Only Celtic Could’ve Spoiled Their Own Treble Treble… And They Kind Of Did!
Celtic’s historic treble treble triumph should have been celebrated for days, especially when you consider it was completed on a bank holiday weekend.
There was euphoria directly after the Scottish Cup final but it soon became pretty muted.
A big reason for that has been decisions that the board have taken.
The Hoops hierarchy had already jarred supporters with the decision to rent out Celtic Park for a rugby cup final on the same day as the Scottish Cup final, meaning that the supporters couldn’t congregate at their spiritual home to celebrate their fantastic feat!
It was yet another business decision that was taken above the wishes of the faithful.
Celtic clearly had to take to social media to remind fans not to go to Parkhead after the Hampden win and that reminder went down like a lead balloon for a lot of the Celtic fanbase.
Then about an hour after beating Hearts to secure yet another year of Scottish dominance, the Hoops board announced that they had offered current short term boss Neil Lennon the manager’s job on a permanent basis.
It’s very strange for any club, particularly a big club, to announce that they’ve offered someone the managerial hot-seat. Surely they can wait until they’ve done a deal and announce it properly.
I also think it is extremely bizarre that Chief Executive Peter Lawwell and majority shareholder Dermont Desmond would go into the dressing room and take Lennon into the showers and offer him the gig. We are talking about one of the biggest roles in Scottish football.
Another major issue with this is that a large amount of Celtic’s support aren’t keen on the idea of rehiring Lennon. They appreciate the job that he’s done keeping the team focused this term after Brendan Rodgers left them in the lurch and that he’s a club legend but they’ve seen what Neil brings to the job and it feels a bit stale and outdated.
Lennon left the job in 2014 and in his next two jobs at Bolton Wanderers and Hibs he didn’t set the heather alight. He’d leave both clubs in acrimonious circumstances.
If you look at their CVs and how they set up their teams, Lennon feels like a downgrade from Rodgers.
Now we all know that Lawwell and Co. can run a business, I’m pretty sure accountants will cream themselves when the look at Celtic’s books. Yet I don’t think entertaining their fanbase is a main priority for the board.
Lawwell has pretty much confirmed this with recent statements (Source Daily Record):
“I’m not online, I don’t go on it. But honestly, I’ve said hundreds of times, you need blinkers in this job.”
“And if you react to online, or social media, or media, then you’re dead. You just need to keep on doing the right things and believe in yourself and making the right decisions.”
“That’s what we’ve done – without any outside influences.”
“We had approaches from many, many agents, many representatives of managers across the board. We put them in the file, just left it and kept our word to Neil, really.”
We should remember that Celtic are a Public Limited Company and it should be Lawwell’s job to keep in touch with the supporters/stakeholders. I think you have to be open to criticism and look at alternatives. Surely on both a business and sporting level it would have made sense for the Hoops hierarchy to research the field, interview potential candidates and appoint the best person for the job.
By sleepwalking into the Neil Lennon appointment, Celtic won’t be as strong as they’ve been in recent seasons (in my opinion) yet they’ll still probably secure nine in a row.
The problem is that if the Celtic team become a robust outfit rather than a slick attacking team then the fans will become more disgruntled and a greater chasm will grow between Celtic’s hierarchy and their support!
Posted on May 27th, 2019 by scott
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