Sentiment this week is all so familiar from nine years ago, almost to the day. 15 October 2011 was when Kilmarnock established a three goal lead over Celtic, only for Anthony Stokes (2) and Charlie Mulgrew to save the blushes with a draw.
When an opportunity arose that week I felt I had to tell a ‘senior source at the club’ that his manager was not up to the task and that Rangers were on their way to winning four-in-a-row. The response included “get a hold of yourself”, “Emilio will be back shortly” and “we’re going to win the league”.
I was wrong about Neil Lennon and the league, it was a lesson. We have made mistakes every season since, as has Neil, including several this season, but some perspective, Odsonne, Ryan, James, and Christopher will return, as will Hatem, Nir and Mikey, whle Albian and Leigh will reach full fitness.
What you saw at the weekend is not the team who are going for their fourth consecutive treble, or who topped a difficult Europa League group a year ago. We will improve significantly and I’ve no appetite to be told to get a hold of myself again. There will be no need for a towel retrieval service. If you write this Celtic team off – including the manager – you have not been paying attention.
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All the problems seem to be after Lennon was on the media slagging a lot of players for not trying and hoping to leave in the summer ,Big Big mistake,he should have been man enough to take the blame for him picking the team and his tactics,so I think the next 2 games especially the Aberdeen game on Sunday no win,then he will be under more pressure to carry on as Celtic Football Club Manager,a rumour going around is he is on a Yellow Card.
My friends in Celtic,
Evolution.
Football managers tenture with the same club has dropped by 50% over the last 9 years.
A professional football manager now averages circ 1.5 years with the same club.
Of course this may or may not be relevant to Celtic , but it’s just another example demonstrating that we cannot quote statistics from 9 years ago.
HH to all.
Football,eh.Watching Neymar,Mbappe,struggling to try and score against a Man U team who have been shipping goals all over the place.If only every football game was the way CQN experts think it should be.
Anyway,never mind the Eddie How’s of this world,if every club who have hit a wee bit of poor form,followed CQN logic,we should have a whole raft of previous.ly well thought of managers to choose from.One defeat,sack them.
Oh help m’boab Nir’s got super Covid.
Never mind son, just you go and have a wee lie down.
But don’t forget to play 120 minutes for Israel
Utter chancer – part of the current malaise
Get rid.
TIMBHOY2,
“A rumour going around that Lenny is on a yellow card”.
A rumour initiated by the all knowing,all seeing ,Phil.
Really?
BANKIEBHOY1 on 21ST OCTOBER 2020 8:28 AM
It seems to me that what is needed isn’t a high profile individual but technocratic tactical coach known only to those working in the game. It’s the way things are going and a job at Celtic, in spite of everything, would probably be an attractive proposition to an ambitious candidate anxious to progress their career.
Such an appointment could probably be made without too much public disruption.
The question is whether the board have either the desire or ability to handle the situation the way it needs to be handled. Nothing to date fills me with confidence on that score.
Just catching up – thanks to all who replied to my post yesterday re the guardian article. My thoughts remain the same no matter if it is PR or any other issues with the article – we need to own it.
Cornelius @ 3:44
Great post mate.
Paul 67 had a post on here (if my memory serves me correctly) years ago mentioning how we should always be talking to better managers even if things were going well – or to put it another way, we should always be looking to better ourselves.
I wonder if that’s happening now
TURKEYBHOY on 21ST OCTOBER 2020 9:12 AM
Yeah, but he’s got an NUJ card.
An NUJ card!
So he must be right.
Football,eh.Watching Neymar,Mbappe,struggling to try and score against a Man U team who have been shipping goals all over the place.If only every football game was the way CQN experts think it should be.
Anyway,never mind the Eddie How’s of this world,if every club who have hit a wee bit of poor form,followed CQN logic,we should have a whole raft of previous.ly well thought of managers to choose from.One defeat,sack them.
…. …………..
Sorry but that’s simplistic nonsense. If you’ve been following the blog you’ll know that there have been several defeats.
MARKIEBHOY,
You being an expert on all things Covid.WTF has playing for Israel got to do with it?The virus has around 14 days to manifest itself.Going by your post ,you know as much about Covid,as you do about football.Up until the International break,Biton was in terrific form for us.One of our few successes this season.Outstanding in both games against Scotland.But hey,ditch him.
Cornelius
Very good and thought provoking post. Enjoyed reading it.
It seems to me that what is needed isn’t a high profile individual but technocratic tactical coach known only to those working in the game.
………………………………………………………………………………..
Really?
It’s Celtic we’re talking about, yeah?
In scoddland?
