Veteran pundit and SSB contributor Hugh Keevins didn’t pull any punches in his Record Sport column this weekend where he plays out the case for Neil Lennon to be sacked by the club.
Keevins has seen it all; he recalls Celtic’s greatest ever captain Billy McNeill being sacked by the club and the unceremonious firing of Celtic hero Tommy Burns back in the 90s. Using both as reasons why there’s no room for sentiment in the managerial game and the faith shown in Neil Lennon outstrips anything we’ve seen before.
The pundit also described the Green Brigade’s banner last week as tasteless but accurate and indicative of a support who will pull their money from the club next season if they’re not listened to now.
Celtic still have the chance to turn things around but the window for success is closing slowly closing shut with every passing performance. The team have rarely tuned up this season and imposed themselves on their opposition. It’s been passive, predictable and mostly infuriating when we end up going behind.
Speaking about the crisis at Celtic, Here’s what Keevins had to say:
The banner calling on Lennon to go, draped outside Celtic Park on Wednesday morning, was a tasteless gesture but the sentiment was accurate.
If you do it simply by the numbers, Neil has lost the moral authority to continue in his role.
Two wins in nine matches in all competitions is appalling for a Celtic manager. Ten In A Row is fast becoming a faded dream.
If Celtic’s hierarchy back Lennon it could be viewed as laudable support for someone who has lost one league game so far this season.
But it could also prove to be potentially destructive.
A strong case could have been made for Lennon doing the honourable thing and offering to resign when Sparta Prague’s fourth goal went in at Celtic Park earlier this month.
That was his Tony Mowbray moment on the night Celtic lost four to St Mirren in Paisley.
Or his John Barnes moment on the night Inverness Caley Thistle dumped Celtic out of the Scottish Cup. Both were out of work
within hours.
The same periodic rants are made about players who want out of the club or are deficient in some form or other.
Sometimes the dialogue is changed for dramatic effect.
“Fragility” becomes “softness” regarding defenders who can’t defend. “Fatigued” becomes “lazy.” And so on.
If there is literally no case for the defence, and eight goals lost to a team from the Czech Republic says there isn’t, is there a mandate for the manager?
The manager can’t lift the team. The captain Scott Brown leaves the field earlier and earlier because he doesn’t have the legs any more.
Keevins recalled a well mannered Celtic supporter calling into SSB this week, as the supporter laid out the case for the fans voting with their feet next season if the board’s failure to act costs us ten in a row.
He summed up the consequences of not winning the league by saying: “Next season there’ll be flags over the seats where people used to sit.”
This is what disillusioned fans do when they feel failed by the people to whom they paid their season ticket money in the form of a charitable donation.
They enter into a programme of non-violent civil disobedience. The club failed them, so their response is non-attendance.
