WOULD LENNON REALLY WALK AWAY?
Board must find a way to back an ambitious but unpredictable boss who gave Hibs a winning mentality
CLUBS employing Neil Lennon as manager learn quickly to absorb the rough with the smooth. An intelligent, articulate coach, the Northern Irishman offers a winning mentality. A better manager than critics give him credit for, he also comes with a temper liable to go off at a moment’s notice. A level of passion and emotion liable to result in unexpected outbursts.
‘I will be reviewing my position over the summer. My own personal aims and ambitions,’ said Lennon after a bitterly disappointing 2-1 defeat to Hearts cost his side the chance of second place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
‘I don’t feel I’ve taken this club as far as I can. But do I want to do it? I have to think about that.’
These things are easy to dismiss as heat of the moment after a night of Tynecastle frustration. After a fine season, Lennon was let down badly by players who failed to turn up.
Moments after a calm, analytical interview with BT Sport, however, the brick dropped on the written press came with a warning to the Hibernian board.
An option to sign Swiss striker Florian Kamberi, a successful loan signing from Grasshoppers Zurich, has still to be taken up.
DyLAN McGeoUcH is a free transfer target for Blackburn. John McGinn is wanted by Brighton. Jamie Maclaren is likely to return to parent club Darmstadt. Neither can bids for defender efe Ambrose be discounted.
Lennon concedes there is ‘a bit of surgery to do’ over the summer but is already asking himself the question. Is he the man to brandish the scalpel?
‘one thing I would never like to do with Neil Lennon is try to predict what he’s going to do,’ Hibs legend Pat Stanton told
last night. ‘I think he is a very clever individual.
‘He was clearly very disappointed after the game, the same as supporters.
‘But I think Neil has done very well. Very well.
‘He has brought a winners’ mentality to Hibs. He has shown the club how to win at times. There have been times in the past, like the other night, where Neil has maybe come out and criticised the players in the press. But the same man is just as likely to come out and praise them.
‘It’s not just a case of putting a dampener on the players — he is clever enough to balance it.
‘He is a winner and he likes his players to be the same. And he might be trying to get a reaction here.
‘He is an emotional man, but underneath it all he’s a good manager.’
A former celtic captain and manager, Lennon will look for an immediate response against Rangers on Sunday.
To be certain of second place in the Premiership, the Ibrox side must win in edinburgh and hope their bitter rivals stick some ribbons on the presentation of the league trophy at Parkhead by avoiding defeat to Aberdeen.
To secure third, Hibs need to beat Rangers by six goals. An improbable scenario, legendary Hibee Stanton would settle for a performance embracing all the things missing against Hearts.
‘It doesn’t matter how things are, Tynecastle is always a difficult place to go to,’ he continued.
‘you can never class yourself as favourites playing there.
‘Hearts got stuck in and some of the Hibs players didn’t respond to that. They didn’t turn up.
‘Because of the position they were in, with a chance of claiming second, expectations rose.
‘The problem is that when expectations go up, the players have to respond to that — and I sometimes think they don’t do that.’
Lennon’s exasperation became clear when BT Sport cameras captured the Hibs boss giving defender Paul Hanlon both barrels after hauling him from the pitch.
Winning promotion from the championship last season, some scoffed when Lennon claimed his team were good enough to claim second in the Premiership. They came close in the end, but not close enough.
‘The manager has his own ambitions and he was obviously bitterly disappointed,’ added Stanton.
‘He wanted a show there last night. Against the local rivals, he didn’t get one and obviously he is disappointed.
‘Nobody likes going to Tynecastle and getting beaten. The local rivalry is such that will always be the case.
‘The manner of the defeat is what will stick with Neil.
‘you don’t have a divine right to go to Tynecastle and win.
‘I think Hearts picked their game up and Hibs didn’t respond to that.’
Speaking to journalists recently, Lennon admitted this season could be as good as it gets for Hibernian. Rangers and celtic will spend in the summer. Under Derek McInnes, predictions of an Aberdeen drop off are usually misplaced.
AS Stanton admits, then, the Hibs board face a tricky balancing act. Supporting an ambitious, high maintenance manager while wrestling with a budget dwarfed by bigger clubs.
‘over the years players have left easter Road and folk have thought: “Here we go again...”,’ said Stanton.
‘But they managed to bring other players in and the walls did not fall down.
‘Look back to where Hibs were two or three seasons ago and things were not looking too clever.
‘They got out of that league and got themselves up and this season they have done really, really well.
‘The last thing anyone wants, then, is to see the team slip backwards.
‘It’s a balancing act for the board because they want to back the manager without putting the club in bother like we’ve seen elsewhere.
‘There will be a lot of things up in the air at the moment, doubts over what players will be there and who moves on.
‘Taking things to the next level is something that needs to be decided among the board at easter Road. Where do we go from here?’