Turbulence On The Path To Success?
Given the tumultuous season suffered by Celtic so far this season, it’s surely more than a touch ironic that they have managed to place themselves with 5 league matches remaining, with the destination of the title placed almost solely in their own hands. With little else this season seemingly within Celtic’s control, great testament must go to the team that they have kept the most important thing for the football club, taking the league title from Rangers, contained in their own command.
Considering the complex nature of not only the reported attacks and hate campaign at Celtic and Neil Lennon, but the league title race itself, it seems all the more impressive that this Celtic side seem to be coping so well with such an inexperienced, and newly formed management team. With an assistant manager position the most senior held between Lennon, Mjallby, and Thompson combined, its beggar’s belief that a seasoned pro could have done much more so far this season.
Hand in hand with that is that this is really the first year that the bulk of this squad have had together. With some of the team performances they have put in, particularly the several against Rangers in 2011, that again seems difficult to believe. In the Cup Semi-Final against Aberdeen, only Scott Brown had played in the ill fated Cup Semi-Final of last season. With the fragmented and failed squad that last season’s manager had thrown together, it took courage to go quite as back to the drawing board as he felt necessary.
Then to make things further difficult for the Irish rookie, his key players, Hooper, Kayal, Brown and even Majstorovic have had lengthy spells on the sidelines and the teams performances, momentum, and squad spirit, has managed to cope. Albeit, their return certainly gave the team the gel to bring the parts that seemed to be performing well together and fuel the purposeful style that has left Celtic with a great chance to take the title.
Obviously there have been external issues, certainly of a less positive nature that have made this season a difficult one to tackle. Even though forced by media led criticism into the middle of the storm, Lennon has in the most part (and undoubtedly more so than most other more experienced managers would have), remained focussed on football, throughout the referee and SFA debacle that seemed to plague the first half of the season.
Letting other people do most of the talking, allowing them to convince many onlookers of his constant connection, even when he remained uninvolved, its easy to forget that Lennon was the person most wronged in Dougie McDonald’s self importance circus, leading to the most embarrassing removal of labour after justified criticism from some quarters to poor and shadowy refereeing and administration of our game.
I suppose a manager having death threats, bullets, potentially fatal bombs sent to him, and actual physical assaults (added to the verbal assaults he ubiquitously suffers at every game) speak for themselves when it comes to the difficulty of what is meant to be a football season. However, it’s astonishing that this Celtic side is still giving us something to talk about in a football sense as we approach the business end of the season. Celtic do not deserve to win the league because of the injustice, difficulty, and barriers that they have overcome, but they have a handful of matches to confirm that they deserve it because some of the terrific footballers, football, and performances they have already showed this season.
Considering the complex nature of not only the reported attacks and hate campaign at Celtic and Neil Lennon, but the league title race itself, it seems all the more impressive that this Celtic side seem to be coping so well with such an inexperienced, and newly formed management team. With an assistant manager position the most senior held between Lennon, Mjallby, and Thompson combined, its beggar’s belief that a seasoned pro could have done much more so far this season.
Hand in hand with that is that this is really the first year that the bulk of this squad have had together. With some of the team performances they have put in, particularly the several against Rangers in 2011, that again seems difficult to believe. In the Cup Semi-Final against Aberdeen, only Scott Brown had played in the ill fated Cup Semi-Final of last season. With the fragmented and failed squad that last season’s manager had thrown together, it took courage to go quite as back to the drawing board as he felt necessary.
Then to make things further difficult for the Irish rookie, his key players, Hooper, Kayal, Brown and even Majstorovic have had lengthy spells on the sidelines and the teams performances, momentum, and squad spirit, has managed to cope. Albeit, their return certainly gave the team the gel to bring the parts that seemed to be performing well together and fuel the purposeful style that has left Celtic with a great chance to take the title.
Obviously there have been external issues, certainly of a less positive nature that have made this season a difficult one to tackle. Even though forced by media led criticism into the middle of the storm, Lennon has in the most part (and undoubtedly more so than most other more experienced managers would have), remained focussed on football, throughout the referee and SFA debacle that seemed to plague the first half of the season.
Letting other people do most of the talking, allowing them to convince many onlookers of his constant connection, even when he remained uninvolved, its easy to forget that Lennon was the person most wronged in Dougie McDonald’s self importance circus, leading to the most embarrassing removal of labour after justified criticism from some quarters to poor and shadowy refereeing and administration of our game.
I suppose a manager having death threats, bullets, potentially fatal bombs sent to him, and actual physical assaults (added to the verbal assaults he ubiquitously suffers at every game) speak for themselves when it comes to the difficulty of what is meant to be a football season. However, it’s astonishing that this Celtic side is still giving us something to talk about in a football sense as we approach the business end of the season. Celtic do not deserve to win the league because of the injustice, difficulty, and barriers that they have overcome, but they have a handful of matches to confirm that they deserve it because some of the terrific footballers, football, and performances they have already showed this season.
posted by Michael__67 at 2:17 PM
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