We asked for supporters’ feedback on the current managerial situation at Celtic and on how the team is performing this season. Here’s the second batch of replies. If you’d like your opinion published on The Celtic Star please email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we’ll do the rest…
Infamy, infamy…they’ve all got it in for me…
It’s a difficult time at the moment and I don’t just mean at our football club. The pandemic means that fans cannot express their views at games, which is probably just as well for some of the players, and have to resort to social media and even banners at the ground. These are not the best forms of communication but it’s the hand we have been dealt.
It may be cold comfort for Neil Lennon but he is not the only one being openly criticised by the fans. Rightly so, most of the players have been castigated, but such pressure is diluted because it shared amongst the squad whereas Lennon’s is directed at an individual.
He has every right to take such criticism personally and some of it is way over the top. I would criticise him for his tactics, failure to make changes, late substitutions and playing players who are just empty jerseys. We have been outplayed, out-fought and out-thought by too many fairly ordinary teams in Europe and are now seeing the same thing domestically. I have no inside knowledge as to why this is so and if there are any mitigating circumstances, but I do know it has been evident for some time.
Having been critical of Neil Lennon, I think, as would the majority of supporters, that he is owed something by the club. He was thrown in at the deep end when Brendan Rodgers left, steadied the ship and won all competitions. He is a true Celtic man and has suffered horrendous abuse from that other lot. These count for a lot in my book. Thanks Neil.
So how big of a something do we owe Neil Lennon? It is evident that things cannot go on as they are. He may have won all competitions and it was great to beat that lot in the League Cup Final, more so given that our performance on the day was abysmal. So, as noted previously, it is not just the last 8 games, the problem has been evident for some time. We cannot just cross everything and hope things turn around. Somebody has to do something, whether that’s the management team, the players or the Board.
Let’s hope Neil can sort things out now and maintain a level of performance in the players, he is owed that. If not, another couple of bad results, and for me, that’s it. Winning the cup won’t take the pressure off, losing it will be extremely difficult for Neil Lennon and all concerned with CFC.
And there is the dilemma. It cannot be expressed in a banner although I would hope the other side of the GB banner read “Neil we love you”.
Christopher Wotherspoon
Firstly I would like to say that The Celtic Star, no matter what the subject is or how bad the situation is, you always keep it fair. I like almost every Celtic fan at the moment feels like the team has let The Ten slip away from us and we find ourselves mostly blaming our manager.
I think Lenny should have been replaced early in the season probably after the awful way we went out of Champions League qualifiers. I do have to say that the personal attacks we are seeing on him are disturbing and those of us of a certain age who remember the 90s and when Tommy Burns failed to stop them getting to Nine and it was time for him to be replaced we still treated him with the love and the dignity that he deserved as the true Celt he was. Surely Lenny deserves the same respect?
Jim O’Rourke
The Celtic Star says..Yes he does Jim, 100%. Any supporter throwing personal abuse at Neil is way out of order.
We all have our views on how our past heroes were treated by Celtic Boards: Davie Hay, Big Billy and TB – and they all swallowed their pride to come back and serve the club they love. But we are in dangerous new grounds now where social media can make baseless claims to represent the majority of fans and press home their own views, agendas even. And spoilt brats can soil themselves when we hit a sticky patch.
The board as usual get a free pass all across Celtic social media platforms. The hunt is on for Lennon to go…is this what we’ve come to? The Green Brigade cave in first and out comes the bed sheets, ,yeah faithful through and through. First sign of a hard time coming and the support collapses.
