Celtic have chop and changed their goalkeeper all season.

New signing Vasilis Barkas hasn’t come in and commanded things straight away. Scott Bain has plenty of experience in the Scottish Premiership and while decent, he isn’t a standout keeper. Even young third choice Connor Hazard has had a shot in between the sticks but he doesn’t seem to be the answer.

Just a few weeks ago Celtic boss Neil Lennon commented on the goalkeeping position, bringing Greek shot-stopper Barkas back into the starting line-up:

“We have big games coming up and I want Vasilis to play in them.”

“He has come in as number one and I want him to play.”

Lennon via BT Sport

Yet after just two games the international keeper was once again been bombed out of the team as Bain had the number one jersey for Celtic’s 2-0 win over Hamilton Accies last night (BBC Match Report).

Now I have no issues with Lennon dropping Vasilis, that’s his job after all.

I just don’t like how he has done it.

Don’t make an issue of him being there for the big games and then drop him after a few weeks and don’t publicly slate him either:

“We went with Vasilis but I don’t think his performances have merited him keeping his place.”

“I think he needs more time to develop to the rigorous of the game here. He needs to physically develop a little bit more as well.”

Lennon Via The Scottish Sun

I think it’s always better to have private discussions with players when things aren’t going as you’d want but keep those thoughts and talks private. I don’t think picking holes in Barkas game publicly serves the player any good whatsoever.

Celtic fans have also been a bit critical of the Greek goalie so far this term and all Neil has done here is hang Vasilis out to dry and made him a scapegoat. It actually feels like Lennon has offered the new signing up as a sacrifice to take heat off of himself.

I’m currently reading Andrew Cole’s autobiography and he is so enthusiastic whilst discussing how great Sir Alex Ferguson’s communication skills were. He specifically says that his gaffer would dig players out in the dressing room but never in the glare of the media spotlight.

Neil Lennon went on to comment on Scott Bain coming in and he hardly boosted his confidence either:

“So I’m going with Scott for the experience. To be fair, he hasn’t let us down too much in the league.”

Wow!

To be honest, this has all come about due to negligence from the Celtic board, recruitment team and management staff.

They clearly wanted Fraser Forster to come back permanently and were flummoxed when he didn’t choose to go down that road.

When they identified Barkas as a possible target they should’ve done more to keep Craig Gordon on their books as he has title winning experience and if Barkas did struggle to settle in, then the Scottish international could have offered more assurance.

And if Vasilis isn’t up to the ‘rigours’ of the Scottish game by now, then you have to ask why the coaching team haven’t got him up to scratch by now!

For me, Neil Lennon has thrown Vasilis Barkas under the bus publicly and I just don’t see that being in Celtic’s best long term interests.

Posted on January 28th, 2021 by scott
Filed under: Article