Neil Francis Lennon?..The Bombs an’ Bullets guy who is held up to skrutiny, derision and sectarian hate crimes and general abuse?
Perhaps in another universe that might work but I’d think highly doubtful…………and certainly not in a wee wurld where celtica, Neil us and ours are treated differently and with a contempt unrivalled……
Turkeybhoy
He is never fit – a total sicknote
In the last 3 seasons he has managed 31 appearances.
We need people who want to play for Celtic.
We have become soft.
You could see it on Saturday and in previous games
where our centre halfs have been ” bullied ” by donkeys.
Stand up or get out.
From BBC website.
Celtic midfielder Nir Bitton says Covid-19 left him aching and unable to stand, as he insisted players from clubs with a recent outbreak should not be permitted to join international squads.
Just for info Bitton hasn’t started or played against –
Hamilton, Ferenchvaros, Motherwell, Ross County,
St Mirren, Livingstone, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and
Deadco. What a player.
First, foremost and last most, get well soon Nir. Those symptoms should put paid to any idea left that this awful bloody virus has no impact on professional sportspeople.
Turkeybhoy – you appear on the blog every day like Father Jack Hackett waking from his slumber. All loud noises and insults. Calm doon ffs. Everyone’s entitled to their views…
HH
SADIESBHOY,
2 defeats.Suppose you could call that”Several”.No excuses,like stop,start beginning to the season.Half a team missing through,injury,and Covid.No thought of going into that Hun game without,
Forrest,Edouarde,Ajetti,Griff,Christie,Biton,Elhamed.Notsimplistic nonsense.Its called facts.Sometimes you get beat,and sometimes there are many reasons for that.Players playing like Coos,all of a sudden,forgetting how to pass a ball,missing sitters.These are not a managers fault.Facts.
BIG WAVY,
You can fekin talk.A simple disagreement with you,and you are throwing out,”Ya walloper”comments.Short memory.You should practice what you preach.
Yes,everyone is entitled to their views.And everyone is entitled to challenge those views.If you don’t like the way I challenge them,sorry,thats me.
Turkeybhoy – mngmt responsible for coaching, motivation, team selection, tactics, formation, fitness levels, substitutions.
Since pre-season we have played poorly and without any sense of improvement in 3 months.
Fact.
Turkeybhoy,
I called you out given you have one challenging approach only – abuse people.
As a result you remain a walloper my friend. Like the boss, you show no signs of self-reflection and personal change.
HH
For the purposes of the SPL and the Europa league Celtic have a very decent squad from which a very good team can be picked.Its upto NFL to select the right players and come up with a formation and tactics for each individual game…so far this season he has failed to do so.A critical period of the season coming up for Celtic and NFL.I hope he comes up with solutions.
Lennon’s refusal to accept any of the responsibility for poor performances and unwillingness to change /adapt leaves us with a scenario where arrogance/stubbornness may lead to the holy grail being lost. We surely cannot allow this to happen?
EL @ 9.15
Fair point about PMcGh — the irony of the NUJ card.
Sort of ties in with my point about the Grauniad article.
The person who wrote it also has a NUJ card — does that strengthen or weaken the message?
However he still put his name to an article based on a lawyers pre pack.
The active people mentioned in that article are all clients of one particular lawyer.
That is not journalism that is hackery of the highest order.
There is a story out there but he did not deliver it or even take it forward.
I appreciate the points made by TOSB, Cornelius and Greenpinata earlier. There is an unfairnessin comparing different coaches records when circumstances are not uniform. My analysis was to counter the truly Simplistic point that NFL is a proven dinosaur non-coach who has no place in the modern game and has only failed at clubs. I hope I have given some pause for thought in that department and to note it is not necessary to deride Neil and his real achievements in order to make the case for change.
It was not an anti-BR argument either. I was on CQN arguing the point , in the face of massive disappointment from Celtic supporters on here, thet Brendan was trying to introduce a “brave” game to Celtic, to wean us off the “kick it away if you are in trouble” approach which had crept in when the players successfully undermined Ronny Deila’s attempts to do likewise.
I actualy agree with Cornelius point about having an identity as a team; it was a point I made myself shortly after the Sevco ddisaster, with my Exeter Chefs post.
I think Cornelius, in an attempt to cover too many points in too short a post, over-stretched his thesis and his analysis. In saying we should be doing what clubs from Hungary, Denmark, Switzerland and Portugal have done, there is too much conflation. Hungary, definitely and Denmark, too, I would argue would kill to be able to produce a European record that matches the one Celtic has produced this millenium. Whereas Switzerland (reasons unknown) and Portugal ( easier access to work permits for brazilians plus far better standards of local talent) have much better records of Europenan achievement.
