PLC Brainwashed- Neil Lennon hits rock bottom with board backing

Neil Lennon hit a new low on co-commentary duties as Celtic beat Utrecht 4-2 in the Europa League.

The result sees Celtic finish in 21st place in the table and facing a Play Off against Stuttgart or Ferencvaros for a place in the Round of 16.

While the result is welcome there are far bigger issues at the club as the decline driven by Michael Nicholson runs out of control.

Having transfer business controlled by Paul Tisdale proved a step too much for Brendan Rodgers.

Watching the club sell off Kyogo Furuhashi cost them the chance to advance in last season’s Champions League. Selling Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah led to defeat from this season’s competition from Kairat Almaty.

Presented with Shin Yamada, Hayato Inamura and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey Rodgers left all three out of his Europa League squad.

Wilfried Nancy and Martin O’Neill had similar views on those club signings.

Recruitment issues have been to the fore over at least the last 12 months at Celtic. It has probably been an issue since July 2022 when Mark Lawwell took over as Head of Recruitment- directly from being Head of Content on the Manchester City website.

NEIL LENNON- ON MESSAGE24/7

The failings of Lawwell Jr and Tisdale has led to the current state of the Celtic squad.

Lennon is hard-wired into backing every decision from the Celtic board, whatever they throw at managers has the backing of Dunfermline boss Lenny.

Late on in the win over Utrecht Rory Hamilton turned his attention to the transfer window and what appeared to be a recurring problem for Celtic.

Lennon was having none of it! Apparently everything was world class when he was manager!

Lennon seems to be the favoured pundit when the Celtic board needs defended.

Last week away to Bologna Joe Hart gave a far better insight into the club while on co-commentator duties for the 2-2 draw with the Italian cup winners.

Hart is still close to the core group of players. He was able to give a little away but not the full picture.

Back in the autumn it was impossible to avoid Lennon as he tore into Brendan Rodgers, sounding almost like Kris Boyd’s long lost cousin.

• Sturm Graz, October 23, TNT Sport: Lennon was full of praise for Celtic as they came from behind to beat the Austrian side. Everything in the garden was rosy.
• Hearts, October 26, Sky Sports: Alongside his mate Kris Boyd, Lennon was piling in on Rodgers- and Chris Sutton. While Sutton highlighted the failings of Celtic’s recruitment Lennon and Boyd just wanted to blame Rodgers. From the Sky Sports studio they out shouted Sutton in the commentary box.
• League Cup semi-final, November 2, Premier Sports: Lennon makes it a hat-trick of broadcasters inside 10 days! All is good again at Celtic, Martin O’Neill is the man to restore all of the problems created by Rodgers.

CELTIC- THE FAILED TRANSFER MODEL

During his first spell as Celtic manager Lennon built a winning team from the sale of Aiden McGeady. When the midfielder went to Spartak Moscow the record transfer fee was spent on Gary Hooper, Anthony Stokes, Kelvin Wilson, Beram Kayal, Joe Ledley, Fraser Foster, Emilio Izaguirre and Kris Commons.

That level of success proved to a one off. After winning two SPL titles and reaching the last 16 of the Champions League Celtic opted to cash in and replace serial winners with projects and punts.

Hooper, Wilson and Victor Wanyama were sold in the summer of 2013 as Lennon took his side through Champions League qualifiers. Amido Balde and Teemu Pukki were signed to replace the goals of Hooper.

Virgil van Dijk was a clear upgrade on Wilson but lasted two seasons before being sold and replaced by Jozo Simunovic.

Celtic’s recruitment over the last decade has produced half a dozen outstanding successes but 50 plus complete failures.

LAWWELL AND TISDALE

Summer 2023 was a classic with £20m and five year contracts wasted on Odin Thiago Holm, Marco Tilio, Yang Hyun-jun, Kwon Hyeok-kyu, Maik Nawrocki, Gus Lagerbielke and Luis Palma.

That was a Lawwell Jr production. Tisdale came close last summer but Ben Nygren has saved the day on a number of occasions.

Lennon has had two decent jobs in his management career. Both were at Celtic, charming his way into the permanent job after spells as caretaker.

He takes his blind faith and backing for his favourite employer way too far.

His credibility with a huge number of Celtic fans has been destroyed as he defies logic with his boardroom backing.

About the only consolation this season is that Lennon is managing Dunfermline, if he was only on the media circuit he’d almost certainly be part of Martin O’Neill’s backroom staff.

Second time around the Celtic board didn’t let Lennon bring in any backroom team. Despite the brilliance of the Celtic recruitment model Lennon led the club to Champions League qualifier defeats to Cluj and Ferencvaros.