The ‘inevitable’ has finally happened in the wake of another disastrous result and Neil Francis Lennon is no longer the manager of Celtic.
I say inevitable but truth be told we’ve all been saying that since November yet Neil somehow hung on.
A recent five consecutive games winning sequence had put to rest any worries about a battle for second place with his ex-employers Hibs and had created a ‘what if?’ narrative that being claims of ‘what if we’d played like this all season?’ coming from Lenny himself.
Truth be told the recent five-game win streak was the exception and not the rule this season and it was back to reality with a resounding bump thanks to Sunday evening’s dismal result against then bottom-placed Ross County.
In hindsight maybe the defeat against Fernecvaros back on the 26th of August that saw us eliminated from the Champions League at only the second round qualifying stage was the time to change but that would have seemed overly harsh at the time truth be told and wasn’t really feasible.
Then there was the eye wateringly bad 2-0 defeat at home to Rangers on the 17th of October where we embarrassingly failed to register a single shot on goal but that had come after an unbeaten 10 game start to the league season where we’d only dropped two points so hindsight aside that would have been really hard to justify.
But the back to back Europa League 4-1 hammerings against group bottom seeds and Covid ravaged Sparta Prague that took place in November really should have been the final straw as it had become clear as day by that point that the turnaround in form was not coming and that we’d regressed spectacularly since the previous campaign.
That same period also saw us throwaway league points up at Pittodrie against Aberdeen (3-3), not to mention haemorrhage more away at Hibs (2-2) as well as capitulate on the continent after taking a stunning 2-0 lead away at AC Milan in a game where we ultimately lost 4-2.
Though the 2-0 defeat against struggling Ross County in the League Cup on the 29th of November at Celtic Park which ended a record 35-game win run in domestic cup competitions really was the straw that broke the camel’s back for most fans.
We all remember the ugly scenes outside the stadium that night and an element of the support were at boiling point as the season had descended into a disaster.
The thing is there was a chance to still salvage it then however unlikely by being proactive and making a change but the board bunkered down and completely bottled out of what was a pretty clear and obvious decision to make.
Lenny did have one last chance to save both the fabled ‘Ten in a Row’ and himself in the first game of the New Year at Ibrox against Rangers after a four-game winning streak in the league that could have turned the entire season on its head but alas despite playing well the old defensive errors that have plagued this term came back to haunt us and ultimately we went down 1-0 via an own goal after Nir Bitton had committed the football equivalent of Harakiri at the back.
Then there was the Dubai fiasco, a shambolic affair that Lennon vigorously tried to defend which totally underlined how out of touch he appeared to be with his own predicament never mind what’s going on in the world at large.
His and the clubs argument was that similar trips had reaped rewards before and would do so again.
In actual fact what it reaped was a positive Covid diagnosis for an injured player – the reasoning for whose presence on the trip was dubious at best – that decimated squad selection for home games against Hibs and Livingston as well as delivering only one win in five with nine points from fifteen dropped upon our return.
And who could forget the historical connotations of losing to St.Mirren at home for the first time in 31 years?!
Yet still somehow after all of that Neil Lennon hung on.
Rumours abounded that his contract stated he was entitled to a full payout of whatever was remaining unless it was mathematically impossible for us to win the league.
Who knows.
Whatever the reason it was all too much for the previously bulletproof CEO Peter Lawwell who after a mystifying attempt to apologise for Dubai whilst simultaneously trying to justify it announced he was stepping down in the summer to be replaced by Scottish Rugby’s chief executive Dominic McKay.
Anyway then came the recent five-game winning run which created false optimism and also led to the rather terrifying possibility that if it continued that Lenny could actually still be in charge for the mooted rebuild of the squad that is apparently scheduled to take place in the summer.
But struggling Ross County – not for the first time this season – delivered a hammer blow last Sunday that not even the manager with nine lives could survive though if he had been in charge for our next game at home to Aberdeen on Saturday then absolutely no one would have been surprised.
Indeed when the news filtered down that he was going on Tuesday night there was still a tinge of surprise that the board had finally done it not to mention relief that the whole affair was now finally over.
Sadly for Neil his lack of professionalism off the field, adherence to a reliance on personal man-management skills at the expense of modern techniques involving sports science, nutrition and analysis not to mention a stubborn refusal to play two up front and penchant for bizarre team selections finally caught up with him in this campaign.
On every front, it’s been a disaster and the writing was on the wall when he emerged from lockdown looking a few stone overweight.
Not surprisingly some of the players – Leigh Griffiths chief amongst them – had clearly followed suite and have struggled with their fitness all season.
It was clear last year that Scott Brown’s race was more or less run yet Lenny continued to give him an automatic starting position whilst his ready made replacement the young Ismaila Soro looked on.
And it was also clear that summer loan signing Shane Duffy just wasn’t up to it and should have been punted back down to Brighton beach long ago yet still Lennon persisted in his selection and it continuously blew up in his face.
Pretty much every summer signing (Barkas, Ajeti, Laxalt and Duffy) have been woeful yet all were getting game time long before the exception David Turnbull who has proved himself to be a star in the making.
Anyway, it’s all over now.
Neil Lennon’s second spell as Celtic manager ends with five trophies and a 70% win rate via 77 wins from 110 games that also saw 16 defeats and 17 draws.
He oversaw a terrific campaign last term on all fronts but this season has been utterly shambolic and his complete lack of contrition about it not to mention persistently citing mythical mitigating circumstances did him no favours.
The decision to allow an absurd four days off after the opening game of the season that led to the Bolingoli affair as well as his insistence on the tone-deaf Dubai trip were ultimately his responsibility.
So if those are the mitigating circumstances he’s hinting at then he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
I personally wish Neil Lennon no ill will.
In the fullness of time, I’m sure his reputation will be restored amongst most of the support.
Time is a healer.
It was for Davie Hay, Tommy Burns and Fergus McCann and will be for Neil Lennon.
It’s also unlikely we’ve seen the last of him within Scottish or UK football for that matter.
Whether that be as a manager or pundit.
In the immediate future, I’d say the latter is a guarantee.
But now it’s back to Celtic.
Former assistant and temporary head coach John Kennedy is clearly a stopgap.
Barring an unforeseeable run of results, he’ll most likely be gone in the summer too.
Who’s next for the hot seat is anyone’s guess.
Eddie Howe, Steve Clarke, Frank Lampard and Alex Neil amongst others will all get a mention.
Whoever it is they have a big job on their hands and a lot of trust to win back from a support who haven’t been this at odds with the club’s hierarchy for over 25 years.
With two matches against a rampant Rangers still to come, a new manager to appoint with potential a director of football too as well as an entire squad to be gutted, there are interesting times ahead.
The rebuild and fightback start NOW.
....Always A Tim! 