NEIL LENNON clearly has an image problem; I have only occasionally been in the same room as the Celtic manager, at post-match press conferences, so I canot say I know him or have much experience of him. However, those few members of the Scottish Football Writers Association's A-team: the guys on Old Firm patrol, who still speak to me, tell me, away from the pressures of work, say in one of the West End bistros he sometimes visits, he is stimulating and funny - great craic as they say in his home island.
If we take the Brian Clough dictum that there is one inevitable outcome to any managerial career - the sack, then Lenny should enjoy his present time at Celtic Park. Of course he got some flak after last Saturday's loss to Inverness CT, that goes with the territory. There is a sizeable sect or sects within the Celtic Family which is incapable of accepting that their team can lose to another Scottish side, other than a Rangers team vying with the Hoops for the title.
The Celtic Family (ok, some of them) will (reluctantly) accept losing to Rangers - in the moments after it is shown that the penalty Celtic didn't get wasn't a "stonewaller", while though it was a soft one, there was a case for giving Rangers their match-winning one. But, losing to Inverness, or St Johnstone or say St Mirren - no, they couldn't possibly have lost because every man jack of the opposition played above themselves, or because Celtic enjoyed absolutely no luck.
Never, Celtic lost, because the players let the jerseys down, or the manager got his tactics, his substitutions, his motivation wrong. If you beat Celtic (or Rangers for that matter) it wasn't down to you, it was because the CEltic (or Rangers) players let the side and the fans down - and they must be punished for this, even if that punishment amounts to no more than a stream of invective.
I ask the Celtic Family - how much of this would you be prepared to endure? If, at your work, you go in every day and do your best, week-in, week-out, you go home at night, having worked well, or maybe spent the day skiving on the internet, but, your work-mates don't line-up at the door to shout abuse at you. How would you feel, if, like Neil Lennon, you had to endure such treatment?
The pressures on Lennon particularly are immense - he HAS to keep Celtic winning; his team may be the best in Scotland, but, in European terms, they are a mid-table side. They may be the richest club in Scotland today - in Europe, they are paupers.
He is doing a great job at Celtic, he's a young manager, with ambition. He has played in England, he must surely, deep-down, wonder: "I cut it as a player in the top-flight in England, could I also cut-it as a manager"?
The riches available down there are eye-watering in comparison to what even he can get up here. There will come a day when Lennon will jump - it is not too-outlandish to suggest, he's the right age and with the right "apprenticeship" to be a credible potenital successor to the Govan Grump at Old Trafford.
Those dissenting Celtic fans might do well to ca canny in their criticism; don't push, enjoy him while you've got him.
I LIKE Owen Coyle. He was always good value when learning the managerial trade in the First Division in Scotland. His sacking by Bolton was typical of the short-termism in the English game today and he is keeping his profile up nicely by his media work just now.
Given what he did at Airdrie, St Johnstone, Burnley and Bolton - getting not quite top-drawer players to produce the goods - he has the skill sets for the Scotland job. But, so too has Billy Stark, just as Craig Levein and George Burley had these same skill sets.
What I am saying, almost anyone could be Scotland boss - without getting us winning more than our average 40% of games, and without getting us to the European Championships or World Cup Finals.
The Scotland job is a poisoned chalice and will continue to be thus until we get the entire Scottish Football model changed for the better.
Can you see this happening under the present shower of Hampden blazers?
No, neither can I.
Neil Lennon or no Neil Lennon, what we must grasp is that being Celtic is all about the club, not one individual person. I too have met with the fiery wan. He was okay, but I never trust a man who cannae look you in the eye when you talk directly to them.
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