IT’S OVER... SOMEONE JUST NEEDS TO TELL LENNON

WITH Celtic, it feels like we’ve been here before. Another bad result is followed by Neil Lennon insisting he won’t quit. And that is followed by supporters flocking to social media demanding that directors remove the decision from the manager’s hands.

Dropped points at Livingston for Celtic were once a source of outrage or shock. These days, a 2-2 draw at the Tony Macaroni Arena feels perfectly normal. Journalists go through the motions of asking how long this can go on. Lennon goes through the motions of saying he won’t resign.

In football, under-pressure managers hold out for a pay-off while directors pray the grief from supporters persuades them to throw in the towel.

Describing Lennon as one of the strongest figures he has encountered, on-loan winger Mohamed Elyounoussi outlines the conundrum for the Parkhead board.

When Celtic’s manager says he won’t quit, he means it.

The problem is that, since winning 2-0 at St Johnstone on October 4, Scotland’s champions have played 22 games in all competitions and won just seven.

Since the turn of 2021, they have played four league matches and gained just three points.

A second draw in four days against David Martindale’s Livingston means the Parkhead side have now gone four league games without a win for the first time since Kenny Dalglish was interim manager 21 years ago.

For any manager, a percentage win rate hovering at 30 per cent represents a danger. For a Celtic manager, it usually represents grounds for a sacking.

Just as he did with Tony Mowbray and Ronny Deila, Peter Lawwell can delay. But the chief executive can’t hold off the inevitable forever.

It seems to matter little what Lennon tries now. Chopping and changing personnel and formations hasn’t worked, instead only adding to the impression of a club grappling around in the dark hoping to find a winning formula.

In contrast, Rangers — who are 20 points clear at the top of the Premiership — seem more sure of themselves. They play badly and they find a way. Celtic play badly and they lose games.

The question now is no longer one of whether Lennon goes. It’s a question of when.

With the title already gone, directors may see no point in a sacking before the end of the season.

The plan was always to see out ‘the ten’ campaign — win or lose — then rebuild the club. And, ideally, the process would have kept until the summer.

Yet, with every set-piece goal lost, with every dropped point, it becomes more and more difficult for Dermot Desmond and Lawwell to place their fingers in their ears.

For now, the absence of fans from grounds makes it easier to ignore the clamour. If supporters vote with their wallets come season-ticket renewal time, it becomes a good deal harder.

Celtic’s collapse has been a dizzying affair, and the finger-pointing over that trip to Dubai can’t obscure a basic fact.

From the very top of the club to the very bottom, Scotland’s champions have been afflicted by so many bad decisions in every department that it’s almost like a new pandemic.

‘Look, it hasn’t been a normal season with the pandemic and everything going around,’ reasoned Elyounoussi after the 2-2 draw in West Lothian.

‘There have been things outside football, like our self-isolation. But it is the same for everyone, everyone is in the same situation. So that is no excuse.

‘We have to be honest here, we cannot look for excuses any more.

‘Everyone needs to pick themselves up, dig in deeper and work hard. There is always the next game. We have to keep looking forward and approach every game with positivity.’

For Celtic, there are precious few reasons now to feel positive.

A season supposed to end in history has lurched with dizzying speed into the realms of high farce. Losing points to a second-string Livingston side in heavy snow, with captain Scott Brown seeing a red card after a five-minute cameo, summed up the campaign.

From boardroom and dugout to the first team, figures once so sure-footed and reliable have begun to slip and slide all over the place.

‘Everyone has to take responsibility, look at themselves in the mirror,’ added Norwegian international Elyounoussi.

‘Everyone can improve, everyone can put more effort in. But I think everyone is working hard in training. You can see that from the intensity in training.

‘We haven’t done anything differently this year from last year. I think it is just the small margins which are against us. There have been too many draws, too many games where we have been up and have conceded late on. That is what is killing us at the moment. We need to kill off games.’

Elyounoussi’s 14th goal of the season against Livingston made him the club’s top scorer. In itself, that is revealing of problems in attack as well as defence, where every free-kick for an opposition side 30 yards from goal feels as potent and promising as a penalty kick.

‘I don’t mean any disrespect, but I don’t care about scoring a goal or whatever,’ added the on-loan Southampton winger. ‘If you don’t win the games, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t give me anything, to be honest.’

In football, a basic rule of thumb has never altered. When teams stop winning football games, the buck stops with the manager.

At Celtic, that seems a simplistic analysis of a season when responsibility for the recruitment of Vasilis Barkas, Albian Ajeti and Shane Duffy is shared by other departments.

Rumours that head of recruitment Nicky Hammond will suffer the same fate as Lennon this summer hint of a clear-out unlikely to stop with the recruitment of a new manager.