Tag: Neil Lennon

Well, what a day that was.

Probably the most deflated I’ve felt since we were eliminated by our beloved Govan neighbours at the semi-final stage of the Scottish Cup back in April 2016.

In some ways, this feels even worse. Sort of like discovering that, that old antique your dad has been harbouring in the attic for years is actually worth sod all or that your winning scratch card is a fake.

Or perhaps more accurately that your bird who you thought you were in love with and was in love with you has been having it off behind your back with some guy she met on a night out down south the whole time.

That’s what it was like to discover that the man who claimed he was in his dream job had actually found a dreamier one and that all of the things he’d said over the years about his love for the club and his ongoing commitment were all just words. All said just to keep us sweet and onside while his eyes wondered elsewhere. I guess this is how the first Mrs Rodgers felt.

Brendan of course rather unceremoniously left us yesterday afternoon drawing to an end a highly successful – domestically anyway – 33 months in charge.

Below are some pictures from the day:

 

 

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Initially, this article was about our 4-1 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park on Sunday where we maintained our 8 points lead at the top of the table in a game that saw the visitors score a highly contentious goal when they refused to honour the unwritten rule of passing the ball back to you once it has been put of play for an injury.

It was all much ado about nothing in any case as we scored two goals either side of it – one an absolute peach of a free kick from Odsonne Edouard – but then the news started to filter through that the game was afoot over at the Celtic training ground on Monday afternoon. Instead of churning that out I thought I’d wait to see how events transpired hoping of course that it was all smoke and no fire. Let’s be honest as all the rumours started intensifying yesterday young James Scott’s ill-advised decision to take advantage of the throw in situation on Sunday which seemed oh so important at the time had rather paled into significance when it became obvious that Sunday might actually have been our manager’s last game in charge.

I awoke this morning to hale of What’s App activity. It had the same kind of feeling as when the Mojo story broke back in ’89. That being that something unthinkably bad was happening.

Some sources were diving right in and announcing his departure as confirmed whilst the BBC and others held the line insisting it was still only at the discussion stage. The latter, of course, led to an outbreak of mass denial on Twitter. Countless messages read that there surely was nothing in this and that indeed it was just anti-Celtic desperate journalism at its worst.

However, even a clock gets it right twice a day and yesterday the press was on the money right down to the second. Our beloved Brendan, the man who masterminded ‘The Invincibles Season’ and the famed ‘Double Treble’ was for the offski and he wasn’t even hanging around to say goodbye.

Rumours had been circulating for some time that he was being targeted by Leicester City with their manager Claude Puel’s jacket hanging on a shaky peg for months now. But surely not to them? Not to a club who are mid-table, safely above relegation but way off any potential European places and out of the domestic cups so with literally nothing to play for?

But in his day and age money talks and bullshit walks and the English Premiership side have the money so Brendan did the walking.

Of their financial power, there is no doubt. Last season we broke our turnover record as we surged to £101.5 million thanks in the main to Champions League revenues but despite finishing only just above the relegation zone in their league the Midlands side made the Champions League quarter-finals and with that plus their usual English Premier League cash bonanza they hit £176 million in total turnover for the year.

That affords them the ability to pay fees and wages that we can only dream about and this appears to be the main reason that our once beloved leader has abandoned us.

That’s what it is by the way. It’s abandonment. Not just leaving us for pastures new but all out, pure, unadulterated abandonment. What the hell else could you call it when you do it on the eve of a vital league game and with a historic Treble Treble on the cards and only two and half months of the season to go?

The timing of bad news is never good but at least do it at a time when it makes sense. If Brendan had achieved the aforementioned trio of trebles goal then he could have departed into the sunset with his head held high and all our best wishes this summer.

But to do it now just smacks of both arrogance and most hurtfully indifference.

