PUKKI PROVING PATIENCE IS KEY
Lennon calls on fans to give his new Bhoys time after seeing Finn fly high
IN career terms, Teemu Pukki is a late bloomer. Too late to be of any use now to Neil Lennon, however.
The Celtic manager can still remember flying to Finland to scout the striker currently lighting up the English Premier League. As with so much of his time in Glasgow, it proved an exercise in frustration.
‘He was playing for his international team and myself and Johan Mjallby flew over to Helsinki,’ recalled the Northern Irishman yesterday.
‘We went to the Olympic Stadium... and there was nobody there. Turned out we’d gone to the wrong city.
‘We had to go back to the airport and hop on another flight. We ended up catching him for the last half hour of the game.’
Pukki, though, showed enough in 30 minutes to convince Lennon to sign him for £2.3million.
Yet, as with a few Celtic strikers from that period, the yield failed to justify the outlay. The Finn scored just nine goals in two years before moving to Brondby on loan. Only when he moved to Denmark on a permanent basis in July 2015 did his career explode, 51 goals in 91 starts then earning a move to Norwich City.
Central to the promotion of the Canaries last season, Pukki has now begun life in the English Premier League with a goal at Anfield before adding a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Newcastle.
Lennon can’t be certain whether to look at those stats and laugh or cry. Yet the relevance of Pukki’s experience to current difficulties should be lost on no one.
In Glasgow, judgment on a player is instant. If he fails to hit the ground running, the weight of condemnation can be such that, for an insular and quiet figure like Pukki, there’s no way back. They shrivel and shrink under the intense glare.
After spending £10m on defenders Boli Bolingoli and Christopher Jullien over the summer, Lennon can’t afford to let the same thing happen now.
‘With the players here, we’re determined to get the best out of them and let them enjoy their times here and enjoy their football,’ he continued.
‘I’m delighted it’s worked out for Teemu at Norwich but it shows people often write players off here too quickly. That’s the environment we’re in.’
Neither Bolingoli or Jullien — a nervous duo thus far — started last
week’s damaging Champions League defeat to CFR Cluj. Midfielder Callum McGregor was pitched in at left-back, instead, and people drew their own conclusions.
‘It’s almost: “Needs must, get him in and hit the ground running” — or after three games, it’s: “He’s a dud, get rid of him”,’ said Lennon in exasperation.
‘We can’t take that approach — it’s impossible to take that approach.
‘Maybe some will come good, maybe some others won’t.’
Bolingoli struggled in Romania and Motherwell before improving as both games wore on. Reports on Jullien’s display against Dunfermline on Saturday were unflattering, yet both will start against AIK tonight in a show of public solidarity from their manager.
‘Chris is doing fine,’ insisted Lennon. ‘Boli is lacking a bit of confidence but he’s training well, so I’m sure there’s more to come from him.’
A big ten days lies ahead for Celtic’s manager. Lennon accepts the scrutiny and the criticism which inevitably follows a Champions League exit, but can’t accept the portrayal of the two games against the Swedes and a trip to Ibrox to face Rangers as season-defining.
‘No, it’s too early for that,’ he insisted. ‘Way too early for that — though it would be good to win them.
‘I heard a pundit on the radio the other day saying Crystal Palace are in disarray.
‘People have to give their opinion. Be that at my expense or not, I understand that and respect that. But I don’t have to agree with that and I don’t have to listen to it. I choose to do the latter. I have to.’
After a promising start to the season, fans on messageboards now speak openly of public protests against chief executive
Peter Lawwell and that raises an obvious question. How would they be reacting now if they hadn’t won the last nine domestic trophies?
‘The game and the team and the players and the manager get analysed to the nth degree these days,’ said Lennon.
‘You could be doing eight out of ten things right and they will focus on the two things that maybe aren’t right.
‘That’s just the nature of where we are now — the game is analysed to death now by everybody.
‘It’s a game we all love and they’re entitled to their opinions and to their judgment on things — and that’s fine. It’s not easy to hear, sometimes, but you do have to respect it.’
Asked if he reads the blogs or downloads the supporter podcasts, the reply is blunt.
‘No. I can’t. I’d go mad,’ said Lennon. ‘In these sort of things there are 50 different opinions and if you read them all… just stick to what you believe in and stick to what you know.
‘No one knows the dressing room better than myself and my backroom team. No one knows the players better than Scott Brown and the others in there. You’ve got to trust them.’
Former assistant manager Mjallby will be back in Glasgow for the game and Lennon will seek his old pal’s advice.
In his first spell in charge he negotiated qualifiers against Elfsborg and Helsingborgs and hopes to make it three-in-a-row against AIK.
‘It’s about going out there and playing well,’ he continued. ‘It’s about enjoying the game and enjoying the occasion and knowing that there’s a good reward at the end of it and making the most of that now.
‘It’s important for the season that we have European football for the gravitas of the club and for the supporters as well.’
“I’m delighted it worked out for Teemu but it just shows people here write players off too quickly ”