NEIL LENNON has spoken to Celtic TV after tonight’s disastrous 2-1 home defeat to the Hungarian Champions.
“I’m devastated. It shouldn’t happen. It’s a poor result. We dominated the game. We conceded two really poor goals. We all have to take responsibility for it. I have to for the team selection. We had more than enough chances to win the game twice over,” the Celtic manager stated before going on to question the attitude of his players – some of whom he believes think that they are better than they are – and even the commitment that some have to the club.
Speaking to BBC Sportsound he went further. “It should have been done and dusted, with or without Odsonne. My message to the players is we have to do better. Get your mentality right. Get your attitude right. If some of you don’t want to be here then leave, and then, you know let us work with players who want to be here.”
Now as the dust settles on a rain soaked Celtic Park Ferencvaros joins Celtic’s list of infamy alongside AEK Athens, Cluj and Copenhagen who have got the better of Celtic in European football despite being nowhere near our level in terms of investment in the footballing department.
Something is going badly wrong and it is no coincidence. We published an article a few weeks back warning of the dangers of August – emerging in recent years as the most traumatic of months for the club and August 2020 has followed a similar pattern to the previous two years.
And it’s no fluke either. This is a disaster movie that Celtic script and star in themselves, a blockbuster with a huge £90m gifted by the sheer wastefulness of Celtic players on the park and some pretty questionable behaviour off it. And yet again Neil Lennon – who could set the team up to play the likes of Lazio – had no answer against a smash and grab outfit who will have done their homework and watched the AEK, Cluj and Copenhagen games.
The Celtic Star yesterday warned about their speedy danger man down the left hand side and the sensible thing to do would be to fight fire with fire and play Jeremie Frimpong. Not that easy and what do non footballing folk like ourselves know?
The boy from Rosenborg was available for half the price we paid for Greg Taylor. Let that sink in. And we paid even more for that disgraceful individual Bolingoli – who cost is two vital matches to get up to speed for the game tonight. He will not and better not kick another ball for Celtic.
And what about Leigh Griffiths? The two strikers on the bench weren’t fit enough to start (according to the manager before the game) and Edouard was injured after failing to get any sort of protection from the referee Andrew Dallas at the weekend. Where was Griffiths? Nowhere to be seen. His time is surely up too.
Ryan Christie is this season’s Lewis Morgan. Trying too hard to impress and get back to that purple patch he had early on last season. His dad reckon he’s some player though.
The club are going to lose around £20m this season as a direct result of the coronavirus situation – and that is with the support stepping up in huge, record breaking numbers to back the club. The Champions League money was therefore more important than ever. This one therefore hurts more than the others.
There was a moment during tonight’s game when the camera turned to the Celtic bench and we have Kennedy on the right Lennon in the middle and Strachan on the left. It struck me that Henrik Larsson was out of work and looking for a coaching role when Celtic went for Gavin Strachan from Peterborough to replace Damien Duff. Yet Henrik gets a call to go back to his old club – Barcelona!
The comments below the official tweet – which you can read below – make particularly grim reading for Neil Lennon and his Celtic players. The mood in the support is not disappointment, it is raw anger.
Those players who want away should be sold. And maybe someone should explain why young Dembele has dropped out of the squads amid rumours that he wants away? What the hell is going on?
And while we’re at it, why was the team leaked today as it has been over the past few matches? Who is doing this? It is obviously coming from within the Celtic “bubble”. We had seen the team line-up early afternoon today as the rumours spread over social media, and by text message. Everyone knew well in advance that we had no striker playing and that Christie was playing up front in the infamous Lewis Morgan role.
That is part of the problem, a group that isn’t a team and there is a lack of leadership, authority and in some a disrespect for our jersey. It just isn’t good enough. Here’s Neil Lennon’s take on tonight;s defeat.
🎙️ Neil Lennon: “I’m devastated. It shouldn’t happen. It’s a poor result. We dominated the game. We conceded two really poor goals.
We all have to take responsibility for it. I have to for the team selection. We had more than enough chances to win the game twice over.” pic.twitter.com/Ryb2XT3q9B
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 26, 2020
