Lenny will call on his dependables for Cup Final duty
Football Fo management can be broken down to just one word. wo Trust.
It’s why Scott Brown will be the first name on Neil Lennon’s Le team sheet as he wrestles with a starting line-up lin for Sunday’s Scottish Cup Cu Final against Hearts.
The Celtic boss knows better be than anyone that it always alw boils down to who he can ca trust on these occasions.
And nobody in Scottish football fo is more battlehardened ha that Broony.
So anyone expecting a Hoops Ho side revamped rev from the th norm will be disappointed, dis regardless re of what was achieved ac against Lille Lil on Thursday.
And it will all come down to trust issues.
Lennon will go with the boys he can put his hat on – the dependables.
I was a 35-year-old player at Wycombe Wanderers and remember a meeting with the manager Peter Taylor. It was a simple question I wanted answered: “Gaffer, do you want me to be part of your squad?”
He told me I was an important part of his plans and, as I left the room, his last words were: “Gary, trust me and I’ll look after you.”
English football is all about playing every Saturday and Tuesday. It’s a big ask for the senior players and I was nearing the end of my career.
I played in a winning team on the Saturday and after the match the gaffer said: “See you on Thursday.”
I told him we had a game on the Tuesday and he replied: “I’ll see you on Thursday – we don’t need you on Tuesday.”
It was a bit of a shock and it took a few months of this before I was used to being in and out of the side. But come the weekend I was bursting to play and do well for a manager looking after my best interests.
Lennon will know the value of sparing his older players.
I appreciate there’s a clamour from fans to get the likes of David Turnbull, Ewan Henderson and Ismaila Soro thrown in for the Cup Final.
But they must appreciate that Lennon’s assessment of where these players are will not just be based on a decent 90 minutes against Lille, which was a dead rubber.
It’s a measure of how things have been going for Celtic that a section of the support are demanding wholesale changes.
Turn down the noise and you have a Celtic starting XI that have dominated Scottish football for years now.
Every side suffers a dip, players go off the boil, but what better than a Scottish Cup Final at Hampden to try to provide the catalyst for the second half of the season.
Turnbull is an exceptional young Scottish talent and fans want him to start in favour of some marquee players such as Brown, Ryan Christie or Callum McGregor.
But it just illustrates the strength and depth at the club and just what Lennon has at his disposal.
In these days of social media and message board outrage, take away the hysteria from recent results.
I reckon some of Celtic’s displays have been decent – the 4-2 defeat by AC Milan in Italy is a perfect example.
Perspective is required – so don’t be surprised if Broony is the only guy Lennon trusts to lift the trophy.
It will all come down to trust issues ... Lennon will go with the boys he can put his hat on – the dependables