The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[Angelo]

I like lennon. I think part of his problem is the yr he won the league Rangers were in a mess deducted points and liquidated. He really should have won it the yr before but missed out by a point then his next wins were all when Rangers were in the lower leagues so through no fault if his own he never really finished above a competitive Rangers. I think thats why some dont think he is good enough at least this yr there can be no complaints.

That and failing at Bolton and Hibs.

Failing? Took Hibs to their highest finish in years. Bolton survived the drop under NL. Look what they have both done since.Rewrite history much?

He was sacked at both. Leaving Bolton lying bottom of the Championship and being ran from Hibs after alienating the entire squad after a bad run of form.

That's not rewriting history, that's the facts.

It's bull that's what it is, Lennon performed a managerial miracle in mid season to rescue Bolton from oblivion, sure fire relegation certainties, with adding a few bargain basement journeymen to the squad. Before the next season started Bolton went tits up. Bolton were a basket case club at that time, as was well known to most everyone but not you.

The new manager bounce, he hasn't been able to sustain success in either job and was sacked when things went bad. Once John McGinn left Hibs they fell apart, it could be the same if Edouard goes at Celtic.

[illdecide]

Angelo you're wrong...as a few have already pointed out plus i can tell you for certain the Hibs job and the way he left there was more to it that you know and we'll leave it at that, he went on to be Celtic's next manager after Gold Digga ran to the pound note and has done a good job...

[Angelo]

Angelo you're wrong...as a few have already pointed out plus i can tell you for certain the Hibs job and the way he left there was more to it that you know and we'll leave it at that, he went on to be Celtic's next manager after Gold Digga ran to the pound note and has done a good job...

I think it's debatable how good a job he has done.

A collapse by the huns post Christmas has papered over the cracks. The Cluj and Copenhagen games were an embarrassment and we were blessed to win the League Cup. The performances in big games this season have been by and large extremely disappointing, we are utterly reliant on Edouard and luckily he has been fit all season.

[illdecide]

Angelo you're wrong...as a few have already pointed out plus i can tell you for certain the Hibs job and the way he left there was more to it that you know and we'll leave it at that, he went on to be Celtic's next manager after Gold Digga ran to the pound note and has done a good job...

I think it's debatable how good a job he has done.

A collapse by the huns post Christmas has papered over the cracks. The Cluj and Copenhagen games were an embarrassment and we were blessed to win the League Cup. The performances in big games this season have been by and large extremely disappointing, we are utterly reliant on Edouard and luckily he has been fit all season.

TBH you're just nit picking or you're on the wind up...for starters every good team relies on their "good forward" he is our player after all that's what Celtic pay him to do, regarding European games...is his record any worse than BR? in fact in nearly two decades all Celtic managers have failed miserably in Europe.
As MS pointed out the other day regarding the Huns collapse, that's their problem. Celtic have had great form from Jan so it didn't matter if Sevco had kept good form as Celtic motored on regardless...

So what's your real gripe?

[uimhr ocht]

Does lenny go with 2 strikers against the huns? went to st mirren game on sat comfortable win,im not convinced with taylor and would prefered ntcham to start against them for physical battle but hes only back in training this week.Celtic have spent alot of money on shved,bayo,klimala,soro,kouassi,12 mill i think poor judgement whos to blame for these signings.

[illdecide]

Does lenny go with 2 strikers against the huns? went to st mirren game on sat comfortable win,im not convinced with taylor and would prefered ntcham to start against them for physical battle but hes only back in training this week.Celtic have spent alot of money on shved,bayo,klimala,soro,kouassi,12 mill i think poor judgement whos to blame for these signings.

Whoever signed them is to blame but on a young prospects like them i'd say the odds are low enough of them breaking thru but i suppose to counteract that argument the big money spent on them and the many times they have been watched they should have a far higher percentage of them breaking into the first team.
It'll be interesting to see what NL does for Sunday as he has a few different options depending on the fitness of Ajer, Hatem Abd Elhamed is a cracking player and he could well feature but only got 15 mins or so on Sunday so may not be match fit. I'd imagine if he goes with 3 at the back it will be Bitton with Jullien and either Ajer if fit and Elhamed if not fit. These options will decide if he goes with Taylor and Forrest as wing backs, this will probably have the 2 up front. A back four with 5 in the middle and French Eddie up front on his own, back four will probably be Elhamed - Ajer - Jullien - Taylor

[marty34]

Does lenny go with 2 strikers against the huns? went to st mirren game on sat comfortable win,im not convinced with taylor and would prefered ntcham to start against them for physical battle but hes only back in training this week.Celtic have spent alot of money on shved,bayo,klimala,soro,kouassi,12 mill i think poor judgement whos to blame for these signings.

