In all fairness to John Kennedy, he has been thrown in right at the deep end in the mire that currently engulfs Celtic Football Club. Having had to endure the worst season in Celtic’s recent history – at least since the turn of the century – from the sidelines, it seems almost unfair for Kennedy to be handed the pile of rubbish that the recently resigned Neil Lennon berthed for him, being given the blame every step of the way.
With there being quite literally nothing to play for now that theRangers have won the league – bar the rescheduled Scottish Cup – Kennedy is simply biding his time in the hot seat waiting for the nightmare to end, despairing at what could’ve been at the start of the season.
“But, it’s not about giving up and standing back. In terms of the recent times we’ve been the dominant team, this campaign it hasn’t happened, but we want to get back on course as quickly as we can.”
It was the first point he had dropped in his so-far minuscule managerial career today, with yet another stalemate in Celtic’s season – this time away at lowly Dundee United. Yet, instead of taking the positives, a seemingly deflated Kennedy gave an overly honest review of the game following the amount of spurned chances Celtic had.
Speaking to Sky Sports following the game, Kennedy said: “We have got to be finishing those chances. In terms of half time, we should be 2 or 3 up easily, we just have to be more clinical in terms of being calm in front of goal. There were other times where we rushed things when we didn’t have to, we could’ve penned them in and really worked them in the final third. Good performance, but not the one we wanted.”
Similar to Callum McGregor’s post match interview, Kennedy praised the possession and defensive work of the side, but lambasted the Celtic play in the final third; claiming that the game should’ve been wrapped up at half time. And you can not disagree with him; he’s describing the performances which we have seen time and time again – only to not punish the opponent.
“We have to work through the draws. We have all the play; great. Creating opportunities; great, because it gives you what you want. But, you have to have either the final ball or the finish, which we just didn’t have today. And it’s partly down to confidence as well – if we had scored those 2 or 3 in the first half, you’d see a totally different team.”
Kennedy, a former Bhoys’ player before injury curtailed his career, was visibly annoyed at having not wrapped up the historic tenth title to write Celtic into Scottish footballing history – but he backed the team to come back stronger next season.
“It is disappointing, of course. The objective at the start of the season was to get to 10IAR, which hasn’t happened for a number of reasons, but ultimately Rangers have been better than us throughout the season, simple as that. They’ve deserved to win it this year, but we just have to accept that.
I hope it does a lot for us, because ultimately we have been champions for so long and had so much success – not just in the league, but in the cup competitions as well – we need to continue that. You have to have a blip at some point and I think we’ve seen that this season, it has not been good enough, we can’t shy away from that. But, it’s not about giving up and standing back. In terms of the recent times we’ve been the dominant team, this campaign it hasn’t happened, but we want to get back on course as quickly as we can.”
John Kennedy should not be in charge of the team for when the Scottish cup returns in April when he couldn’t motivate the team to delay the inevitable yesterday. He doesn’t have what it takes to be the Celtic manager especially when we are in such disarray