Not sure it anyone is going to buy Neil Lennon’s revisionism about his focus being on the Quadruple Treble rather than The Ten last season – for a start there was a doubt that the Scottish Cup would even be played to a conclusion in 2021 and on the day that the new fixtures are released for the Scottish Premiership, it’s fair to say that a year ago we were focused on securing a tenth straight title win and theRangers were hoping to somehow stop that happening. No-one will buy any other version of events.
Speaking to the BBC, the former Celtic manager opened up on the problem of the Want Away players, mentioned failed transfer attempts – with Ivan Toney getting mentioned – and talked up the chances of Ange Postecoglou succeeding at his old club.
“We’d gone from being rampant before the lockdown and when the boys came back after the three month break a lot had changed in their mindset,” Lennon admitted, presumably talking about the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Kris Ajer, Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie – with maybe a few more worthy of a dishonourable mention.
“Some of them wanted to move on which I got because they were on the verge of winning a fourth Treble. People are saying Ten might never be done again but I was thinking four trebles will never be done again.
“Some of them had reached the top of the mountain and were starting to look over the mountain to a career elsewhere,” Lennon added. “That was understandable but it creates a little bit of disaffection and tension within the group and there was some of that, there was no question of that.
“I mentioned it after Ferencvaros (Celtic lost the one-play Champions League qualifier despite having home advantage). These players are still at the club and I’d imagine they still do. (Want away).
“But they’ve got a good manager in. Ange will go in with his eyes wide open and with a fresh pair of eyes and fresh philosophy then players might buy into it. I think Eddie (Who?) was first choice or talks had been ongoing for a while. Everyone uses words like ‘disaster’ but it’s not – the club is okay and the players are okay,” Lennon added.
On Postecoglou’s prospects Lennon had this to say: “He’s got a blank canvas and it might take time for him to put his own stamp on things and get the style of play he wants. I wouldn’t be worried about it if I was a Celtic fan, I’d be excited by it. Ange should embrace it, enjoy it – and just win.”
On the Want Aways failing to get moves last summer, Lennon pointed to the Covid crisis restricting budgets for clubs who otherwise might have moved for the want away Celtic players: “We were in the throes of a pandemic so it’s one thing these players wanting to go. And before the lockdown finances diminished outside of super clubs who can afford.
“We had one bid for one player and it wasn’t anywhere enough. We decided we couldn’t sell for that sort of money and wanted to keep them on and try and manage them through the season.
“It was very difficult for them and for us at the time. The mindset of the players, I felt, for maybe a few of them was that they had done their bit and when you have that malaise it’s hard to get it around again.
“We did try to sign players like Ivan Toney but couldn’t get the deals done, for whatever reason. We brought in players. Some didn’t do as well as they could have done but they were living in different times.
“Some were coming from different countries, going into the training ground and weren’t seeing anyone else and then going home and sitting at home alone.”
What Lennon doesn’t say though is that given we were all aware of the life in lockdown last summer then the idea of bringing in a goalkeeper from Greece to try to adapt to live and football in covid hit Scotland was maybe pretty stupid when you already had Craig Gordon at the club and looking for a contract extension, or even David Marshall, the Scotland goalkeeper who was in Glasgow and was a free agent last summer.
On Toney if for instance the agent moved the goalposts at the 11th hour then tell us, because that would be some mitigation at least for passing him up for the questionable qualities of Albian Ajeti. If there was an attitude problem already at the club his arrival from the wilderness at West Ham hardly was going to help, was it?
Re-writing history seems to be a ‘thing’ in the Scottish game in recent times. Few if any Celtic fans will have any appetite for us getting involved in that.
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📅 Ange Postecoglou kicks off his Celtic reign in the capital before a double-header at Paradise🏟️#WelcomeAnge🤝#OneClubSince1888
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) June 15, 2021
