NEIL LENNON has mounted a spectacular defence of this season and it’s clear he puts the pandemic above everything else when it comes to what’s gone wrong at the club.

The manager doesn’t buy into the hysteria, as he calls it, as it pertains to his job and critics of the board.

During his comments Neil says he’s not using this as an excuse but he clearly believes the abnormal season has cost Celtic dearly.

“Well we need to start showing that by winning games but it’s never over until it’s over. I get it because people see Rangers being really consistent but we’ve just got to look after our own results, start winning games and playing the sort of football we were playing through December when we built a lot of momentum.” The Celtic manager told CelticTV.

“If we can get back to that sort of form we can hopefully put a run together and finish strong, mentally and physically.

“But it’s been a really abnormal season for many reasons – it’s been very disruptive – and I hope football doesn’t continue in this vein.

“The sooner we get the crowds back in it will spark a lot more performances out of us. But as far as this season is concerned I can’t see that happening so we’ve got to make the the rest of the season as best we can.”

“It’s not over just yet but we are playing and training and coaching in different times and different circumstances.

“This is all new to all of us really, the way 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 find some mental strength and start putting in the performances we’re capable of.

“But it’s not normal without the fans – it’s not been the same – and 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.”

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. That’s just not normal.

“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.

“I would not have enjoyed playing this season, as a player, with what I experienced at Celtic, or even Leicester in the Premier League. 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 but it is part of the explanation.

“There’s been a flatness about it and that comes from the lack of energy, atmosphere, rawness that normally the players would pick up and thrive on.”

There’s a part of the fan base who will rally around this theory because, in essence, they don’t want to blame the manager.

These fans think there’s a large part of the support out to get Neil Lennon at all costs, when it’s simply not the case. You’ll have your extreme views from a minority but the fans calling for change are not doing it because they dislike Neil Lennon, on the contrary. I’d have loved for Neil to be the man who won ten, he’s a Celtic legend and has put up with a lot while at the club. However, it should never exclude him from criticism and it’s very safe to say, had this been any other manager, they would have had their marching orders by now.

The manager and his coaching staff unfortunate fostered discontent in the dressing room and made poor decisions when it came to personnel. The fact Neil Lennon won’t fess up to this and be a man about it is very frustrating.

The Hoops boss publicly called out players after the Champions League exit, telling them to ‘just go’ if they don’t want to be there. He then fielded the exact same team three days later and all players stayed at the club. It wasn’t the pandemic which threw a grenade into the dressing room, it was our manager.

Neil held back David Turnbull, he’s constantly chopped and changed goalkeeper, he’s been reactive instead of proactive and of course, who can forget the Dubai debacle – something which the manager insisted Celtic do in January despite all common sense pointing in the other direction.

Yes, Celtic fans not being in the stadium has an effect but we’ve had so much time to get used to this. So many games where the choices the manager has made have ultimately backfired. Do not hide behind a pandemic for your deficiencies, have some respect for the support and don’t stubbornly dismiss the concerns of the people who have backed you for a long time.

The disregard in his latest for supporters feelings was clear for all to see. Neil is in self preservation mode; stubborn and acting like a teenager in a huff. It’s not becoming of a Celtic manager.

1 COMMENT

  1. Yea we all love you Neil, and all you brought to Celtic as a player, a coach a personality. Shi7 happens and circumstances can throw everybody a weird year. Just draw a line under this year and say ‘ Fuc&ing hopefully never again’.
    As you won’t be managing Celtic next season. Even pets have bad, unexplained times. You love them like a kid, but they become incontenent, eat the antiques, bite your neighbours kids and delevery people, pish all over you. And get a boot up the arse, sold on, or abandoned tied to a post in a park. Or a sleepy sleepy jag from a vet.
    And then you move on, and shed a tear or two. Then you get a new one, and go through the same rigmarole after 15 or so years.

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