Yes, the board and in particular, serial panto villain Peter Lawwell will take a lot of flack with once again the debacle that was last summer’s transfer window coming in for renewed withering analysis but today’s decision and the stunningly awful timing of it is all on Brendan.

For him to be wearing the Leicester City tie and stiltedly reading out scripted pish from an autocue where he confirmed how much of an honour it was to be managing them and even going as far as to offer up his life in his pursuit of their success was as absurd as it was stomach-churningly hollow. Yeah, Brendan, you’ll give it ‘everything’………….until something else comes along.

When Chris Sutton seemed to pretty brazenly insist he thought Rodgers was off at the weekend I laughed. Yeah, Chris, I seem to remember you predicting the Rangers signings of Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis had pushed the title race in their favour. That was obviously pish and so was this. The only thing is it wasn’t. The second prediction anyway.

Once again we are reminded that nothing lasts forever in football and that unfortunately our geographic proximity to England in this day and age often works against us. With the exposure and TV money on offer down there dwarfing what we can get up here it means that even blatantly smaller clubs whos stadiums are half Celtic Park’s size such as Leicester can come and pinch our most prized talents from top to bottom. Back at the turn of the century, it was quite literally the other way around.

As for Brendan himself, he was dominant domestically.  He won seven consecutive trophies and gained a colossal 24 straight wins in domestic cup competitions. In the league, he suffered only 8 defeats from 103 matches which is quite incredible.  He also only lost one of thirteen Old Firm games. But let’s be honest……who was he up against? Mark Warburton, Graeme Murty (twice) and Pedro Caixinha?? Hardly stellar tacticians. As for Europe, he achieved only 16 wins in 42 games with 8 draws, 18 defeats and 63 goals conceded. Yes, he brought us back into the group stages of the money-spinning Champions League but once there he stubbornly refused to adapt to our far more harsh surroundings and as a result, we endured some of the most degrading nights ever as Celtic supporters.

Let’s not forget that some of his predecessors such as Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon were also faced against opposition with superior resources on the continent and emerged with somewhat miraculous results by comparison. Whilst under those two scalps such as AC Milan, Benfica (twice), Manchester Utd, Ajax and of course Barcelona were taken and legendary nights were born instead under Brendan the ‘big scalps’ were Astana, Be’er Sheva, Anderlecht, Leipzig and Rosenborg, the latter on multiple occasions. Hardly in the same bracket.

In Europe, there’s little doubt he was a failure but yes domestically an overwhelming success.

He leaves with both my disappointment and mutual indifference. Personally, I hope he never darkens our door again and it’s too late now to insult us with the flattery of undying love and regret that it ended the way it has.

Ah, it really does feel like only yesterday or thereabouts that we were unveiling him on a bright Friday afternoon in May 2016. This was our response to the Rangers calamity the month before and what a response it was. It put the shitters up them so much they quite literally ‘Hibsed’ the Scottish Cup final the very next day to Hibs.

I was actually travelling down south to work in the north of England over that weekend when the announcement came through just as I was pulling into Leeds train station. As I boarded my connecting train to Dearne Valley some local oaf sitting close by announced to his mates “Why is he going up there?” with puzzled arrogance. “Because we’re Celtic!” I thought to myself with a big smile on my face.

Alas, how things change………………..

Lenny will be in the dugout until the summer. Though it’s highly likely he’ll spend much of it in the stand. I’m underwhelmed but he gets all of my support. He goes straight back into the lion’s den against Hearts tomorrow evening in what should be, to say the least, an interesting occasion.  Suddenly tomorrow night is huge with only 11 games to go in the title race. After that, it’s onto his former club Hibs – whom he left in a blaze of unspoken acrimony last month – at the weekend in a vital Scottish Cup quarter-final.

This is testing time for all of us but at least we’re well and truly in the driving seat.

As for the big story, in summation…..goodbye Brendan, it was quite a ride but in the end, you discarded us with about as much empathy as a piss head at a music festival does to an empty beer can so ultimately good riddance.