Jurgen Klopp is having a season to forget just like Neil Lennon apparently. The two managers of worthy, runaway Champions north and south of the border last season have both been nowhere near as successful in negotiating a behind closed doors season without the backing of the two sets of supporters regarded as the most passionate on this island and who have both made ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ their anthem.
There is an article on Empire of the Kop today (that’s the Liverpool site closest in comparison to The Celtic Star) that complains about Klopp being a little too ‘spikey’ with the media. Here’s a flavour of what EOTK Editor Jordan Chamberlain has been saying about the German who previously could walk on water on Merseyside in the eyes of the Liverpool support.
Basically, think Klopp should remember how infectious his personality is. When he rallies and smiles, we all do. Good times or bad. https://t.co/B3uQiwjAcW
— Jordan A Chamberlain (@Jordan_AC90) January 26, 2021
“This season, we’ve seen a spikier, more sensitive and wholly sarcastic Klopp during his interviews. From the view of an on-looker and someone who reports on Klopp almost every time he opens his mouth, his patience with journalists and the broadcasters or newspapers they work for has run thin.
“He repeatedly drops the line that he doesn’t feel comfortable answering a question because ‘you’ll just make a headline,’ and on more than one occasion, you can tell a reporter who’s asked a sometimes boring, but not entirely ridiculous question, is shaking in his or her’s boots at the Klopp snap-back that follows.
“It would be easy to suggest this has come from Liverpool’s struggles. After all, our injury situation has been farcical and there’s been more than a few refereeing/VAR incidents that would send the Dalai Lama into a post-match frenzy – but much of the beef has been of Klopp’s own making,” Empire of the Kop.
(Photo by PETER POWELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Jordan is in a decent position to observe these situations, Liverpool have a modern media approach that recognises that their support increasingly gets their news and features on their club directly from the Liverpool fan media. Celtic by contrast remain stuff in the past thinking that they need to go through the MSM to reach the support.
Apparently there is a cunning plan underfoot to rotate access for the fans media – why don’t we do this with the players too? Or even Directors? Or maybe they should just consider these things on merit. How many supporters read the websites or listen to the blogs? How influential are they? Liverpool seem to get it but not it seems Celtic.
Yesterday Dave from The Cynic – who operate mostly behind a paywall so as a consequence reach only the supporters who are prepared to pay for their content – necessarily reducing their audience – asked Neil Lennon if he understood the fans frustrations this season. “No” was the answer. The awkward silence that followed was broken by both Dave (who thought that he’d have to follow up if the conversation was going to continue, and also by Neil Lennon who then started talking about nine titles in a row, a quadruple treble that has never been. done before and so on.
In The Herald today – the sister paper of the Glasgow Times who last week called Lennon ‘Popcorn Teeth’ and who published this photograph of the Celtic manager, no-doubt carefully selected, when reporting on his post Dubai meltdown:
These papers – they share the content – one week later get access to the Celtic manager – and no-one at Celtic seems to care. Apparently the club wrote to the Glasgow Times editor to complain about the ‘popcorn teeth’ remark, shown below but there’s been no word of any response not any subsequent action.
Speaking to The Herald yesterday Neil Lennon latches on to the Liverpool woes to justify the complete collapse of just about everything at Celtic this season. Here’s what he’s told the Glasgow based paper.
“I think that is a fair comparison,” Lennon said when asked about the difficulties the Anfield club are facing this season. “I’m watching with interest how Liverpool are going this year. There is a 30-point swing between them and Manchester United from this time last year. Now that’s not normal; it’s just not normal. Now Man United have improved but not to the extent of it being a 30-point swing.
“Liverpool are probably finding things a little bit difficult the way we have, for some reason. It’s difficult to put your finger on it. I would not have enjoyed playing this season, as a player, with what I experienced at Celtic, or even Leicester in the Premier League. I would not have enjoyed it. You thrive on the atmosphere. It brings the best out in you.
“We talked for years of the European nights at Celtic Park where it lifted us to another level. The players have been bereft of that. Again, I’m not using that as an excuse. It’s part of the explanation, it’s not the total explanation. But I think it is a part of it that there has been a flatness about it and that comes from the lack of energy, atmosphere, and rawness that normally the players would pick up on, thrive on.
“We are playing and training and coaching in really different times and different circumstances. This is all new to all of us, really…the way of life away from the training ground and the way life is around the football environment now.
“I’m not using it as an excuse. We have to build some momentum, find some consistency. We have to find some mental strength and start putting in the performances we are capable of. It’s not normal because with the fans, it’s not been the same, and I think the players have felt that more than anybody else. I’m not saying any other club, but I’m talking within the club the players have felt that loss of spark, that energy.”
“The Celtic support is a huge selling point when you are bringing players in,” Lennon revealed. “And the other thing is players coming from a different environment, different culture, different way of playing football. Their lives away from the training ground has really been curtailed; they can’t go to a restaurant, can’t go for a coffee, be anywhere. It is just training ground or home. Some clubs have adapted better to it, some club’s haven’t.
“I can’t say how it feels because I never experienced it myself: coming into an environment like this and being away from what you are used to, whether that be climate, lifestyle or being restricted to being at home. I’m definitely sure it’s not what they envisaged. You can say other clubs have adapted well, are going well, but other clubs have suffered – clearly suffered – and we are definitely one of those clubs that have.
“I think you may see the best of the players as we go along. Chelsea have had a big revamp. I’m in disbelief that Frank has lost his job, but for some reason he has lost his job, and he brought all these players in and they have found it difficult to adapt to the lifestyle they thought they were going to have.”
Make of all that what you will, although plenty are already getting to the past caring stage. And that should worry Celtic more than anything else. I’m away to message Jordan at Empire of the Kop to tell him it could be worse, he could be watching Celtic’s car-crash of a season. YNWA.
READ THIS…The Celtic Trust – Schooling Celtic with Modern and Effective Media Strategy
I’m 50+ and in that time I don’t remember Celtic ever washing their hands of a season in January. I don’t remember ever just giving up. Actions speak louder than words, & despite all the bluster there’s a white flag flying from the boardroom at Celtic Park.
It grates at the soul.— John Hughes (@yogijunior3) January 27, 2021
