The gathering tension at Celtic Park finally exploded last night as Celtic crashed out of the Champions League before the big cheques are written.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before I start, let me say that I didn;t see the game, as I was working. I was in a part of the country where the internet is a bit of a myth, the radio picks up only static, and the television still scares children.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As a result, I can;t really comment on the performance, which is just as well, though I can leave that to someone else.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Lennon CSC had gathered in the pub to watch the game, with social distancing in place to prevent anyone hearing anyone else shout “It’s your round ” , and I got one of them to ring me with updates.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I got the 1-0 fairly early, then the equaliser, and then…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“It’s 2-1 ”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0“thank fuck..who scored ? ”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0“they fucking did ”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Which put a bit of a dampener on the evening.<\/p>\n The president of our CSc put it quite succinctly….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Looks like some star players are going to be moving on.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0For the life of me I can’t understand why they can’t stay for a crack at the ten but that’s their mentality.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Money obviously matters more.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m afraid Eddy,\u00a0 Christie, Ajer and MacGregor my be the ones and Celtic without them , well , I leave it to your imagination the impact this will have on the club\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We will get money but we will be severely weakened.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0I’m not a pessimist but I feel completely dejected. I will lay low for a few days becauseI might regret what I say as I’m really disappointed and disillusioned with football especially in the current crisis.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0If that team had half the passion and desire I see in our members love for the club, despite going through some monumental life changes we would have won last night.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Memebrs who have paid out for a season book with little or no chance of actually seeing a game. That’s commitment.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Our players don’t have that. We have to ask why.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Basically, their heads have been turned and they don’t give a fuck.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n No sleep..working in an hour…Is it worth it ?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m sure it is, but I’m not feeling it right now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Right. Let’s try and explain it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our pish stained operatives have been out and about and they tell us a few things that maybe we already knew, but didn’t want to admit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It pains me to admit it, but the attitudes and standards imposed on the players by Brendan rodgers have been somewhat diminished. There are only three players left from the Invincible season, Brown, Forrest and MacGregor, and those three are the only ones who have experienced the difference that the rigid discipline and structure can make.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Under Lennon, at least two players should have been axed for their misdemeanours.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Standards have to be enforced, and Bolingoli Boli should have gone after his rugby Park tantrum when he took a cab home after finding out he wasn’t playing. Getting away with that made him think he would get away with his trip to Spain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’ve already said what we have to say about Leigh Griffiths, and again it’s an example of behaviour that would not have been tolerated under Rodgers. Putting his sports bra into a car to pretend he’d been training may be a laugh, but it’s unacceptable behaviour from a professional earning thousands of pounds a week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As our man in the Lennon says, supporters have backed the club and the players with their money in unprecendented uncertain times, and they are not getting that level of commitment back from players or management.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a result, other players see that behaviour and begin to copy it. Maybe not to that extent, but the rot sets in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n that is the fault of Neil Lennon, and thats before we talk about his bewildering team selection of last night. In fact, let’s leave that to one side because the attitude of the players, which has been if not encouraged by the manager, but certainly condoned, is the reason why this morning we are all feeling a bit raw.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some of them were thrown under the bus last night when Lennon said that those who wanted to leave could leave.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We are aware who those players are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We are also aware why they want to leave.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oliveir Ntcham is not a fan of Neil Lennon. He came to Celtic to work with Brendan Rodgers, and took a significant pay cut to do so. He now sees the club as a semi professional outfit, a view enhanced by playing in empty stadia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ryan Christie has said he was open to a move south last year, and nothing has changed except he;s probably more open to it now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Calum MacGregor wants to, and always wanted to join Rodgers at Leicester. It’s why we went in for Turnbull last year. It’s why we’re back in for him this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kris Ajer wants to be a midfielder, and will go wherever they let him be what he wants.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tom Rogic simply wants to go home, or at least as close as he can to home. And he’s earned that right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And thats just the ones we can be fairly certain about, if our deputation of drunks are to be believed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The worrying theme of all of this is further enhanced when you filter in the fact that Henrik Larsson wanted to be a striker coach, at Celtic, and this was vetoed by Neil Lennon, who wnated to bring back the thunder, but not hand it to someone else.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lennon has his style of management, and unfortunately it’s just not good enough for a club that had to be shaken out of its bad habits and brought into the 21st century.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thats the problem right now, and I’m not entirely sure he knows how to fix it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n More worryingly, I’m not even sure he wants to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The gathering tension at Celtic Park finally exploded last night as Celtic crashed out of the Champions League before the big cheques are written. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/4067e760912af8f1d55fc4f24fc2917a.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-49Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15990,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15986\/revisions\/15990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}