM
A Fiver For Your Thoughts ….
It won’t do any good but I’ll bite just this once.
The Green Brigade could have issued a statement and left it at that.
They didn’t.
They left a banner outside our beloved (and currently empty) Celtic Park and then publicised the fact.
Does this approach help an already under pressure manager deliver the improvements we all crave?
(A manager who, by the way, has supported the GB in the past)
Nope.
Could easily be perceived as attention seeking.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
——-
BACK TO BASICS
I understand your thoughts on the banner
My point is that we have a diverse support and everyone is entitled to their opinion whether we like it or not
Bhoy from The Boyne
They have been saying this stuff after each crap game all season. Lennon, Brown, McGregor, Christie etc
Just soundbites so far. Need to see some evidence on the pitch; starting tomorrow
PS
In football, politics and in some workplaces ; the new buzzword i hate is ‘ i take full responsibility’ without any action plan, repercussions etc
Its as bad as the old ‘we are where we are’🙄
Well said big Sutton.
Bed-wetting Brigade should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
Dodgy biscuit tin boards sacked Big Billy second time around, wouldn’t back him first time around, sacked Davie Hay too, and Fergus sacked TB. All our heroes. But it spoilt bratt behaviour from so-called supporters that is doing for NFL. Totally disgusting, the type of behaviour we Mick in those across the Clyde.
All the gossip in Newcastle.
Lennon out Rafa in 🤷🏻♂️
That will be the Rafa that is on a 12 million a year after tax contract?
CONEYBHOY,
I sincerely hope they put actions into their words this time and turn it around.
For all our sakes.
PAYTHEFACEPAINTER
Jesus H what a rant
Billy McNeil deserved to be sacked the second time around, the performances were dire. Davie Hay, I’ll grant you. Probably deserved another year. Tommy Burns … please. Tommy Burns had one chance to save his job; to win the 1997 Scottish Cup and show us he was at least on the right path … Falkirk took care of that, a result that would have had many a manager sacked after a poor league campaign.
Neil Lennon’s own performances have done for Neil Lennon. He should have been put on notice after Ferencvaros and fired on 6 November the moment the full-time whistle went.
All this tugging on heart strings is nauseating. We are becoming tolerant of medicority. We’ve gone from being a team we were told would be a Champions League side every year to being spoonfed guff about the Europa League not being important cause we’re bottom of the group.
Standards haven’t fallen as much as plateued and it the manager stays things will get a lot, lot worse.
Greenpinata
However, don’t think I have ever seen a Celtic manager treated so abysmally by ” the best fans in the world “
————————————————————–
i was at games in early 90s when scarves were chucked en masse onto the pitch under McNeill
Plenty of criticism of Stein in 1978 from my pals’ dads
If it wasn’t for the internet, Lennon has had a pretty easy ride at games; even when he blew the league in 2011
Rafa is currently on about 250k a week in China…
I have confidence that Neil Lennon will deliver for Celtic this season, and I am confident we have the best bunch of players in Scotland who will deliver a quadruple treble shortly and claw back to points needed to win the league again.
We have been very unfortunate in many ways this season. Today, it’s unfortunate that through years of never-seen-before dominance on and off the park, we have bred a following who don’t know how to cope with adversity. The club are in good hands. The so-called fans, and it’s the small minority who crave attention through the anonymity of their blog names, are the ones who are letting Celtic down.
Win, lose or draw, I will always get behind the team who have given me over 50 years of enjoyment.
Good luck to the Bhoys tomorrow. And Happy Thanksgiving to our North American friends and families.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnqBADCXIAMKpA3?format=jpg&name=small
The banner could see the GB emptied from CP.
Fanad
Why would the punters in Newcastle know anything about this?
NOTTHEBUS on 25TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:40 PM
Quite a few “ifs” in there. First of all, on current form the games in hand aren’t a given – I’d rather have points in the bag.
Secondly, the “if we beat Rangers” mentality would hold more water if we actually gave them a match. We were thoroughly outplayed in the league cup final but we got the result and in cup football, that’s literally all that matters.