Whoever signed them is to blame but on a young prospects like them i'd say the odds are low enough of them breaking thru but i suppose to counteract that argument the big money spent on them and the many times they have been watched they should have a far higher percentage of them breaking into the first team.
It'll be interesting to see what NL does for Sunday as he has a few different options depending on the fitness of Ajer, Hatem Abd Elhamed is a cracking player and he could well feature but only got 15 mins or so on Sunday so may not be match fit. I'd imagine if he goes with 3 at the back it will be Bitton with Jullien and either Ajer if fit and Elhamed if not fit. These options will decide if he goes with Taylor and Forrest as wing backs, this will probably have the 2 up front. A back four with 5 in the middle and French Eddie up front on his own, back four will probably be Elhamed - Ajer - Jullien - Taylor

I'll be interested in how aggressive Celtic are from the first whistle.  Need to bully them all over the park and set a marker down from the start.  In last 2 Rangers games, they have bullied Celtic and/or Celtic have folded and were not prepared for the battle.  Hopefully Lennon will not have them complacent once again in a big game.  Brown and the experienced must be prepared to meet fire with fire and not be put on the back foot.  Celtic have, by far, the better players but a lot will depend on the mentality of the Hoops' players.

In regards t Rangers, I'd try and bully Julien out of it and put Celtic's defence under serious pressure from the start.  Just physically bully them.  Other teams have had success at this against Celtic recently and Lennon and management have been warned.  Be really good for the Hoops to get the win - and a dominant performance to boot. 

[illdecide]

Was reading stuff about Lennon and his comments about Celtic should be champions if the season ends and then he was compared to Klopp of Liverpool where he said football does not matter, it's all about the well being of the public.
This drives me absolutely around the bend they way he's portrayed in the media...if people were to listen to his full interview he basically said the same as Klopp yet it was cut out of the interview and shown like he was just coming out with "we should be champions" shit.

On the season itself, it's a hard one to call and i'd say the best thing is to wait 3-4 weeks and then see whats happening. If the season is cancelled then no matter what the decision of the SFA & SPFL it will kick someone in the teeth. I'll be surprised if Celtic come out of this Champions but if that's the case we'll just have to win it next year again to rub their noses in it. Another point someone made was if the season was declared null and void will all the clubs give back everyone's season ticket money? that would put a lot of the smaller clubs under. I actually don't envy the SPFL & SFA on making a decision on the current season if this doesn't clear up ASAP.

[marty34]

Was reading stuff about Lennon and his comments about Celtic should be champions if the season ends and then he was compared to Klopp of Liverpool where he said football does not matter, it's all about the well being of the public.
This drives me absolutely around the bend they way he's portrayed in the media...if people were to listen to his full interview he basically said the same as Klopp yet it was cut out of the interview and shown like he was just coming out with "we should be champions" shit.

On the season itself, it's a hard one to call and i'd say the best thing is to wait 3-4 weeks and then see whats happening. If the season is cancelled then no matter what the decision of the SFA & SPFL it will kick someone in the teeth. I'll be surprised if Celtic come out of this Champions but if that's the case we'll just have to win it next year again to rub their noses in it. Another point someone made was if the season was declared null and void will all the clubs give back everyone's season ticket money? that would put a lot of the smaller clubs under. I actually don't envy the SPFL & SFA on making a decision on the current season if this doesn't clear up ASAP.

Just give Celtic the title and send Hearts down.  I'd be happy with that.

Be interesting to see what other countries do.

[illdecide]

I seen T-shirts the other day the some Sevco fans had on them saying something along the lines of "Corona Virus stopped 9 in a row" Sad hoors

[Angelo]

Does lenny go with 2 strikers against the huns? went to st mirren game on sat comfortable win,im not convinced with taylor and would prefered ntcham to start against them for physical battle but hes only back in training this week.Celtic have spent alot of money on shved,bayo,klimala,soro,kouassi,12 mill i think poor judgement whos to blame for these signings.

Whoever signed them is to blame but on a young prospects like them i'd say the odds are low enough of them breaking thru but i suppose to counteract that argument the big money spent on them and the many times they have been watched they should have a far higher percentage of them breaking into the first team.
It'll be interesting to see what NL does for Sunday as he has a few different options depending on the fitness of Ajer, Hatem Abd Elhamed is a cracking player and he could well feature but only got 15 mins or so on Sunday so may not be match fit. I'd imagine if he goes with 3 at the back it will be Bitton with Jullien and either Ajer if fit and Elhamed if not fit. These options will decide if he goes with Taylor and Forrest as wing backs, this will probably have the 2 up front. A back four with 5 in the middle and French Eddie up front on his own, back four will probably be Elhamed - Ajer - Jullien - Taylor

Could they not play the season out behind closed doors if things have not spiked by next month?

