Neil Lennon said we didn’t deserve to lose 4-1, as we dominated large parts of the game against a team who have lost their last four games (not against Celtic), conceding 14 goals in the process. But oh, Neil, we absolutely deserved to lose by at least that margin.
Our disorganisation is a marvel. Scott managing to start his jump goal-side of a dropping ball and ending up wrong side. Callum playing three onside. Kris A. not committing to block the cross (forgiven, trying to cover two positions), Chris J. attempting to intercept with the wrong foot (forgiven, fitness). Hatem reliving his Ferencvaros highlights. Full backs who are never back and produce few assists; there is no defensive midfield, unless you count the goalkeeper who feels the need to leave his box and play that position, just a midfield of nomads.
The team is a collection of individuals unencumbered by a workable strategy. Opposition managers have their game plan written: defend deep, play on the counter and put numbers forward at set-pieces. If we could defend counter-attacks and corner kicks, we would be having a legendary season, but we can’t, so everyone looks awful.
In sport, if you have evident fatal flaws and persistently fail to resolve them, you deserve every setback that comes your way. It is hard to recall a Celtic team that deserved to lose more. Let me give you a cheery prediction, you will soon forget about last night, as there is worse to come.
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HOT SMOKED on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:45 PM
` ernie lynch
`I may be paranoid, I may be delusional,`
You are not paranoid.
###
Hardly a ringing endorsement.
And if I wasn’t paranoid before, I might be now.
LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:00 PM
We’re run by a clique
—
‘clique’ is probably a good word to describe it
Celtic are a PLC
and the purpose and agenda of those few folk who run a PLC is to protect their own self interest in terms of money and power
PLCs are basically protection rackets ran by and for it’s executives
Celtic aren’t been run any differently
thats not to say i think we would be better off not being a PLC
we would be better off morally
but morals dont win trophies
———
Well-run sporting businesses operating on a level playing field do win trophies.
We had a once in a lifetime opportunity to fix this a la Res12. And didn’t.
Failing that, and somewhat morally compromised due to our complicity in the 5 way agreement, we could still have destroyed them on the field and consequently, commercially.
What do we do instead?
Appointments made in the showers seldom end well!!
HH jg
But Lennon has had “long chats” with his squad and leading club figures.
“It was a very productive conversation and I have their full support,” Lennon said.
“We had a long chat after the game and I had a long chat with Peter and Dermot Desmond and we’re totally united, we’re totally together and we’re totally determined that we’ll make this into a good season.”
Try having a long chat with the supporters who are the most important people in all of this.
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS @ 3:40 PM,
Thanks, yes I read the Nokia CEO comparison and it’s spot on. Sure, there are other agendas at foot within Celtic imo, yet the complacency of the Nokia CEO is spot on.
Hail Hail
Maybe if we beat hearts in the final lawwell will extend Neil’s contract when he is in the shower.
We are back in the dark days of Liam Brady and John Barnes.
No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief
Woe, wórld-sorrow; on an áge-old anvil wince and sing —
Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked ‘No ling-
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief.”‘
O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.
GMH
Bad, bad, bad press conference today.
https://thecelticblog.com/2020/11/blogs/those-inside-celtic-are-totally-unified-only-in-the-depth-of-their-contempt-for-the-fans
ERNIE LYNCH on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:50 PM
Ernie I respect your judgement – but you have sent me south wandering towards depression
In the absence of facts i am drawn to any theory – but I am hopeful you have this one wrong
If Celtic have allowed the Hun to survive at our expense it will turn me to drink (more)
Hail Hail my friend
67ECW
What we have now,is The Emperor with no clothes, Lawwell doesn’t have a Plan B, and he’s happy to see a good man fry,when he clearly needs removed for his own good.The fans won’t accept Kennedy, and any feelers he’s had out,have been knocked back,not wanting to be controlled by him,his reputation goes far and wide. Lawwell is putting his own ego,before the good of the Club.
I read it as the board are continuing with Neil and they all think this is fixable and therefore everything is fine – small blip, recoverable.