But the pattern of the game was similar again this season but without that element of luck (penalty save and offside goal). The fact we didn’t even get a shot on target (the first time that’s happened in nine years) concerned me more than the result. And there seems to be no real desire from the players to turn it around.
MNCELT on 25TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:55 PM
excellent post, and a happy thanksgiving to you.
Actually hearing more of the Brown presser makes me wonder:
SB – “It’s time to bounce back and make sure we start playing for the manager.”
Was there a time the team weren’t playing for NL?
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 25TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:56 PM
Someone came on the other day and said that “The word in Ireland” was that it’d be WGS.
Clearly, the punters in Newcastle and Ireland don’t quite agree on this one :)
Paul67 I have a lot to say today ………
As someone who has been frustrated with you’re sitting on your hands strategy, I welcome your piece today for a number of reasons
You have allowed me speculate on the” 5 Managers” but on the “one of the two men” I can make an educated guess
I am fascinated on the one that gained the response “Get a grip of Yourself” surely not Brendan (my hero)
However my fascination apart it comforts me that you have some passion (possibly different from mine) and probably a very strong opinion on our current Manager
Sharing your view can be a bit risky – you have tied your flag to the PL mast (no criticism from me on that as we at CQN get some insight from that relationship) but it does limit your editorial content as some may see your view as that presented by PL – Its a dilemma
I am sure players, managers read these pages, particularly in the good times and enjoy the adulation – but if a manager or player discovers things are not going well by reading these pages we are in a real pickle
Neil if you are reading this you are a club legend you have given more than most to our club and for that I love you
But no individual is greater than Celtic. Today the $64k question is will Celtic win the league ? Each supporter can make their own mind up – my view is, no, we are in trouble and more importantly i cannot see a route out of this mess – that’s why i support a change Many others on here have a different opinion i respect that
I confess that the reality of the situation – discussing our Managers future in an open forum – is at best bad manners at worst ignorant but such is the passion for Celtic that keeping emotions under control is difficult – well it’s beyond me
When Ronny Deila left our club as a support we all knew it was the right thing at the right time
The emotion was limited because he never played for us (not one of us)
With Neil the emotion is a huge factor in supporters thinking
Its a huge part of my thinking
But my emotion is bypassed with results and more importantly the way we are playing – or is it the way we are not playing
Can he fix it ?? I bet £1 he cannot – but be clear i am happy to lose a £1
But the big gamble, Paul67, is Neil one of the 5 now (not previously)
Penny for your thoughts Paul67
Hail hail one and all
67ECW
Just saying ,may be Chinese whispers 🤷🏻♂️
The talk in Newcastle (under Lyme) is “what’s happening to the Vale”
The problem for a lot of people is the diference between the employees of the club and the supporters.
Supporters have an emotional bond to the club which could never be expected from it’s employees.
Celtic FC is a company, issuing shares, trying to make a profit. Olivier N’tcham or Albian Ajeti didn’t kick a ball around their back gardens dreaming of playing for Celtic. They are here to make money and improve their profile and that is it. Neil Lennon has been a great servant to the PLC, making a lot of money in the process, and I object to any personal abuse aimed at him, but if he was running M&S he would be under the same scrutiny as he is at the moment. Remove the emotion and see the reality.
Unless Rafa is willing to take a £10m pay-cut, we can rule him out.
And with all respect to the SPFL, he is still very much coveted in England and Spain should he wish to leave China.
He’d be an excellent manager both domestically and in European competition but let’s be sensible here.
So we are replacing the 49 year old dinosaur, neil Lennon with the mdern coaches :-
Rafa Benitez- 60
Gordon Strachan- 63
MON- 68
Looks like we’re progressing from the Mesozoic to the Paleozoic era
Fanad
is there a particularly large Chinese population in Newcastle?
Ai Weiwei the Lads csc
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 25TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:07 PM
To be fair, I think the term “dinosaur” might refer to the mindset rather than their age. I’d take the 60-year-old Benitez in a heartbeat.
I hear there are still people who want Lenny to stay ,but they are as rare as hens teeth .Just saying 🤷🏻♂️