Neil Lennon and Celtic: Caught in a Trap

Article by Brian McLaughlin

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NEIL Lennon has resigned as manager of Celtic after four years amid concerns over the club’s budget.

The Northern Irishman guided the club to three league titles and two Scottish Cups after replacing the sacked Tony Mowbray in 2010.

It is understood Lennon will seek a new challenge after believing he had taken the Scottish Champions as far as he can under tight budgets. Among the clubs interested are Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion with the former Leicester midfielder tipped to make a swift return to management this summer.

Lennon’s resignation will be disappointing but most Celtic fans have resigned themselves to the fact that they are a massive club caught within the trap of Scottish Football with little signs of their domestic situation improving.

It is fair to say that the Scottish Premiership is a one-horse race, but why is this a slight against Celtic or indeed Neil Lennon?

What are they supposed to do, weaken themselves and allow the competition to catch up?

Celtic are a massive club who harbour ambitions of playing at the elite level of European football, and under Lennon they have participated in the Champions League in the last two seasons even recording a memorable win over Barcelona. It is the trap the Champions find themselves in, especially in the absence of their fiercest rivals from the top-flight and even when Rangers do return it could still be a one-horse race.

Lennon left a club he has supported all of his life. A club he captained. A club who he stood by in the face of perpetual attacks on his personal-life and his family: it would have been hard for him to leave a club he has such a strong connection with. He justifiably feels powerless to deliver anymore than he is currently doing: Celtic lost two games in ninety minutes in Scotland this season- and one of them was away to Aberdeen with ten men for the vast majority of the game. In most scenarios that would be a magnificent season, but the consensus among the Parkhead faithful is that Lennon has yet again underachieved.

The common conception is that it is easy to manage Celtic, this is far from the case: Lennon was signing players for paltry amounts of money, developing them into better players and subsequently selling them on for profit.

You cannot build a team at Celtic. Last summer the spine of the Celtic side that made it into the Champions League knockout stages was ripped apart: Gary Hooper was sold, as was Victor Wanyama and Kelvin Wilson, yet Lennon persisted with what he had and it was only when he had again delivered Champions League football did the board release the purse-strings culminating in a frantic one week with which to sign players! Why would the board give the manager of Celtic money unless they are in the Champions League? Additions are unnecessary to retain the Scottish Premiership title. Therefore, Lennon has very little time to plan ahead; to sign players; to bed players into a team that has had the heart ripped from it and he is also expected to win everything at the same time?

It seems the manager of Celtic can only be seen to have done a good job if he wins all three trophies and delivers Champions League football. It is not unrealistic in ordinary circumstances, but football is not an ordinary game. As alluded to previously you must work in conditions where your team is ripped apart and patched together consistently; you must compete against smaller Scottish Premiership sides which gives players little motivation and then step-up to pit your wits against Europe’s elite. Even the great Bayern Munich seen their standards slip when they had sewn up the Bundesliga title with many games to spare. In many ways Guardiola suffers the same fate but on a much larger scale: the former Barcelona manager delivered a record-breaking title and also a Cup final- yet many in Bavaria regard it as a ‘disappointing’ season. A one-horse league changes players’ attitudes as in many cases it is simply a manner of turning up and that proves dangerous when you are actually required to step your game-up.

It was with heavy heart Lennon made this decision, but it is an entirely blameless departure: you cannot blame the manager for wanting to leave for somewhere he is tested more regularly; you cannot blame the Celtic board for being financially prudent as the club do not need to sign players to win their league; and you cannot blame Celtic for the demise of Rangers Football Club, the only team in Scotland ever capable of challenging them. It is a trap.

There is little Celtic as a club can do about their current situation other than trying to lobby UEFA about possibilities of participating in cross-border leagues. Until then the Parkhead club must wait. Celtic will be here forever and can afford to wait until their fiercest rivals re-establish themselves as a credible force in Scottish Football, but in a career where timing is imperative Neil Lennon cannot afford that luxury.

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