Thursday 6 December 2012 Spiers on Sport: Neil Lennon has confounded everyone please log in to view this image Spiers on Sport Graham Spiers There was a point not much more than 12 months ago when Neil Lennon was lamenting his fate as Celtic manager. please log in to view this image “I don’t think I’m going to get the chance to build the type of team I want to see here,” he said. Lennon felt that time was running out on him. At that point, back in the early winter of 2011, Rangers looked like they were streaking ahead in the title race, while Lennon’s Celtic were toiling. And, as much as the Celtic fans loved him, the catcalls were beginning to ring in his ears around Celtic Park. It is instructive to think back to some of the chatter among fans and the media in those months. Lennon, it was felt, wasn’t working out. Ally McCoist, himself an untried manager at Rangers, appeared to be getting the better of him. It looked like Lennon would be binned – he felt it himself. Now look where we are. Lennon has performed a minor miracle – Celtic have actually beaten the modern, dazzling Barcelona – and his team are in the last 16 of the Champions League. The fact that some are even tipping Lennon and Celtic to reach the last eight is a remarkable state of affairs. Lennon has confounded just about everyone – including me. He was deemed too young, too raw, too impetuous for the Celtic job. It was said he created unwanted tabloid headlines. I remember one seasoned Scottish football observer saying: “Celtic have made a grave mistake in handing the manager’s job to Neil Lennon – he is too callow and he lacks discipline.” Lennon is a bloke I like a lot, but I created a minor tension between us by writing a column which cast doubt on the wisdom of the club giving him the job back in May 2010. I thought Celtic was too big a club for him - or for anyone - going into his first managerial job. In fact, the logic of that argument still doesn’t seem so flawed. But Lennon is succeeding at Celtic where older, more experienced coaches might have failed. He has done so by an ability to learn lessons as he goes along, by an intelligent understanding of football, but also through a strength of character. The last point probably cannot be overestimated. I’m not talking about any of the off-field lunacy he has had to deal with. Rather, one of Lennon’s strengths as a player was his ability not to be fazed or overawed by anything. For instance, when Lennon and Celtic went away to play teams as prestigious as Juventus and Bayern Munich under Martin O’Neill in the Champions League, it scarcely entered Lennon’s head that he might look inferior on the pitch. On the contrary, he believed he could square up to anybody. It will be lost on no-one that, in five years in Glasgow, O’Neill never once took Celtic to the Champions League’s last 16 in three attempts, while Lennon has done it after his first taste of the group stage. Gordon Strachan managed it twice after O’Neill left, and now Lennon has added to these feats. The fact is, as vulnerable and headstrong as we all believed Lennon to be, he now stands comfortably beside these two figures in Celtic’s recent history, while still only being 41. It is by no means a scene of flawless progress. Celtic have stumbled in the SPL and, thus far, Lennon has failed to find an answer to that. There have also been recurring, key moments when a Celtic team has faltered under him: against Ross County and Kilmarnock at Hampden; fatally against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in April 2011; and even against Arbroath last week. On all of these occasions against inferior opponents, Lennon has looked nonplussed, unable to explain where it went wrong. But today, having guided Celtic astutely through this Champions League group stage, Lennon looks a figure of substance. He has talked convincingly about his plans throughout this European campaign so far. He also has a deep “feel” for Celtic and what the club requires, which is no handicap. Neil Lennon is some way off from entering the pantheon – and he might never make it. Right now, though, his stock is rising.
Many of the concerns about Lennon were (and are) wholly justified. Fair play to Spiers for conceding that Lennon has answered a lot of them.
Hey but as we all should know by now, it's a matter of keeping the faith. I have absolutely no doubt that Neil Lennon has proved himself to be an excellent manager but lets not kid ourselves, we are riding our good luck at the moment. We've had our share of bad luck so it was only a matter of time 'til that changed. All the analysing in the world is worth absolutely nothing if luck is not on your side - many a good manager has come to grief through bad luck and poor ones have ridden for a time on good luck alone. Take Martin O'Neill for example - he is looking more and more like a manager who is going to fail at Sunderland yet I don't believe anyone would think he is a bad manager.
