Lenny will have Rapid impact in Romania
Boss must summon all his talents to avoid further slip-ups
MIHAI POPESCU reckons Neil Lennon’s Celtic history will go down a storm in Romania.
The former Hoops boss was unveiled as Rapid Bucharest’s new manager last month as they look to build on their sixth-place finish and make a return to Europe.
Popescu started his career with Rapid’s fierce c ity rival s Dinamo and played against Lenny’s Celtic while at St Mirren back in 2019.
And he believes the Northern Irish gaffer will take to Romanian football like a duck to water.
Popescu said: “I think Romanian fans and players knew all about Lennon’s time in Scotland but they’ll have learned more since he signed.
“The fans will be keen to learn about him and how he’ll play.
“To be honest, the Romanian and Scottish leagues are kind of similar. There’s more aggression in Scottish football but I always liked it that way.
“Rapid’s objective will be to get back into Europe by the end of next season.”
Popescu now plays for top-flight Romanian outfit Farul Constanta and will do everything in his power to crush the former Celtic and Hibs manager ’s ambitions when they clash this season.
The defender, who also turned out for Hearts and Hamilton, thinks Lennon’s experience in guiding Celtic to the last 16 of the Champions League will be a trump card.
Popescu said: “Rapid look strong and Lennon has experience. Like all opponents I wish him good luck – but I hope to beat him when we meet.
“If Rapid get back into Europe I hope they do well as a Romanian team.
“I’m sure Lennon and the players will be ready for that challenge.”
I TAKE it Negative Norman’s apology is in the post, signed by Steve Clarke.
The derisory term used by the Scotland manager to describe anyone who is not fawning in their praise of the national team came up for serious review in Munich on Friday night.
There was negativity everywhere you looked on a night without one redeeming feature for Clarke’s team.
Every excuse under the sun has been used to explain away an ignominious night against hosts Germany in the inaugural match of Euro 2024 – starting with the occasion itself.
Don’t play the occasion, play the game. That was Clarke’s advice before Scotland got to the Allianz Arena.
How about ref lecting on what happened and being truthful?
Play the game, take the blame when it all goes horribly wrong.
We’ve lost the urge to be too analytical with Scotland, being more inclined towards a form of national brainwashing the higher the stakes become.
We overdose on optimism and end up mocking ourselves as an own goal to reduce the margin of defeat is celebrated like a winner – only to discover it’s the trigger for Germany to score a fifth and give Clarke his worst defeat as Scotland boss.
Not that Friday was the worst night he has ever suffered, of course, without the manager specifying in the course of his post-match press conference when or where that visit to the bottom of the barrel might have occurred.
It looked to me and Negative Norman if objective criticism is still allowed it would take the form of what locals describe as ‘manner gegen Jungen’.
Nothing lost in translation, that means men against boys.
Clarke is entitled to claim nothing has been lost in terms of the big goal, which is qualifying for the neverbefore-experienced knockout phase of an international tournament.
UEFA have constructed a system that almost makes it harder to NOT get there due to the four best third-placed teams at the group stage making the cut.
So we dare not fail to amass the number of points required to progress, starting with Wednesday night’s game against Switzerland in Cologne.
If we can’t rise to the occasion, and with Hungary looming as a make-orbreak game next Sunday in Stuttgart, we may need to change the words of the fans anthem. No Scotland. No wonder.
We set a low bar, historically speaking, for a side surrounded by so much intensity and a volume of support.
Friday was Scotland’s 33rd competitive match in the finals of the World Cup or the Euros.
We’ve won six of them. That’s a success rate of under 20 per cent.
The current squad have won one of their last 10 games – against the might of Gibraltar in a friendly in Portugal.
When you drill through the numbers you don’t strike much in the way of gold.
Our qualification process for Germany was outstanding.
What happened thereafter in terms of injury to big players was undeniably unkind to Clarke. But we’ve got to cope with the hand we’ve been dealt.
Our keeper Angus Gunn is unconvincing – and this has nothing to do with Craig Gordon of Hearts having been left behind.
Ryan Porteous paid the price for the recklessness that has characterised his career at Hibs and Watford when he was red-carded in Munich.
He looks out of his depth at this level of the game.
Grant Hanley has the look of a man who hasn’t, through injury, been able to play much football this season.
And Scott McKenna was behind both in the queue to get on to the park against Germany.
The game-changers we possess – Callum McGregor, John McGinn and Scott McTominay – were anonymous in the middle of the park.
And at one stage we went the whole Craig Levein and played with no one up front after removing Che Adams.
But now we’re playing against people of our own size.
We have to illustrate that this is the case against Switzerland and Hungary or else we really are in bother and at the crossroads regarding the future.
The gaffer chewed out set-piece coach Austin MacPhee in an uncharacteristic display of temper and cut a more animated figure than ever before during the mauling in Munich.
He will now need all his powers of man- management, amateur psychology and tactical wisdom in the coming days.
If the Germany game was thought of as a free-hit then there are no free passes attached to what has to come now.