This time last week I was very drunk. Like very, very drunk.
Like so drunk when everyone else had long since departed for the hills I decided it was a good idea to try and relive my youth and jump into Nice N’Sleazy’s on Sauchiehall street to see what was happening and then left after 20 minutes and one drink when it finally dawned on me that the game was a bogey and I probably just looked like some sad old man propping up the bar by himself surrounded by folk around 10-15 years younger than me.
Of course what else are you going to do though after securing a Treble of Trebles? It’s not likely to ever happen again so ‘make hay when the sun shines’ and all that.
The strange thing was though that the excessive drinking wasn’t just to celebrate a momentous occasion. Part of it was drowning my sorrows which seems slightly absurd but it’s the God’s honest truth.
To the game itself and the performance was more or less a carbon copy of what Celtic have produced since Neil Lennon once more stepped into the breach back in late February.
We had most of the ball but for the best part lacked creativity, inspiration and a cutting edge.
In fairness, Craig Levein got his tactics spot on and Hearts were successful at both frustrating us whilst offering something of a threat on the counter-attack and at set pieces.
Though players like James Forrest, Callum McGregor and Tom Rogic who were on fire earlier in the season continue to look uncharacteristically off the boil.
Anyway, as the rain pissed down relentlessly over Glasgow – by the way, is it just me or weren’t all the cup final days back in the ’80s sun-kissed affairs? – Hearts produced a shock lead via Ryan Edward not long after the restart following a pretty forgettable first 45 minutes. As he reeled away to celebrate you couldn’t help but think the worst.
However, this Celtic team has consistently found a way to win over the past three years on all domestic fronts and last Saturday proved no different as Odsonne Edouard converted after a pretty soft penalty was awarded and then duly slotted home when through on goal after Christophe Berra fell asleep at the back for the men in maroon.
The cup was lifted and nine straight trophies were confirmed. We’d done it. Something which seemed completely unthinkable three years ago in April when Mark Warburton’s Rangers team had inflicted an embarrassing Cup semi-final exit upon us at the very same venue.
The celebrations had begun in earnest though, to be honest, they had pretty much started at quarter to three but I digress.
Just as I was toasting the success the news came through that Neil Lennon had been offered the job and I was, to say the least pretty stunned.
Over the previous fortnight, rumours had intensified and it had been made pretty clear, especially in the wake of Celtic being thoroughly outplayed at Ibrox during a 2-0 defeat by Rangers, that Lennon was now well and truly out of the running. Subsequently, he had cut a frustrated even forlorn and angry figure at press conferences and all roads appeared to be leading to Davie Moyes with some still hoping for the fabled arrival of Rafa Benitez.
Whoever it was an announcement was expected on Monday and finally, the rumours would be put to bed.
For it to come out literally minutes after the final whistle had blown seemed bizarre. Surreal even. Indeed for about half an hour I actually refused to believe it was true.
It turns out we’d all been had or that was the company line at least.
I mean it just didn’t make any sense.
Peter Lawwell claimed that Lennon was always going to get the job no matter what and even went as far as to claim that no other candidate had even been considered.
If that was the case then why wasn’t Lennon’s appointment confirmed before the match and why did Neil himself claim that he was taken aback by it when offered it in the shower area of all places?
Indeed why did all the players only find out about it on twitter?
Now I’ve generally defended the board over their management of the club through the years.
Though we all want more ambition the fact is that as custodians they have refused to ever put the club in any financial danger and have never been reactionary save the moment they brought in Robbie Keane to save Tony Mowbray back in January 2010. It was exciting at the time but cost a fortune and yielded literally nothing.
I’ve always poured scorn over the nonsensical claims that Lawwell and other boards members are skimming money off of the top and lining their own pockets rather than invest in the team. There’s an AGM every year and every penny is accounted for and believe me if it wasn’t we’d know.
But in this instance, there’s no doubt about it that Peter is lying out of his back teeth.
Other candidates definitely were spoken to, Lennon was not universally the first choice of the whole board and if Celtic had lost the cup final I doubt that Neil would have gotten it. At the very least he sure as hell wouldn’t have been announced in the wake of the final whistle or even the following Monday. It would have probably happened around now when the dust had settled and had a caveat added to it that after considering various candidates the board had decided that Neil Lennon was the best one which would have itself meant the only one to accept.
Anyway, whether you like it or not Neil is now the manager and I’m sure he’ll get all of our backing.
Personally, I don’t think it’s a backward step but more of sidestep and we’ve gone for the easy option as opposed to showing any real ambition and a willingness to invest.
Anyone who thinks Neil will be given big bucks to go out and mould the team he wants to chance down ten in a row is living in fantasy land.
If you won’t give a manager on £2.5 million a year, plus £2 million bonuses for Champions League qualification, the £3 million required to secure John McGinn then you’re not going to suddenly up the ante and open a war chest for a man on half the amount of money and who had literally nowhere else to go. It just doesn’t work like that.
Why the board have deiced now is the time to batten down the hatches and begin a Deila-esque period of austerity is beyond me though rumours abound that Dermot Desmond wants out and as result, the purse strings are being purged sop as to keep the share value high.
The main source for that is Phil Mac Giolla Bhain and his long-running blog so I’ll take it with a little pinch of salt but the fact is that something definitely doesn’t seem right over at Paradise.
On the player front, we’ve already heard utterings that the squad doesn’t require much investment which is worrying when you consider that we have four loanees departing, that Boyata and Scott Allan are already off and that Emilio Izaguirre has also apparently rejected a new one year contract. Mikel Lustig is by accounts wavering over a new deal and Cristian Gamboa’s contract is also up. That plus players like Compper, Bitton, Eboue and Jack Hendry clearly just aren’t up to it. Added to all that Olivier Ntcham is now being heavily linked with a move away.
It’s going to be a long summer all right and with no club football to talk about until mid-July when we return for Champions League qualification and a quiet transfer window virtually guaranteed we’ll have plenty of time to dissect what might be happening behind the scenes.
Intrigue abounds.
....Always A Tim! 