Except it won’t be
U
CHAIRBHOY on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 4:09 PM
Accepting the sensible theories on here (and most have us in a big hole) I still believe this is recoverable
But we need to win every league game between now and 3 Jan
BTW sorry one other aspect of your piece – attracting talent in our toxic atmosphere is a bit difficult !!!!!
67ECW
“There is worse to come…”
Five words that will linger at the front of my mind for the rest of this month/season.
The mindset trajectory of Paul’s articles are identical to those that I experienced over the last few months.
Paul reached his own personal tipping point yesterday. Like all of us, once you run out of making excuses for the wretched performances & making allowances for the feeble, inconsistent, circular excuses offered to explain things away – you cannot unsee any of it.
I spent months, maybe even years, reading words of outrage from from other Celtic fans but comforted myself with what now seems like complacency. Like a length of rope with me at one end & my confidence in the team’s performances at the other – I kept having to let out more & more rope just in an effort not to lose my belief in them. When I let go of the rope, instead of the nightmare I thought it would be, I was actually quite calm & knew exactly what all those other frustrated fans had felt.
Last month I had posited that the club was not professional enough and not focused on any viable football vision at all. I can only comment from the cheap seats because there are too many unknowns for those outside the magic circle. My emotional & financial investment in the club over the years makes me feel that I’m entitled to speak up, no matter what others may think.
The lack of professionalism that seems so clear to me now, jumps out from the five words that started this post. I remember being conflicted when Neil Lennon was confirmed as permanent manager after beating Hearts at Hampden. I wanted continuity – of success & performance – and thought at that time that under Neil we would have that. I was also concerned that he was not at all like Rodgers, in personality or in football coaching. I was grateful that Neil stepped in in the emergency situation we had when Brendan left, but I was puzzled as to why the offer of the permanent position was made at the time of the emotional high in the Hampden showers. I now see that both Rodgers leaving & the appointment of Neil Lennon to the permanent role are classic examples of poor management by the CEO/Board/owner & amount to basic lack of professionalism.
I think of Neil’s abrupt departure with no notice in 2014..
I think of Ronny Deila’s appointment as an after thought when our principal target walked away..
I think of the lack of club backing the Deila experienced such that he had to walk away for his own health..
I think of appointing Rodgers as a GIRFUY to the Sevco directors who got in DDs face at the Hampden semi..
I think of the communication breakdown that meant that Rodgers wanted to leave Celtic 9 mths before he went to Leicester City..
Then I realize that appointing Neil in the showers at Hampden are entirely consistent with all of the above.
Knee jerk, emotional and lazy decisions made in the heat of some emergency that those same decision makers have engineered – either by incompetence or design.
What a gig that must be – do whatever you want and always control the narrative so that you’re always right & never wrong.
Manager’ success means you did well.
Manager’s failure means they failed.
Celtic have no vision worth a damn.
We see it in every aspect of how the club is run if you want to look for it. Most don’t because of the concept outlined by psychologist Leon Festinger – we don’t want to see how naked the emperor really is.
Just compare Celtic to any successful endeavour & note the differences…
Celtic have a captive, besotted customer base that will keep buying the product on offer, no matter how shoddy & unreliable it is. Instead of recognizing that reality as a requirement to show integrity in all we do to those customers – Celtic treat us with disdain or indifference.
HH
AN DÚN on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:52 PM
An even better idea is to email this Taylor guy ,who is supposed to be in customer care, indicating you will not renew unless current management team is removed. If we all did that then they would react because they don’t like losing ST money.
Anyone know what Taylor’s email address is?
PB- the merchandise will be taking a hit as well
EXCATHEDRA44 @ pages ago.
A common CQN complaint which is levelled at Celtic manager after manager,
is the ‘he’s a Lawwell signing’ or the ‘who the f**k signed him’ signing.
Three full transfer windows plus Brendan Rodgers legacy players?
They appointed Neil Lennon and then they backed him to the hilt, with player recruitment
£38.5Million is a lot of clean legitimate Celtic money spent with a pandemic.
The board are bound to stay out of the ‘baying mob’ meantime, the bigger problem is the clearout that’s
likely, after the end of the era.
HH
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/27/psni-pay-damages-makers-troubles-documentary-northern-ireland?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Would have been an interesting AGM if a live audience was present.
