KEEP CALLUM AND TRUST LENNY
Mcgregor: Gaffer has done everything asked of him
NOW Storm Brendan has hit the UK, whoever is in charge in Downing Street after tomorrow’s election might be well advised to give Neil Lennon a buzz to deal with the aftermath.
The Celtic boss answered the Parkhead SOS in February and Callum Mcgregor reckons plenty of other gaffers might have struggled to tame the tempest.
Brendan Rodgers left the club in good shape but there was still plenty of work needed to make sure everything ran as normal.
There might have been doubts from punters who were seduced by unlikely talk of Jose Mourinho or Rafa Benitez but those fears have evaporated now.
Mcgregor said: “Oh yeah, he’s shown that in abundance. He had such a big task when he came in but he’s a winner, he handled that – and he galvanised the group.
“Think about it. He came in and was asked to win two trophies. And he did that.
“Now he’s added another, on a day when people were maybe looking at him and asking if he could do it.
“He shows that winning mentality within the group. You see in the performance of players what the manager is.
“And all the other tactical side of stuff, the backroom staff are unbelievable – and he’s a massive part of that every day. All his attributes were shown on Sunday.”
Celtic might have been fortunate at the weekend but these things don’t happen by accident.
Mcgregor revealed it’s Lennon’s relentless pursuit of perfection every single day at Lennoxtown that drives Scott Brown and the rest to get the job done.
He said: “His standards are super high every single day. He comes out to training and, if one or two are off, he stops it. He just tells us we’re off it, makes us get back on it. That’s the way we work.
“Those are the standards he drives every day, along with Broony and other ones. That showed in our willingness to win against Rangers.
“We’ll probably get to many more finals and never play that badly but it shows the team’s character.
“The treble Treble probably gets overlooked because we’ve been so dominant but, even within that period, we had difficult moments in the final against Hearts, I remember – and still came through it. “We’ve shown that, when we’re really up against it, we can pull through.”