Espaniacelt. I don't like disagreeing with you as usually you are a man of great sense and wisdom, but with Martin O'Neil I think that the old Irish proverb applies." No matter how long the day night follows" In the end you are caught out. I have known Martin O'Neil from he was a boy at St Columb's Derry. I know why he had to leave there in a hurry. He has bluffed and conned his way through life, some people think he studied law and became a Solicitor. Wrong he did first year law In Queen's Belfast and then left for Nottingham. He had a very good football career in a very good well managed team. He had a great managerial career in England, despite almost been sacked as he had an extra -ordinary run of defeats. By the time he came to Celtic, he had delegated all his responsibilities to his two right hand men. I know of some one from over here that told Martin he was going over to Celtic. Martin asked him what seat he was in and arranged to meet half an hour before kick off. Martin turned up 10 mins late and talked away, the man asked him around 2.45/2.50 did he not need to see the players before the match. Martin said it didn't matter. When Martin bled Celtic dry of money and resources he wanted out, he knew that there would be up roar if he was sacked or got up and went. Martin for the two or three seasons at Celtic was invisible rarely present for training etc. His wife's illness was said to be the reason he needed to be at home with her. After a couple of seasons spending at Villa, the shoite hit the fan when the players said they wanted him out because he was never there and they were sick of the out-dated methods of his assistants. I have never heard of as much celebrations with a Manager leaving as at Villa. I think he took the Sunderland job because he was so long out of the game he was afraid he wouldn't get back in. I think O'Neil has brilliant abilities, he can charm money from Chairmen and owners getting them to agree to spend more than they intend. He is brilliant at man management but he has become more crazier and more eccentric and becoming more like his old mentor Brian Clough every week. He certainly did a great job for us, at a price, and maybe in hind sight he may have stayed a year longer than he should. If he take to about the end of three years at Celtic, he was up to then a very good manager, but that would mean his managerial effectiveness ended when he was in his early or mid fifties, he certainly did not last long.
Can't say I know anything near as much about MON as you appear to sh, so maybe it was my mistake to use him as an example - I was basically judging him on his general reputation though I suppose that's mainly based on media reporting! I have to say though that I was delighted when he was appointed Celtic manager and thought he was the ideal man at that time - he had done so well with Leicester City, taking them into and keeping them in the Premiership and he turned things around for us as soon as he arrived although I know he apparently spent plenty in doing so. My main point was really about needing a bit of good luck along the way and our fortunes seem to have changed in that respect - at the moment.
Spiers was pretty quick to have a go at Lenny and spent the first two weeks of this season constantly tweeting about how Lennon, Lawwell and all those at Parkhead were "secretly dreading this season" with "an undoubted sense of nervousness". It's good to read this as a fairly honest re-appraisal.
Espaniacelt The most important atribute any manager can bring to a club is to be lucky. If he isn't lucky he will never be a success. Remember the great Spanish Golfer Stevie B. he always said it was important to be lucky, but the harder he practiced the "luckier" he became. I think Neil Lennon's luck this season is due to all the hard work he put into his managing over the last couple of years and now he is reaping "the luck". Similarly I think Martin O'Neil worked hard in his formative years in management. Sometime after his 1st/ 2nd year at Celtic, either the Brian C. syndrome hit in, or laziness or maybe a problem we don''t know of. Whatever he lifted his foot off the work pedal and soon his success and "luck" changed as he hadn't put his back into it. Since leaving Celtic he has been ordinary, not getting the breaks, and now you know why. By the way, I too was delighted that he got the Celtic job. I knew he would bring pride to the players and bring us back to the top. I don't know if anyone of us were aware of the financial spending then. I certainly didn't bat an eyelid until I seen the brakes on WGS spending. Now he was a terrific manager, hard working achieved more than Martin but never won the fans over. He couldn't talk up the excitement the way Martin did. Everyone was afraid to mention long ball or dull football to Martin. (sorry espania celt I went on too long) someone will probably destroy me.
