Pundit Kevin Graham has recently criticised Celtic’s board and the club’s decision-making when it comes to appointing managers.
Graham was a guest on the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Parkhead-based club. One topic of discussion was the club’s decision-making and Graham believes that the club failed to build from the platform that Brendan Rodgers provided to the Hoops.
Rodgers left Celtic in February 2019 to join Leicester City and he was replaced by Neil Lennon, who had initially joined the club on an interim basis. The Bhoys won the title in the 2018/19 season and Lennon was appointed as the club’s manager on a permanent basis.
Were Celtic wrong to appoint Neil Lennon in the first place?
Yes
No
Graham said that he has sympathy for Lennon and he shouldn’t have been appointed as the manager in the first place.
He said: “Me and you sitting here, we both love Ronny Deila, but as Anthony Haggerty says last week, Ronny Deila won the lottery. So we’re expecting the same people who made the decision to appoint Ronny Deila to appoint the next manager, to get it right. For however we say about Brendan Rodgers, the people in charge at the moment failed to keep an elite manager and have failed to build on what an elite manager put in place.
“I’ve got massive sympathy for Neil Lennon now, because I don’t reckon he should have ever been in this position.”
TIF Thoughts on Graham’s comments on Lennon…
Lennon did help Celtic win the Premiership title last season and the Hoops also won the League Cup title by beating Rangers in the final. The Bhoys beat Lazio twice in the group stages of the Europa League last season and managed to finish at the top of their group in the competition for the first time (as per Transfermarkt).
This suggests that the decision to appoint Lennon as the manager after Rodgers has already reaped some rewards and in some ways, he has proved himself at the club. They are looking to win their tenth Premiership title in a row this season but are six points behind the Gers. Having said that, there is still time to get things back on track for Lennon and if he does that, he might just prove that the club’s decision-makers were right to appoint him after Rodgers departed.