Is Lennon the man to wrest control back from Rangers after Gerrard’s heroics and the signing of Defoe?
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Neil Lennon has just delivered a treble treble and @Cicero_Dandi is agitating for him to be sacked. Hardly surprising when he was advocating for Klopp and Pochettino to be sacked ahead of the European Cup Final.
Superb wumming from Dembele
“We” .
Backwards step. Smacks of money saving. I’m confidently predicting celtic won’t do the ten in a row as rangers up and up the ante to stop them, and celtic have the lovechild of Sam allardyce and Jim mcguiness at the wheel
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I was right.
An unprecedented treble treble and you’re still moaning.
Maybe Celtic should have approached Mark van Bommel. A top 10 manager in the world according to bachelor Bhoy.
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Another Top 10 manager Claudio Ranieri at a loose end as well after getting sacked twice in the last few months by Fulham and Roma.
I’m happy for Lennon but a bit concerned for Celtic.
The talk was there was no genuine recruitment process and he was going to remain in situ like when his first caretaker stint was made permanent.
Apparently he’s dismantled a lot of the shit Rodgers had set up. Rodgers was an attention to detail freak and had analysts doing all sorts and called meetings about meetings about meetings with staff, squad, smaller player groups, one to ones etc apart from training.
Lennon’s not into that level of detail and preparation at all. That said, he’s done what needed to be done since coming in purely in results terms. A number of displays have been sketchy but the trophies have been secured.
We do look like a team coming to the end of its cycle though and the squad is unbalanced in places and needs freshening up. He needs to be backed to sign players but he’s not a development coach like Rodgers and Lawwell isn’t really a competent Director of Football type.
There’s a bit of risk there.
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I’d say he’s in the Brian Clough ergo Martin O’Neill school of management. A lot of delegation, minimal touch points with the players etc. He spent a good chunk of his career with Martin, who was very aloof by all accounts
You could tell that the players completely bought into Rodgers’ regime, even though he was a watery enough character. Many of them spoke in glowing terms about the coaching, professionalism, organisation etc.
The difference is quite noticeable with Lennon. Plenty of them have been asked in recent weeks about whether they want him to stay on and they always answer politically and endorse him. But when pressed as to why it’s kinda generic stuff like he loves the club, he’s a winner, he’s passionate etc. Nobody specifically praises his management or coaching.
It just struck me as interesting. He can be broody and he apparently left Hibs after coming to or nearly coming to blows with players.
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I think that’s reasonable and balanced.
I don’t think the preparation and fitness was good enough in his first spell in charge and Deila commented on that when he joined. (That said, Rodgers suggested Deila wasn’t good at it either).
I am not as concerned by his man management. He worked well with guys like Samaras who were enigmatic. Rodgers seems to instil belief in players but he had two difficult situations to manage last summer with Dembele and Boyata and he made a mess of both of them. And he seemed to be handling Tierney badly too but Tierney just didn’t pay much heed to it.
Losing the league from the front in his first season was really poor. That game away to ICT was so depressing. And we lacked a cutting edge at the end of his spell. But tactically he did alright. Some very decent and memorable results in Europe obviously.
That performance at Ibrox 2 weeks ago was deeply concerning. The wrong players with the wrong tactics with an appalling level of effort. But ultimately it didn’t matter and yesterday’s game was much more important.
We were far from brilliant yesterday but those players are exhausted. We played more games this season than we ever have before in a single season. And the last 3 seasons have been in the top 5 of all time. The players are tired and some of them are crocked.
I didn’t want Lennon to get the job but hope he does well with it now. And he did have a decent track record on buying so hopefully that continues and he is funded to rebuild the team because the current squad was showing signs of decline long before he got the job.
Big changes needed anyway.
Not sure about Bain but he’s generally been very good and far better than expected.
Lustig is fucked but I’d keep him as cover. Ralston is dreadful. His use of the ball last week was really poor but his defensive positioning was alarming. So we need a first choice right back and try and retain Lustig for another year.