It isn’t simply about the money. It is also to do with the playing environment and how competitively hardened you are. A team like Watford or Fulham, were either to miraculously qualify for Europe, is better prepared to meet the challenge because they have been battle hardened against equally competitive teams in the EPL and Upper Championship and have teams stuffed full of more expensive players because of the TV steoid money.
Ferencvaros and Cluj have not these resources of course but Ferencvaros did nothing until last year ) they are this year’s Apoel Nicosia, or Sparta Prague who both had one “miracle season or 2 season period” before reverting to default. I assume we are looking for something more sustainable than that.
Finally, Greenpinata’s point about the high turnover of manager’s with football clubs strongly re-inforces the point I am making.
Why is it that clubs are so inclined to hire and then sack managers.
My answer is fan pressure and unrealistic expectations. No other industry is so quick to ditch its previous star performers. Even the shallow film industry allowed Michael Cimino to make several more films, after bankrupting a studio, before he disappeared off the edge.
We know that the clubs that stay successful tend to try to stick with their manager- but nowadys nobody would give Fergie the time he got at Man U without a title or trophy. Mobody would back Arsene Wenger for as long as he was backed, because having won the top club spot, he failed to win it every year and he failed to win the CL. And manager that work miracles winning a league with Leicester or a CL with Chelsea have their achievements overlooked and get dumped within the same 18 month cycle.
Is that what we want?
An Aunt Sally Manager?
A ritual Sacrifice every 18 months for failing to produce the 60’s success of the Lions?
A ditching of a manager who is responsible for half of our 9iar achievements because the 10 is “possibly” going to fall? And it is often the same folk who proclaimed the 9 was unlikely last December who are now equally sure the 10 will fall with NFL.
I have to start a work project now and will catch replies this evening.
HT
Great to see you posting last night.
Please don’t be a stranger.
Always remember you both in my prayers.
Take care!
The Guardian article was about those seeking compensation from Celtic for historic sexual abuse.
You’d rather the article had been about a different matter, the whole issue of sexual abuse of children.
Well it wasn’t. It didn’t purport to be. Your criticism of it is therefore irrelevant.
EL @ 11.10
I think you doth protest too much.
The article in the Grauniad was lawyer’s PR not journalism.
It was part of their comms Grid to help them win a future legal action.
It only featured their clients and offered nothing going forward for anyone else.
So stop putting words into my mouth and address the issue of journalstic endeavour.
You were quick to call out PMacG — I think you might want to cast your net wider.
MADMITCH on 21ST OCTOBER 2020 11:19 AM
And if these litigants are successful, will that help or hinder others who may have been through a similar ordeal?
SFTB @ 11.06
Your MC / Heaven’s Gate comment is quite revealing.
It shows how CEO’s with much greater ability and talent than PL can be sucked into giving low rent duffers like MC more than enough rope to hang both himself and them.
A better understanding would have been had if they Had started at the Deer Hunter and worked out his weaknesses from their rather than waiting for him to do a western.
Denigrating a whole nation fighting a war of liberation to get an audience on side and provide a few dramatic moments to shock them to the core and get them rooting for flawed good guys would suggest that he was into fairy stories to rouse a defeated nation — and make himself a few bucks.
God Bless America indeed.
EL @ 11.24
This is not about any court case — it is about the journalism or lack of it within the article.
The Grauniad article was low rent hackery — lawyers PR dressed up as “a long read”.
MADMITCH on 21ST OCTOBER 2020 11:38 AM
‘It only featured their clients and offered nothing going forward for anyone else.’
###
I’ll ask again, if these litigants are successful, will that help or hinder others who may have been through a similar ordeal?
EL @ 11.43
Stop switching the topic — the issue is about journalism at the Grauniad.
If you don’t want to discuss it then no matter.
However I bet a Nat / Not-Jacinda would answer the question …
MADMITCH on 21ST OCTOBER 2020 11:46 AM
It’s a simple enough question. You don’t want to answer it because you know the answer contradicts your assertion and thereby undermines the point you’re trying to make about the Guardian’s motivation.
EL @ 11.52
I think we have reached the limits of your engagement.
You are reducing yourself to excuses so I will leave it there.
I didn’t think the Grauniad could get any lower after all its Clegg love and Orange Book fetish but I was wrong.
new article posted.
MADMITCH on 21ST OCTOBER 2020 11:56 AM
So you’ll leave it there by refusing to answer a straightforward question.
Only one conclusion I can draw from that.
.