On The Only As Good As Your Last Game podcast, Hugh Keevins was recounting his stories with former Celtic legends of the club. Born Celtic reported on one such legend this morning, Tommy Burns, in a touching memory of what made Tommy such a legend at Paradise.
When asked by host, Regan Stevenson, if Neil Lennon had tarnished his reputation at the club after last seasons shambolic season, Keevins gave a rousing speech defending Lennon’s legacy at Celtic and says he should always have his place in the Celtic Park history books, “Again, Neil Lennon as a Celtic player and a Celtic manager brought many, many trophies to the club.
“He took the kick and the bruises and lived with the awful pressure that was on him off the park, while doing that.
“Neil Lennon has watched people go to prison for offences against Neil Lennon. That is shameful. So Neil Lennon, for me, had an awful season. He didn’t even last the full season.
“There were errors of judgement. Players were brought in, not all of them at Neil Lennon’s requests, but players were brought in that were never good enough. Awful mistakes were made the transfer front.
“The season imploded and turned into a full scale mess. It doesn’t mean to say that he should go into hiding for the rest of his life.
“It means that he achieved an awful lot with Celtic. Unfortunately for him, when the biggest season of all came around, it did not work out for him.
“That does not mean, his name should be removed from the history of the club. Far from it. He’s got his place in Celtic’s history. He worked hard for it. He deserves it.“
Lenny bled Celtic and he’ll always be remembered for his qualities as a player but as a manager he should never have been near the dugout on any of the two occasions he got the job.
When things started to go wrong last season he did what Slippy G had done the previous two seasons he threw the players under the bus. Now admittedly the players didn’t help his cause but he’d lost the dressing room at that point. If he’d have did the honourable thing and resign after the Ferencvaros game and given someone else a chance to save the ten in a row, his Celtic legacy would still be in tact.
The thing is he’s a megalomaniac and like most megalomaniac’s he thinks he’s better at management than he really ever was. Nothing was ever his fault and now nearly seven months after his sacking he’s still singing from the same hymn sheet to anyone who’ll listen. There’s an arrogance and a bit of self delusion there too and as we all know, and Leigh Griffiths is right, he’s trying to keep himself relevant.
If he keeps blaming everyone but himself he’ll never manage again. In my opinion the more he refuses to take ownership of how he recidivated a side sweeping the boards in winning trophies to losing the league by twenty five points he’ll struggle to find gainful employment.
We can’t blame him for everything that went wrong as the board and players have to shoulder some of the blame, but he was a major part in us losing the league. Forget the fact it was arguably the biggest season in the club’s history but to lose the league and regress to a twenty five point deficit to a very poor the Rangers is unforgivable. I mean the Holy Grail season, how could he have abrogated his role to such a staggering degree?
He’ll probably go to his grave pontificating that it wasn’t his fault, but to use a well worn footballing adage, the league table doesn’t lie. There’s only one liar in the melee of last season and that’s Neil Francis Lennon, he’s lying about his role in our downfall.