Neil Lennon may be under fire from Celtic fans as fears of missing out on a tenth successive title mount, but Sky Sports' Andy Walker believes the criticism should be aimed elsewhere...
Thursday 26 November 2020 22:39, UK
Much has been made of the attention-seeking banner that was unveiled outside Celtic Park on Wednesday morning that highlighted how a group of Celtic supporters were feeling about their club and their manager.
As we all know, this is a momentous season in Scottish football and as things stand before we even get to December, Celtic are 11 points behind a very impressive Rangers side under Steven Gerrard, albeit with two games in hand.
"Save the Ten, time to go Neil" was the unambiguous message to manager Neil Lennon on the back of some dreadful performances and for those who don't follow Scottish football so closely, nothing matters this season other than the league title.
For Celtic, 10 is the magic number and the Holy Grail. For Rangers, Steven Gerrard and his players will be forever remembered if they win just one. It's all they need to be legends.
Management has never been so brutal or unforgiving. Neil Lennon has won the last four trophies available in Scotland and his team are favourites to win a fifth trophy on the trot when they face Hearts in a delayed Scottish Cup final at Hampden on December 20
If successful, it'll mean a quadruple treble. Think about that. 12 domestic trophies in a row.
But in a momentous season, none of it will matter. Ten-in-a-row is slipping away in the eyes of too many Celtic supporters and with no fans allowed inside the grounds, apparently the only place you can gauge their opinion is online.
Social media can be a very ugly and sinister place but the bile & hatred towards Neil Lennon - from Celtic supporters as well as others - has been disgusting to read.
For what it's worth, I think the supporters' banner and their anger is aimed in the wrong direction.
If Dermot Desmond and the Celtic board felt it was right to appoint Neil Lennon after the departure of Brendan Rodgers, they should have backed him completely and allowed him to bring in his own coaching staff. He wasn't allowed to because the Celtic board know better.
'We are richer, we are stronger and our squad is streets ahead of everyone else, get on with it Neil' was the clear message.
When Brendan Rodgers was brought to Celtic Park, he arrived on a huge salary with a proven track record of improving players and playing a style of football the fans would enjoy.
Despite what the Celtic board will tell you, he was worth every penny.
With him, he brought a culture of making players better and selling them on if necessary; there was a culture of signing players, improving them and selling them on when necessary. It worked like a dream. Moussa Dembele? Signed for half a million and sold for £20m. Kieran Tierney? Came through the ranks and sold for £24m. Stuart Armstrong? Developed into a player worth £7m and sold to Southampton.
Trophy after trophy rolled up for the Celtic supporters; an Invincible season was delivered, probably never to be repeated and of course, regular thrashings against Rangers home and away were also the order of the day. Happy days.
All of this cost money and Rodgers delivered an extraordinary level of success.
When he left, Celtic raked in £9m in compensation from Leicester City. And yet Lennon was brought in on the cheap with no coaching staff of his own until the end of the season.
Of course, the out-of-work manager would agree to the terms, what else was he to do?
If nothing else, Neil Lennon cares about Celtic and has been an extraordinary figure on and off the park for years. But when he was given the job permanently, we learned that no one else was spoken to, no one else approached.
The culture that Brendan Rodgers started was tossed to one side for Neil Lennon but he wasn't allowed to bring anyone in to help him.
A truly remarkable change in direction from Dermot Desmond and his board.
Give Brendan Rodgers everything but his successor nothing. Lennon has been here before and been successful, he'll do it again. And furthermore Neil, don't utter a word of criticism our way. Brendan did that and we didn't like it.
More than a club? This Celtic board are the same as you'll find at every other club, highly sensitive to any form of criticism.
Lennon said recently that there was 'no justification' for him to be sacked. Maybe he's right but it doesn't look good for him. His team concede too many goals and have too many players off form. It's never a good combination.
From the evidence of what I have seen in the game against Rangers and the draws at Pittodrie and Easter Road, too many players just don't care as much as he does.
If he succeeds, it will be an astonishing success story.
But if, as seems likely, it doesn't work out for him, there's plenty of people who should be held accountable as well as the manager and players.
