Lennon implosion more Mourinho than Mowbray
There were some of us who believed that, even as we arrived at the conclusion in November Neil Lennon ought to have been removed from post, the Celticboarddeservedacertainadmiration in not then serving him up to the mob.
That position has flipped. Any failure now to act would represent shameful weakness, a dereliction of their duty of care to a Lennon left hanging like a pinata, to be repeatedly battered from all sides. Celtic have become rudderless on and off the pitch. As all matters both Dubai and defensively have demonstrated, across the board their instincts for making the correct judgement calls have utterly deserted them.
There may be all sorts of mitigating factors wrapped up in Lennon’s inability to draw from his players winning performances, to leave the club on a four-game winless sequence in the league representing their longest such sequence in two decades. Never mind that Rangers are a dot in the Premiership distance in holding a 20-point lead in a title race that at no point during the past four months has even resembled one. Yet, none of that changes the fact that, while it is entirely understandable for him to refuse to resign, it would in inexcusable and inexplicable were the board to further delay doing the right thing to spare him any more cruel beatings.
All that said, some of the Lennonlashers really need to take a look at themselves over their preposterous denigration of one of Celtic’s most extraordinarily successful servants. A man whose win rate is second only to Martin O’neill’s, has 21 honours as player and manager, and is the one figure in the Scottish game to win a treble in both those roles.
There has been all sorts of nonsense talked by some of the sneering Celtic seers that, from the moment he was reappointed permanently for a second time in July 2019, they knew the club’s 10-in-a-row bid would end in such fashion. Yes, they will be able to produce tweets and blogs showing us their crystal balls told them that, in his first full season, he would put together the third best 22-game league run in the nine-in-a-row era and become the first Celtic manager to win a European group - courtesy of the club’s first win on Italian soil before it would magically all turn to dust the next season. We will wait a long time for those screen grabs.
Moreover, attempts to draw parallels between Lennon this season and the tenures of Tony Mowbray and Ronny Deila are nothing short of pathetic. Mowbray lost seven and drew seven league games - going down to a 4-0 loss against a St Mirren who hadn’t won any of their previous 10 games - as his ill-fated eight month tenure ended in the February of the 2009-10 season. Lennon, who has bagged five of the past six domestic trophies, has lost two league games, with the two of his seven draws coming in the past week against a Livingston team on the longest domestic unbeaten run of any Scottish topflight side. Furthermore, that Mowbray was only 10 points behind a Rangers that had played two games more when he was removed from position is down to the fact the Ibrox men had dropped four-times more points than they have this season.
The Deila parallel is utterly bogus too. In his second season, the Norwegian was allowed to resign diplomatically after losing a Scottish Cup semifinal to a Championship Rangers on the back of a grim struggle to shake off the title challenge of an Aberdeen then operating with an eighth of his budget. Steven Gerrard’s playing spend is currently 27 per cent shy of that of Lennon.
If you want a legitimate comparison, the Celtic manager is in Jose Mourinho territory. The Portuguese coach’s second spell at Chelsea, where he had been hugely successful the first time around, brought a title triumph in his first full season of 201415. Then, rapidly and unexpectedly, the Stamford Bridge side imploded, and he had to give way by the Christmas.hisremovalwaswarranted,asis true of Lennon now. However, unlike so many muddle-minded and, frankly, blinkered Celtic followers, Chelsea supporters still were able to recognise the outgoing man was a coach whose wiles and accomplishments deserved appreciation. Lennon is no Mourinho - no-one including himself would ever make that claim - but he is a more than capable coach. Just not capable of turning around a team lost and lacking in so many respects. It happens. Ask Jose.
The stats that leave indelible stains on Celtic’s season:
• The current four-game winless league run is the longest such sequence since April 2000. Their five straight games without a win across Novemberdecember was their longest such sequence since 1997.