I read a lot of punditry pieces. It’s par for the course in this line of work. Most are balanced and well written the majority of the time, but this latest piece by Charlie Nicholas in his Express column, not only reeks of bitterness but it is also incoherent nonsense and seems like the ramblings of an ex player completely consumed with jealousy.
Nicholas, like all of us, is absolutely entitled to his own opinion, but the contradictory nature of this particular piece is astounding. Lets take the first quote from the article, “Neil Lennon made history by completing the quadruple-treble but it doesn’t put him up there with true Celtic managerial greats Jock Stein and Brendan Rodgers.
“Lennon is not up there with the greatest in Jock Stein and I would go as far as to say he hasn’t delivered what Rodgers did either.”
I’m struggling to work out why Nicholas places Rodgers in there with the “managerial greats” such as Jock Stein and not Lennon and O’Neill? Granted, Rodgers completed and Invincible Treble in his time at the Hoops but a treble is a treble. You cannot say one is more important than the other to suit your argument.
Lets not forget, Rodgers delivered NOTHING on the European front except embarrassments against PSG and Barcelona. Rodgers took charge of 21 European trips during his tenure, only winning five of those. Before this season, Celtic played eight European away matches under Lennon with only one of them ending in defeat, against Cluj, but even that defeat was after we had qualified from our group and played a second string team.
Another point, Nicholas mentions O’Neill’s record in Europe saying, “Reaching the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville was fantastic but I never saw Martin as a true great.” Now hang on, is he now saying reaching a European Final AND completing a Treble in your time as a manager does not make you one of the “great” Celtic bosses?
So what is it to be? What does make a manager become a true “Celtic great”. Thankfully Charlie will never get the opportunity to find out but then it is easy to sit and criticise from the side-lines behind a laptop.