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SPL Sept 2010
Scottish Premier League News September 2010: Neil Lennon under pressure at Celtic Park
Ali Hannah
Celtic
It has barely begun, but Neil Lennon is already under pressure at Celtic Park.
Having been appointed permanent boss of the club in June after a two-month stint temporary stint at the end of a woeful campaign last year, Lennon has taken no time at all to take a broom and sweep the old regime clean.
Problem is, the same issues continue to plague the club.
Of the two ties Celtic desperately needed to win this summer - a Champions League qualifier against Braga followed by a Europa League qualifier against Utrecht - they were found sorely wanting. Braga was understandable in the sense that the game came just too quickly for a Celtic side who spent the guts of the summer touring their way round the world in order to raise the profile and brand of the club, but following a 2-0 first-leg win over Utrecht, Celtic ought to have been in the hat for the Europa League.
Instead they were humbled 4-0 in Holland following an appallingly limp performance and Lennon now has to pick up the pieces.
"We've had a meeting," he revealed the morning after the game. "The usual one or two speak up and voice their opinion, while others don't. Everyone is different. I don't mind a bit of conflict in the dressing room. It's good as long as it doesn't spill over into physical stuff. I don't mind them getting upset with each other."
Lennon has been on the receiving end of more than his fair share of dismal performances on European trips. Porto (0-3), Basle (0-2), Shakhtar Donetsk (0-3) and Artmedia Bratislava (0-5) were the most painful. All of those were endured when he was a player. The wounds inflicted by Braga and Utrecht cut much deeper now that he is the man being held responsible for them.
"Listen, I can't defend the indefensible at times and I'm not going to this time. It's as sore a one as I've ever felt. I'm fed up coming back from Europe with my backside being smacked and it has happened again. There is not a lot I can do about it until next season - if I am still here - and now we just have to go at it on every front domestically and build a team that hopefully can compete on a domestic level and be better for next year.
"It is harder to take as the manager. At the end of the day the manager picks the team and sets the team out. I picked the personnel. There wasn't much difference between the team that played against Utrecht in the first leg and the one that played in the second leg, in fact there was only one change from a team that played very well.
"It is a mentality thing. We've looked at it and we've tried to change it for away games, but it just manifested itself again in all departments in Utrecht. I wouldn't say it is a curse or a hoodoo away from home. I mean, we've got a new management team in place and new players. But it is the same results and the same level of performance."
Five of the team which offered up that pitiful effort in Holland were Lennon signings, including three of the back four which fell apart. He had to walk a fine line as he filleted them. When he did so after the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Ross County last season he had some freedom, given that they were not his team. The potential to clear out and replace them was still ahead of him.
Now, after 10 signings so far, he has made his bed. Marc-Antoine Fortune was sold immediately after the defeat to Utrecht but virtually all the others from that outing will be given the responsibility of winning the Clydesdale Bank Premier League for the first time since 2008.
"It seems to be tough to switch to playing that level of European opponent after SPL teams," said Lennon. "We didn't look like a team in Utrecht. We looked like a team of individuals. When I signed them I thought they had a good mentality and I still think they do. It's probably too early to judge them as a unit."
Another new face will come into the side if Lennon decides that Emilio Izaguirre is fit enough to make his debut at left-back, allowing Joe Ledley to revert to midfield. Izaguirre was at the first-leg defeat of Utrecht in Glasgow and took pleasure in watching his happy new club-mates. Having returned to Honduras to tie-up the loose ends of his £600,000 move from Motagua, it was a different, shell shocked Lennoxtown he witnessed yesterday. "Everybody was upset and distressed. I was very surprised because I thought we were going to win." Izaguirre himself had been "really upset" by the result.
The 24-year-old internationalist said fellow Hondurans Wilson Palacios, Maynor Figueroa and recent Rangers trialist Georgie Welcome had told him Scottish football was very fast and that as a Celtic player he would be expected to win titles. "I am really motivated to play in a game against Rangers because I have heard it is one of the best games in the world, a classic. Every player would be delighted to play in that game and I'm no different. I want to win."
He spoke via an interpreter but claimed to be able to comprehend most of what was said in English. It may be a blessing if the tone of that players' meeting with Lennon was lost in translation.
Rangers
While Celtic are facing up to a season without European football, Rangers are licking their lips at not just a substantial financial bounty but at the chance of a crack at Manchester United, Valencia and Bursapor.
However, much of the scrutiny following the draw has been on the prospect of the Rangers support returning to Manchester after the trouble that flared after the UEFA Cup Final two years ago.
The blame and counter-blame game for that episode has never died down. Martin Bain, the Rangers' chief executive, may look back with a red face at his comments, made on live television the morning after the final, which essentially absolved his club's fans of causing serious disorder.
Some of those supporters blamed the failure of a giant television screen for the trouble, as ridiculous an argument in 2008 as it is now. What is a more legitimate point is that Manchester could not cope with the vast ranks of Rangers supporters who descended on the city, up to 150,000, many of whom were drunk. Whether Manchester should have been in a position to cope is another argument entirely.
There will be no repeat on 14 September when Manchester United host Rangers in the Champions League. Rangers have played at Old Trafford before in the same competition without a hint of disorder, with the numbers likely to travel in comparison with the Uefa Cup final key.
Those who do head for Lancashire are unlikely to find the locals - or constabulary - in the most friendly of moods. And those travelling fans must be aware of Uefa's interest in their behaviour, stemming from misdemeanours since 2006, if they need any extra motivation to behave.
Glasgow itself will be on guard; when United last played at Ibrox, again in the Champions League, trouble between rival sets of hooligans flared not far from the stadium. United, as successful a global brand as they are, still retain a wild element among their travelling support.
England v Scotland matches, even at club level, retain a frisson. The unfortunate aspect of recent times is that Scottish clubs' standards have dropped to such a level that games can lack a competitive edge.
Celtic's last visit to Old Trafford, in October 2008, was such a stroll for the hosts it verged on the embarrassing, even if United found it tougher when drawing 1-1 in Glasgow.
Sir Alex Ferguson will relish a final battle with his close friend, Walter Smith. Ferguson, despite playing for Rangers and growing up a stone's throw from their home ground, never tired of inflicting trouble when in charge of Aberdeen three decades ago. United are virtually certain to progress from a group which also includes Valencia and Bursaspor, but the games with Rangers at least offer first-phase intrigue which would not otherwise exist.
Rangers' hopes rest on Valencia's financial woes affecting them more strongly than many suspect. Yet the turmoil of last season's Champions League campaign, in which Unirea Urziceni, Stuttgart and Sevilla confined Rangers to the bottom of their group, renders any form of confidence within Ibrox dangerous. They can only hope that the one thing they can bank on is a peaceful return to Manchester.
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