Tierney needs backup at left back. Maybe Hayes is good enough to do that. It’s hard to buy a competent player to play in the SPL but to be content at being a sub. Hayes sort of fits that bill and his defending at left back has been very good.
At least we have a starting centre back partnership of Simunovic and Ajer. Both have their flaws but they’re relatively young and very young and have developed a partnership. Boyata and Benkovic leaving means we have no cover though. Bitton is for emergencies only and Hendry is clearly not good enough. (Another bizarre one from Rodgers). I’d like to sign one pure centre back and one that can cover centre back and one of the full back positions. Easier said than done.
I hope we sign David Turnbull to help our midfield. 15 goals for Motherwell as a 19 year old midfielder is a ridiculous stat. He looks a good young player. Otherwise we have decent players in Brown, McGregor, Ntcham, Bitton, Henderson, Rogic and Christie. Assume Kouassi isn’t up to it (another weird Rodgers one). Hopefully Rogic can rediscover his form next season.
And then up front we probably need one more winger/attacker to replace Burke and Weah. We have Shved and Arzani and hopefully Griffiths but we have been relying a lot on Edouard recently and we would have been fucked if he was injured. If Dembele is a realistic bench option and Arzani and Shved are good enough and Griffiths will be available then we’ll be fine.
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Weak very cheap appointment- board can bend him to their wishes, with Lennon in charge Celtic won’t spend and any success in Europe is only a fantasy
Lennon had more success in Europe than the vast majority of Celtic managers in this first stint
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Would Dermot Desmond be a hands on owner?
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I’d have Ralston over Lustig any day right now, Ralston may get better but Lustig is only going to get worse and has been shocking for 3 seasons now. It’s a long overdue severing of ties there. Thanks Mikael you need to go.
We need a midfielder who can control games and has a bit of defensive bite and engine, Brown should be done as a starter now, he has struggled in quite a few big games.
It’s deeply depressing that Lennon has got the job though, it has disaster written all over it but it must have been Lawwell’s wet dream when Rodgers left in such circumstances at such a particular time. It saved the blowback that would all have arrived on his door if Rodgers had stuck it out for the season.
Don’t forget Bayo too but I get the impression, Lennon will just freeze him out without ever giving him a proper chance.
As for Kouassi, I presume that was a signing probably over Rodgers head and he was unlucky he got injured as he was getting a bit of a run of games. Guys like Christie, Armstrong, Ajer, McGregor have all played their way in under Rodgers when looking to be on the periphery.
I don’t have an awful lot of criticism of Rodgers tenure bar his departure and some tactical naivety in Europe. We played good football, he brought a number of players on leaps and bounds and his selections were generally on point. In Lennon’s 3 odd months in charge, I have see more bizarre selections and favouritism than I’ve seen in 2 and a half years under Rodgers.
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No
You haven’t seen enough of Ralston then. He was constantly out of position last weekend. Look at the covering Hayes did yesterday, Ralston doesn’t do that. And he’s dreadful on the ball. Forget Lustig for a moment. Ralston cannot be our #1 or #2 right back next season.
Yeah I forgot about Bayo. He got injured at the wrong time and didn’t seem fit when he signed so hopefully he can get it together for pre season. He should suit Lennon more than Rodgers on the face of it.
I’d like to see us phasing in a replacement for Brown but I think you’re overstating how badly he has played. He wasn’t brilliant yesterday but played well in the second half, particularly after we went behind. Ntcham should be capable of replacing him anyway and that allows McGregor to stay deep and Rogic or Christie ahead. Probably need another deeper player but Bitton is a useful replacement to have for now anyway if we can’t get a ready made replacement. Not sure what type of player Rakeem Harper is but he has been strongly linked.
There was also talk about Benkovic signing for another year so hope that materialises.
Is he making money out of Celtic? Surely the numbers being bandied about for Celtic are peanuts for him