[Angelo]

Are EPL and SPL clubs who don't have any positive tests still openly training and that?

[illdecide]

Are EPL and SPL clubs who don't have any positive tests still openly training and that?

I'm led to believe last week they were not training collectively but had been given individual programmes. I think they were back at Lennoxtown today as a group but not 100% sure.

[tonto1888]

Does lenny go with 2 strikers against the huns? went to st mirren game on sat comfortable win,im not convinced with taylor and would prefered ntcham to start against them for physical battle but hes only back in training this week.Celtic have spent alot of money on shved,bayo,klimala,soro,kouassi,12 mill i think poor judgement whos to blame for these signings.

Are you writing off Kimlala and Soro already?

[illdecide]

Like so many, Neil Lennon took a minute to applaud the NHS workers on Thursday evening, standing at the window of his Glasgow flat and clapping appreciatively as others around him clapped and banged their pots and pans in acknowledgment of these incredible people.

He found it emotional and he wouldn't have been alone in that either. "The word I keep hearing on the news, from leaders of countries and leaders of sports associations, is unprecedented," he says. "It's the word of the year. Everybody is saying it and they're right. Look, I don't want to be getting up on my high horse and preaching to anybody but we might look back on this as a time when our society changed.

"I'm really missing football, I'm missing the players, the staff, the games, the colour, the noise, but it's no bad thing to take a moment and appreciate what you've got.

"I think football will mean a lot more to a lot of people when it returns. What I'm seeing now is us going back to our roots, going back to community life with people looking out for each other and maybe we'd gone away from that. What's happening is tragic but everybody is pulling together to try to get through it and that's brilliant."

Lennon's decade as a boss in 10 moments
Celtic say season 'cannot be voided'
Caged animals & mental health
Lennon is communicating with his players from a safe distance. It could be five months, and possibly longer, before they're back out there and he knows how they're feeling right now. "They're like caged animals," he says. "These are young, fit men who're used to an almost regimented way of living. Their routine is training and playing. All of that is gone. Some of them will be cooking for themselves for the first time in their lives.

"Mentally, the change can put a strain on them. They're used to intensity and suddenly it's not there. We're very aware of the mental [health] side of this. We all need to keep our well-being in order. As long as I can get out and get some exercise for my own peace of mind then I'm fine. The silence is deafening when you go out for a walk. The place is deserted. We just have to ride it out as best we can. We're all in the same boat."

This past week has marked 10 years since Lennon became a manager. He was only 38. "I'm a year off 50," he says. "All of a sudden, it creeps up on you. Where has it all gone? There's been a lot crammed in and you never really get much time to take stock."

Now is as good a time as any. What else would we be doing? Lennon in Scotland is an epic tale that would take an awful lot of telling with more time and space required than we have here. He's a Netflix series unto himself.

There's the football, the trophies, the cut and thrust of his professional life and there's the poison. He's had a death threat from the Loyalist Volunteer Force, he's been knocked unconscious in the street, he's had a guy try to run him off the road, he's been spat at and head-butted, he's had bullets in the post, he's had a viable parcel bomb intercepted, a person has done time for a threatening him in a social media post, another person has depicted him in a mock hanging on the internet, somebody else daubed a message on the wall outside Tynecastle saying that he should be killed.

We could go on and on. The rampant bigotry he has been subjected to, the attack by a fan at Tynecastle - "that guy lacked social skills" he says, in a magnificent and intended understatement.

It's hard to remember them all, unless they'd all been done to you, in which case it would be hard to forget. Without question he's the most disgracefully treated person there's ever been in Scottish football.

'I had a great upbringing'
But he's made of tough stuff. "I had a great upbringing," he explains. "My parents kept us out of trouble. We didn't have much to live on but they did their best and as you get older you appreciate more and more what your parents did for you.

"Growing up in the 1970s in Northern Ireland wasn't easy. The most vivid memories were of the year of the Hunger Strikes, the rioting and the tension. I was about 10 or 11. That was a really intense period, especially in the nationalist, republican community where I grew up. I saw some stuff. The plastic bullets. I used to see them lying on the street, six inch cylinders, heavy and hard things, but my parents kept me away from it."