Don't see why anyone would want to destroy you sh - your post is reasonable and while others may disagree with your view, you're entitled to it. I accepted the reasons for MON's withdrawal at the time and thought it perfectly understandable that if his wife was seriously ill, he would be distracted and his priorities would lie with looking after her. As for WGS, I have to say that while he was manager I didn't like to be critical of him but I could never quite warm to him. I thought that the type of football played under him was generally dire and when interviewed he tended to be too flippant in a 'smart alec' kind of way which to me seemed to indicate that he had no thought for fans who would be listening keenly and would like to hear him talk to them through these interviews.
Well Espaniacelt there is a wee group on here who view themselves as more intelligent than me, and they are trying to laugh and sneer at me to get me to leave. I don't belong to their cligue or laugh at their stupid inane jokes , so they think I am fair game. I think the sickness was his exit door rather than his need to spend more time. He spent enormous time away from his work in the last two years and could not expect to spend longer and didn't with all his media work. The fans did not take to WGS from the outset because of his contempt for Celtic in General and Big Roy Aitkin in particular. His winning the league three in a row and attaining last 16 twice were marvellous achievements and he did not get the credit he deserves. I know the fans here in the 90's were crying out for success and didn't care how. they had short memories criticising WGS as he was operating on a continuously decreasing budget. I know Martin told us often how good the football was and we wanted and did believe him. To be honest in England the fans loved WGS witticisms and although I never agree with the English I have to say knowing the MSM and their continuous disrespect for Celtic, I have to say I loved his media performances, the best I ever seen or heard from a Celtic Manager.
Trevorspastic, how would you know? Have you never learned your place, drinking out the bottle outside the pit of evil and sleeping in shop doorways and you still make comment on your superiors. Take four steps down you low level cur.
Ah well, sh, maybe those posters, who've been having so much fun at your expense, should thank you for all the good times they've had? Maybe I didn't quite understand WGS' witticisms and while I agree his achievements with the team were superb, I prefer a manager to seriously take into account that fans will be hanging on to every word. I think the manager should use the interview as a means to talk directly to fans in general - after all it is one of the few opportunities to do so and keep fans abreast of his thinking ... but that's just how I see it.
Sorry trevorspastic, I was trying to be nice to you. You should see what I really think. EspaniaCelt. I have to disagree with you, I don't think any Manager ever speaks through the media to his fans. I don't think any manager and especially the successful managers tell the truth whilst speaking to the media, I would think everyone would expect that as the media hacks will twist what he says and will give the interpretation that suits them. Its better for manager to speak in idle gossip to the media, talking plenty but saying nothing. News important to fans can be and is delivered by a press release. An example, there is no need to tell the world including the forth coming opposition the true nature of injuries. Do we want the opposition to know that Brown will miss such and such a game and opp manager plan accordingly. Do we need to announce now that we have to buy a big target man, so that managers with target men that are possibly available will increase their valuations.
sh - I was referring to live televised or radio interviews that fans can hear and interpret for themselves - not the write-ups by newspapers etc which I know, of course cannot be relied upon. I don't think anyone would expect a manager to give away anything he didn't want the opposition to know or make public something ongoing that required discretion. Some managers do, however, come across as more straightforward and forthright than others and are admired for it and I think that despite his excellent achievements with the team, WGS insulted fans' intelligence with his overly flippant attitude in some of his interviews. On the other hand, I think Neil Lennon, is coming across very well and I enjoy and look forward to his interviews. I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree about WGS but no harm in that - I wouldn't have thought we'll fall out about it.
