So for now Neil Lennon remains at Celtic manager, thanks it seems to the few hundred supporters who demonstrated at Celtic Park after the defeat to Ross County in the Betfred Cup on Sunday afternoon.
Celtic, even before the game, had signalled their intent to pull up the drawbridge as far as the supporters are concerned by removing the one non-totally compliant fans media outlet still with media accreditation from from their press conferences. And last night the club whispered in the ears of a Daily Record hack to tell him that Dermot Desmond was not going to give in to supporters pressure outside the stadium and therefore Neil Lennon would remain as Celtic manager, for now at least. Remember folks we have a Director who was recruited from the Daily Record, such is the esteem that newspaper is held in within the Celtic boardroom.
However even a Billionaire like Dermot Desmond cannot change the fact that football is a results business and it seems pretty clear that the management structure put in place by Peter Lawwell, has failed. Neil Lennon had previously in all his other jobs in management, been allowed to operate with his own team around him. Individual strengths and weaknesses were covered in the same way for instance that Brendan Rodgers, or Martin O’Neill or Billy McNeil or Jock Stein operated. Before Stein the Board had too much of a say in team affairs and that seldom ended well for Celtic.
Lennon has had to work with John Kennedy and the chemistry there seems awkward to say the least. And Gavin Strachan was appointed to replace Damien Duff, apparently on the recommendation of Kennedy – who himself owes a huge debt of gratitude to The Celtic CEO being regarded as his eyes and ears in the dressing rooms.
So Neil Lennon was given the job but not really the opportunity to succeed even as his task was to replace an elite coach like Brendan Rodgers, who had both the players and the supporters eating out of his hands pretty much as soon as he walked in the door. Yet if the players could see this and so could the support, it is pretty remarkable that the boardroom could not.
Rodgers made some dubious signings, perhaps struggling to deal with he much lower budgets that Celtic by necessity need to operate under, but rather than putting a better scouting and recruitment system in place, Lawwell decided he’d take charge himself. By his last few months in the job Rodgers was moaning about signings arriving that he had nothing to do with and complaining that we already had about a million wingers.
He walked, not really caring too much about the aftermath and left Lawwell to it. Such was the anger within the Celtic support, Rodgers took 100% of the support’s backlash – a rat, a snake, a traitor, never a Celtic man and so on. There was that Danny McGrain story which undoubtedly included an element of exaggeration yet was spun for personal advantage and no-one was prepared to point out the context. Rodgers came from Northern Ireland and had a pretty difficult time as a youngster. He didn’t have much money and didn’t achieve much academic success at school and in those days the chance to travel to Scotland to watch Celtic was pretty much beyond his reach. Football was not on television in the way it is these days either.
His admiration for Danny McGrain was genuine but his story was undoubtedly spun and that was used against him as he suffered the huge backlash from leaving the club in the way that he did. It was petty but understandably given the manner in which Rodgers choose to leave.
For Peter Lawwell it was a huge personal victory when it could have been exactly the opposite. He took none of the heat from getting his way, forcing Rodgers out the door, the now Leicester City manager suffered the full force of a Celtic support scorned, and he was able to pick up a multi million pounds compensation package (£9m) from the Premier League Club. Pats on the back all round in the boardroom for Lawwell then, but it was simply storing up a bigger problem for another day.
The fact that John McGinn ended up at Aston Villa – after a summer where Rodgers visited the then Hibs midfielder at his home to assure him that he’d be joining Celtic – Boyata wasn’t sold to Fulham for up to £12m (he later left for free) and Moussa Dembele forced his way out the door in what was a cut price exit to Lyon, was forgotten, as was the shocking nature of the Champions League exit to a poor AEK Athens side. Start counting up the cost of all that folks.
But Neil Lennon came in to answer Celtic’s call in an hour of need, having been conveniently available after having ironically enough lost the dressing room at Easter Road. Still it added to the delicious moment for Peter Lawwell who was able to stick the metaphorical middle figure up at his old enemy Rod Petrie. Scott Allen was later denied the chance to join Hibs in the last few months of his Celtic contract after having signed a pre-contract to return to Easter Road. The Player later revealed that Lawwell kept him at Celtic as he didn’t want to do Hibs any favours.
Lennon came in and steadied the ship, working alongside John Kennedy who alone rejected the chance to leave Celtic amid the Rodgers exodus, and the two of them, alongside Damien Duff (who was liked and respected by the Celtic players) were able to continue the same philosophy and drive the club to a successful conclusion of the season with 8IAR secured and the Scottish Cup won the wrap up another treble.
That was the point when the short term solution to the Rodgers departure should have been looked at strategically by the Celtic Board but instead the CEO and major shareholder went into the dressing room at Hampden and gave Neil Lennon the job. Any Elite coaches who had applied discovered that their CVs were left unread in a drawer at Celtic Park.
Many Celtic Supporters were dismayed. Where was the vision? Neil Lennon with Kennedy even with Duff was a backward step they feared so when Duff decided to return to Ireland after the Nine-in-a-Row campaign was ended early and Gavin Strachan was brought in from Peterborough the situation deteriorated even further. The players liked and respected Duff who had enjoyed a successful career at the highest level. The same could not be said about Gavin Strachan. Players started to get itchy feet.
The downgrade management team had just been downgraded even further before a ball was kicked in the most important of domestic season in a lifetime.
Nick Hammond had been brought in the previous summer as Head of Recruitment after a trial period at the club. This area had been left dormant at the club as Lee Congerton hung on in post for several months before being re-united with Rodgers at Leicester. Lawwell picked up further compo but the recruitment process needed a complete overhaul. It had become a shambles.
Lawwell on the day Lennon was appointed in the showers at Hampden, told the media that he believed that Neil Lennon had an eye of a player.
Certainly the Board has backed the management team this summer ahead of the ten-in-a-Row campaign with Barkas, Ajeti, Elyounoussi (on loan), Turnbull, Duffy (on loan) and Laxalt (on loan) all coming in with several players who were looking for a move (Christie, Ajer, Ntcham, Edouard) all being retained for the season.
Valuations of all four want-aways must surely have dropped and that must be an added concern for everyone involved.
When the Cynics asked a question a few weeks back about the roles each of the management team fulfils at Lennoxtown it seems that someone at Celtic took offence. Their invitation to join The Celtic Zoom press conferences was no longer forthcoming. Celtic had raised the drawbridges even before Ross County rather predictably scored from a conceded penalty and a corner.
By now Celtic had no playing identity with the manager switching between his last failed system back to the one that had failed previously. On Sunday we were back to a back three with Elhamed – who should be at right back not wing back – trying to supply the width. Laxalt had his worst game for the club on the other side of the pitch.
When Neil Lennon was appointed plenty in the support had we felt unrealistic expectations about the kind of manager Celtic would appoint. But under Peter Lawwell that was never going to happen and Neil Lennon was the best we were going to get. Yet even then he was given the job with one hand tied behind his back.
It hasn’t worked. It’s time for change. Peter Lawwell is rumoured to be standing down in the summer and this may well be announced at the forthcoming AGM. That means that the new CEO should be able to create his own structure for the football club with his own choice of manager in charge of the team.
So if Neil Lennon goes – and it seems inevitable that he will – then a short term appointment is needed to see us through to the summer. That seemed to be the way things were heading yesterday.
But the question supporters want answered now is can we still win Ten-in-a-Row? Only if the players are up for it is the best answer we can give.