First class post from CORNELIUS.
CORNELIUS on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 4:27 PM
“There is worse to come…”
________________________________________________
Great Post. You have to wonder if the season ticket holders and the fans are the only way that the board can be called to account, then why oh why have we not organised ourselves into a formidable signed up team capable of asking them – what the hell are you guys playing at? And of course demanding answers – or else.
Maybe this is something the Green Brigade should be spending their time on,
Think its quite obvious that the board see Neil as the sacrificial lamb to be kept on the back burner for when the heat gets too hot for them, but as long as we continue to pile in on top of Neil they no doubt feel quite safe,
I did hear Paul on the radio this morning, he sounded just like the rest of us, seriously depressed, and if his prediction is to be accurate then then Hearts will have to beat us in the Scottish Cup Final, or Ross County will humiliate us further on Sunday, cant think of anything else if you accept the league has already gone.
I’ve never understood posters who come on and demand that Paul write something critical about a target of their choosing.
Why the hell should he?
It’s his blog and his choice as to what to editorialise.
You want a critical article written about some target that you feel needs to be called out, then write it yourself. That’s the only sure way to get your personal views accross.
Let Paul write what he wants and what he chooses.
It’s a blog- we get to come on and speak our own version of the truth. More often than not, I haven’t even read the blog leader before I decide what I want to say or respond to.
If I wanted to criticise what Paul said- I would come on here and say it to his face- I would not demand that he go back and re-write his stuff until it was more acceptable to me.
Social media can be helpful and supportive; it can also be poisonous, crass, rude, judgemental, bullying and intolerant.
So next time- you stamp feet and demand Paul write something that interests you or accords more with your views or states things differently- don’t be a lazy bassa and order the servants around-
DIY!
My thoughts.
Neil should never have taken the job in the first place when there were so many constraints on his management of the team. We will tell you who to buy, we will tell you who your backroom team will be, the list goes on.
Brendan left for that very reason, he was NOT allowed to manage the team utterly. Now by my way of thinking, if a person is appointed to do a job, any job, they simply must be allowed to do it without hindrance. If he fails by his methods, then fine, but give the guy the opportunity to show what he could do. Neil , sadly took the job all the time knowing he would not call the shots, if that is the case then whose fault is it anyway.
Any manager worth his salt will absolutely demand he has full and utter control of ALL football matters with no interference from above. So if we are looking at a marquee signing I will not be holding my breath because all we will get again, is another Lawwell puppet and that frankly is not good enough at all by any stretch of the imagination.
I strongly feel that the new manager must not be a ” we know all about Celtic and it’s history” but a proven professional football man.
off for a sulk.
SCHUMMI
PRESTONPANS BHOYS on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 4:31 PM
Ok found the email address, so if like me you are pished off with this management team then email below , saying no action no ST next season
jptaylor@celticfc.co.uk
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 5:05 PM
very well said, agree 100%
Hold on Bhoys, the answer is here….
Celtic are planning to install a socially distant relaxation area to allow players to “get to know each other”.
Covid-19 regulations at the club’s Lennoxtown training base have restricted opportunities for Neil Lennon ‘s squad to spend time together off the pitch.
Meant to say. Huns have very few players as good or better in their squad, I can only think of maybe two, but, they are a team and as much as we hate their success, they are organised. As I say, player for player we have a massive advantage, who’da thunk it, EH
SCHUMMI
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 4:37 PM
==============================================
Thanks for reply,hope you are well.
Yes no question we spent a lot of money,problem seems,as you demonstrated,few have came up to scratch.
Annoying thing is our rivals seem to pop up reasonable performers who slot in,although under scrutiny perhaps some of their ” Big ” name signings like Hagi,have not been value for money,but you wont see that written anywhere.
I’m not sure that the introduction of Eddie Howe,Marco Silva,Roy Keane etc. would help, last night before game I was not too bothered as long as a good performance,so the inevitable blood lust would not kick off,unfortunately we inexplicably missed chances and sold goals,so the baying mob is off the seats again.
I questioned a guy on Twitter,Paul Larkin, a name I know as being a fan,and author,next thing message comes up ” your blocked “. Celtic fans are buying into this sack the Manager unfortunately without considering the many concerns he has had to deal with,some of which now clearing.
