Paul John Dykes has been speaking on a recent edition of the A Celtic State of Mind podcast about all things relating to the Bhoys.
One of the topics that he spent a bit of time on was the club’s culture after their Old Firm rivals ended the Bhoys’ dominance in Scotland by winning the Premiership title.
This led to a huge discussion on Celtic and what went wrong this season, and Dykes issued a claim on the club’s culture, looking back at comments made by Neil Lennon in November.
He said: “One big thing that really astonished me was the comment made by Neil Lennon talking about culture.
“Now, you don’t change a culture like a flick of a switch, and it’s pretty clear that changing the management team is just the start of the recovery of Celtic, because there’s a deeply embedded culture in that side, and it’s not the culture that we would expect from a Celtic team.”
Do you think the culture at Celtic needs to be changed?
Yes, something needs to be done
No, it will be fine now Lennon has gone
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ claim…
Lennon claimed earlier in the season that he had to change the culture at Celtic, but as Dykes rightly points out, that was never going to be easy, and ultimately it proved to be too much for the Northern Irishman as he resigned some three months later.
There were players in that dressing room who were said to be keen to move on last summer, and there were also other problems reported in the camp – so you can see why Dykes has recalled it as a pivotal moment in what will be considered a particularly miserable campaign.
So, it has been an unhappy dressing room, and the culture change that Dykes talks about could see a lot of them leave.
However, changes are also happening at the top of the club, with Peter Lawwell leaving at the end of the season, so perhaps the culture at Celtic could change, and you could argue it has to if the Bhoys are going to rebuild successfully.