There's a story about the younger Lennon that tells you something about the steel in him. He was playing for Crewe when he broke his back, 16 metal staples being inserted to hold things together. There were doubts about whether he would ever play again but there were also doubts if he would ever walk again if things went wrong. He was 19-years-old, was earning £120 a week and was out for year.

From that to this, it's quite a journey. We're talking on the phone because that's how things are done in these strange times but even without the face to face his humour and intelligence shines through.

Ten years since he became a manager. What would he tell the Neil Lennon of 2010 if he was sitting in front of him right now? "I'd tell him that I admire his passion and his drive, but that he can't do it all by himself," he answers. "What I've learned is how to adapt to players rather than trying to get them to adapt to me. I'm far more rounded now than I was then. You just learn, don't you?"

Snapshots from his football life. One of the scariest moments came in October 2011, a day when it could have ended even before it really got started. Celtic trailed Rangers by 10 points at the top of the league and found themselves 3-0 down at half-time at Rugby Park. "That was a pivotal moment," he recalls. "It's a bit of a walk down to the tunnel and I was looking at our fans and I said to myself, 'I'm not giving this up just yet'. The reality was that if we continued in the same vein I was going to get sacked. My personal pride and the pride I have in the club was hurting, so I got after the players a wee bit.

"I gave them an ultimatum, basically. I went in and said, 'Look lads, see if you want me here on Monday, you have to turn this around because we're embarrassing the club and the fans out there'. They got the draw and then won 17 games in a row and we won the league and we won it back at Kilmarnock, 6-0 on a gloriously sunny day."

'A golden moment' against Barcelona
Neil Lennon celebrates Tony Watt's famous goal against Barcelona at Celtic Park
Neil Lennon celebrates Tony Watt's famous goal against Barcelona at Celtic Park
His greatest moment was beating Barcelona in the Champions League in 2012 and making the last 16 of the most illustrious club competition in the world.

"I'm standing on the touchline that night and I'm a few feet away from Messi and Iniesta and Xavi - some of the best players who ever played the game," he recalls. "I'm thinking this is what it must be like if you walked up the 18th fairway with Tiger Woods on the Sunday at the Masters or you were ringside watching Muhammad Ali. Proper legends - and here was my team beating these incredible players."

Does he remember who Barca brought on that evening? "David Villa was one of them... Who else?" Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas.

"And we brought on Tony Watt!," he says. "We brought him on for (Mikael) Lustig and Adam Matthews went from left-back to right-back, Charlie Mulgrew went from left-wing to left-back, Georgios Samaras went from centre forward to wide left and we put Tony up there and told him to do what he could. It was the kid's golden moment - and a golden moment in my life."

He cites his brief spell at Bolton as his biggest low in management. The club went into administration, they started selling off assets, the chairman Phil Gartside passed away and every day was stressful, a world away from what he had left behind at Celtic Park when he exited in 2014.

"It was a bad experience, but one you learn from," he says. "You're used to winning up here. You never take it for granted, but your weekends are normally quite good. Bolton was the total opposite.

"Football management is lonely at times. Everything stops with you. You have to strike a balance, you can't let it dominate your life. If it's 24/7 and you're winning then everything is brilliant, but when it's 24/7 and things are going wrong you have to have a valve you can turn off.

"You have to find other things to do even though at times it's virtually impossible. I always remember Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] telling me that when Roger Federer lost a final he would take his family out to dinner and they weren't allowed to talk about tennis. That's a good one.

"You analyse a game to death but you can't get it back. Deal with it on the day and move on. Fergie had the horses as a distraction. I like to read. It can't always be work, work, work or it will grind you down eventually."

Van Dijk, Edouard and his captain
He says Virgil van Dijk has been his best signing and that Odsonne Edouard is as good as anything he's seen up front for Celtic since Henrik Larsson. The most significant player on his watch has been Scott Brown.

"He's an outstanding captain and an outstanding footballer and that gets overlooked sometimes," he says. "He still covers the ground well even at at 34, which I didn't do at 34. He still has that great cardiovascular capacity. People try to take him on all the time but he's got the dark arts you need to have in the throes of a game. He sets standards every single day."

There's not much opportunity to do that now. Everything is on hold. Lennon wants the Premiership played to a natural finish - Celtic are 13 points ahead at the top - but the mood music tells us that this league could be called pretty soon. The financial imperatives may demand it.

"We want to play all the games but I don't know if that's possible," he says. "It's not the main concern. We'll do what we can do, but the most important thing is that all everybody stays safe and well in these scary times. That's the thing that matters."