Irrespective of Neils shortcomings how can anyone legislate for player misses and errors last night.
I asked my son in London,who is scarred from the 90’s ,for the view down there,most are surprised at the level of opposition to Lennon,considering his record as a player and Manager,
Annoying for me is there is more outcry from Celtic fans than from Media. Short Memories.
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 5:05 PM
Absolutely – but it does not mean I have to agree
In my mind he has written some nonsense especially recently regarding all will be well
I assume in his mind he absolutely thought he was on the ball
And sometimes we get a message from PL – Paul being the carrier
Love it or hate it (and Im not sure Paul67 always believes the PL message)
But be clear Paul67 (who is not infallible) deserves nothing but credit and respect for this great if sometimes missed the target blog
He is forever hailed
Hail Hail my friend
67ECW
SCHUMMI on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 5:09 PM
My thoughts.
Neil should never have taken the job in the first place when there were so many constraints on his management of the team. We will tell you who to buy, we will tell you who your backroom team will be, the list goes on.
_____________________________________________________________________
Bang on of course, but at that time Neil had been ‘mutually consented’ by Hibs, therefore his managerial stock would have been at an all time low, to be offered the Celtic Job again – well where do I sign!
maybe over the piece he could have flexed his muscles a wee bit by sorting out a backroom coaching team that would better support him and take us forward, didn’t happen and sadly all water under the bridge now.
ECW 67 @ pages ago
Pain in the pandemic and we’re just the lucky Tims.
I don’t go for the Mourinho Guardiola super Celtic manager, for the simple reason I don’t think they exist, if they do they’ve already said no, if not literally, then by what they earn in money terms, outwith Scotland.
The situation created at Celtic is caused by who we’ve bought, and who we held onto, a complete buying and selling never ending hail mary boot up the park. Celtic should win the league without a head coach we managed in with Ronny.
Its definitely not the time to change the manager because we clearly haven’t planned to appoint anyone in his place. The recruitment process to be the manager of Celtic should be changed (like a lot of other things), given we’d have had Owen Coyle had it not been for his Granny’s query, over the size of his budget
The next sequence of domestic games are more winnable, than the last, I hope we win them all and they earn Neil the massive, unrelenting respect he deserves to go with the decorum and resolution he already shows.
Satisfy the pitchy forker car park bhoys? with the head of the head coach and boot out a man you gave the job to, not once but twice. Then we’ll phone Owen Coyle ( I believe he’s a coach in India ) and ask him again? That’s what the baying mob would get for their dinner, because I’m not overly confident the people who make the decisions have any another better iotas in mind.
Hail Hail
SFTB,
My only concern with Paul’s leader is that his last sentence is now being interpreted in a number of different ways. Given the frankly dismissive way the Board treats season ticket holders in terms of communication, would it not have been better for Paul to be more clear in what he believes will happen next?
If the board are behind Neil then it’s only fair that the support should be as well. It should start with this blog.
In Lenny we trust.
CORNELIUS on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 4:27 PM
Good post my mhan, covers a lot of what many feel.
BTW are you An Tearman’s mate?
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:57 PM
Paul’s not permitted to spill the beans, but I’m not constrained by any obligations of confidence.
“The script is that Lenny’s being replaced by Jeane Freeman.”
At long last, a Healthy debate on who’s going to be the next manager, por cierto.
If there was one way to end the celebrations of half the Celtic supporters at the 2019 Scottish Cup Final, it would have been to announce Neil Lennon as manager over the PA system at Hampden that day. Better to agree it under the sound of running water like they do in the movies we have all seen. So no one can hear. We have this seen movie too, as mentioned on here last night. Carry On Lennon.
Fact is Neil did a good job steadying the ship after Brendan jumped, ensuring we won our eighth title in a row and playing his part in winning the treble treble that day against Hearts. Did well domestically last season, winning the League Cup, and building up such a lead in the League that we were rightly declared Champions, equalling our own record under Jock Stein. I attended the last game we played in front of a crowd and have no doubt that had the season continued we would have kicked on and won the League on the pitch and celebrated at Celtic Park at the end of the season. And won the Scottish Cup. That Cup however is still to be won
That said the alarm bells were jangling, wrangling, Cluj, the LC final, the New Year derby and Copenhagen, but the clangor was for Neil and not for Neils. As offstated on here it is Celtic who have lost focus since the first lockdown, who are now looking down into the abyss. Neil cannot see it, the Board refuse to see it, but most of us on here do see it. Even Paul67 sees it.
