Celtic Blogs

The holes in the board statement are bigger than those in our defence.

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Off the back of more demonstrations by the fans, the Celtic board released yet another statement to reinforce their backing of the manager after another disastrous result at home in the Premiership to St Johnstone.  As the Hoops fell a further two points behind their rivals in the race for the title, the Celtic supporters took to the streets again to vent their anger on the team, the manager and the board.

I am going to look at a couple of extracts from the statement but you can view it in full here

In the statement the board “wishes to make clear its continuing support for Neil and his backroom team“.

This is now the second statement in a week backing the manager after a particularly poor result. Never have I seen in my time as a Celtic supporter a board release statement after statement backing a manager so profusely. And never have I seen a manager preside over such a run of results and remain in the position. If you need to keep releasing statements to back the manager that tells you results haven’t changed so something else must.

They then go onto to say “As his outstanding record as a manager, captain and player demonstrates, he knows what it takes to be successful at Celtic“.

Now this part of the statement taken at face value is true. As a player, captain and manager, Lennon has won every domestic honour available.  As a player he won a domestic treble and reached a UEFA Cup Final. As a manager he has mirrored success as a player domestically and took Celtic into the last 16 of the Champions League.  But we are talking here and now. I backed Lennon at the start because of the very same reason the board have stated here. He has been here before, he can do it again. Except, I see no signs of him “doing it again”. In fact, I am seeing the team get worse and technically gifted players are regressing under his tenure at this time.

The final part of the statement I take issue with is “The Board wishes to take this opportunity to thank all Celtic supporters for their support during this challenging year. The response of the support to the challenges that we all face together has been magnificent

The board are happy to take the supporters money but not listen to the supporters when it comes to team affairs.  This season has seen Celtic fans back the club with millions of pounds by renewals of season tickets and unprecedented merchandising sales. They want the supporters money, but don’t want them to question the boards vision or judgement when things are going wrong on the pitch.  The scenes of metal fencing surrounding the entrance to Celtic Park is telling in itself. The board have lost touch with the fans.

So what happens now moving forward?  The board stick with a manger when performances, never mind results, continue to wane? The supporters just shrug their shoulders and accept this? Or will the board see what everyone else can see an change their minds before it’s too late?

I’m afraid judging by the lack of visions from the suits, the latter will never be applied.

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