Greenpinata…………Great to see a bit of humour in the face of adversity. You could also mention Neil getting into the boxing ring with Stephen Gerrard in a title decider – ten ounce gloves of course and Pay per View keeping with the current trend.
ERNIE LYNCH on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:50 PM
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:24 PM
ERNIE LYNCH on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 3:11 PM
Ernie you have posted similar before – but if that theory is true the game is up ??
###
If what I suggest is true then they are doing what they are doing for what they consider to be the best long term interest interests of Celtic fc.
So short term pain, not so much for long term gain, but rather less long term pain, which is what the absence of credible competition from the huns would mean (in their view).
There’s a logic to that hypothesis which is absent from any other explanation I have seen.
Remember that Celtic have been operating from a position of financial strength throughout, so it’s not like they’ve been forced into doing crazy things like the huns have, reacting to ever more urgent and difficult problems as they arise.
==================
I think that in this blog
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2020/01/07/why-it-is-probably-too-late-to-grow-a-set-over-ryan-christie/#more-15152
of Jan this year you will find ample cause to support your belief.
The words that has been Celtic’s “out” on Res 12 and now Res11 is what the Board perceive as being in the Company’s interest.
Is lying to shareholders/supporters in the Company’s interests in order to prevent a truth no one wants to hear coming out? It may well be.
The resistance to Res 12 always had the question “why the resistance?” I mean stubborn refusal to act on information provided and stick with a route that anyone with knowledge of the 5 Way Agreement would have known would end up in a cul de sac? A route that cost shareholder £11k in legal costs btw.
It had to be something really big and hard as it is to believe it is that Rangers continuation is seen to be in the Company’s interest.
It is writ large in the document Phil describes which was an escape attempt in Feb 2011 jointly drafted by Martin Bain and Peter Lawwell to get both clubs into the EPL.
The date is interesting in that knowledge of Rangers parlous state by Bain anyway was one of the motivators and if Lawwell knew, to what lengths were Celtic prepared to go in 2011 to stop access to the UEFA money that would have rescued Rangers but for Malmo and Maribor?
When you see what Celtic were prepared to accept in 2012 under the 5 Way Agreement in order to keep Rangers in Scottish football in some form, without taking into consideration what supporters thought would the normal route for a new club to gain entry that I set out earlier, then the imagination starts to revisit the perception held that Celtic wanted what their supporters did in 2012, which was official recognition that since 2000 Rangers cheated Celtic and Scottish football.
The idea that Celtic were unhappy with the LNS outcome that if all evidence had been provided could not have reached the Decision it did that preserved titles, given strength here with the Judicial Review funded by someone close to The Board that never happened, starts to fall away when subsequently that evidence of unlawful DOS ebts and dishonesty is provided to a Celtic Director on the 5 Way Agreement e mail list and it is buried.
Had Celtic spent time on
a) developing the club as a competitive one in European competition terms and
b) protecting our main rivals by silence, delay and disingenuousness,
we would be in for 20 years domination.
However one can only conclude as you have done and I have, because of the behaviour of Celtic on Res12, that it is simply is not in The Company’s best interest to do a) and in their best interests to do b).
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 27TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:57 PM
Paul’s not permitted to spill the beans, but I’m not constrained by any obligations of confidence.
The script is that Lenny’s being replaced by Jeane Freeman.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Martin Freeman?
At least we’d get a laff
:))))))
Ernie
clarification
Had Celtic spent time on
a) developing the club as a competitive one in European competition terms and
b) less time protecting our main rivals by silence, delay and disingenuousness,
we would be in for 20 years domination.
However one can only conclude as you have done and I have, because of the behaviour of Celtic on Res12, that it is simply is not in The Company’s best interest to do a) and stop doing b).
Apologies. I hope that is clearer.