Scottish Premier League News April 2012: Celtic win SPL
Lisa Dillon
Celtic
Celtic finally confirmed what everyone has been waiting for when the clinched the Scottish Premier League with an emphatic 6-0 win over Kilmarnock.
It was a fitting venue for Neil Lennon to win the title given that it was only back in October when he stood on the Rugby Park touchline and wondered whether or not he had a future as manager of the illustrious club.
On that occasion, Celtic fought back from a 3-0 deficit to rescue a point, a result that was a pivotal point in the campaign. At one stage of the season, Celtic were a whopping 15 points behind Rangers, prompting Ibrox striker Nikica Jelavic, who switched to Everton in January, to claim that the title was over.
Lennon, a former Hoops captain, won five SPL championships and reached a UEFA Cup final in seven years as a player for Celtic. Last term, in his first season as manager, he led the club to the Scottish Cup and missed out on the title by a point.
The Hoops boss has insisted that his first league title as manager was the best moment of his career as it meant he could finally emerge from the shadows of ex-Celtic managers.
"It was the greatest moment of my professional life. It doesn't get much better than this really," Lennon said."It's not easy winning titles and we've done it emphatically. When you are a player you are part of a team. You had players like Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, Stan Petrov, Paul Lambert, Alan Thompson and Johann Mjallby to lean on.
"But when you are a manager it's a lonely job and you have to make the decisions. You get criticised for them, you get praised for them but you have to keep a level head.
"It's only my second season and it's a huge job with huge expectations but I feel vindicated now.
"I felt as if I was on probation but now I feel like the Celtic manager. I was walking behind Martin O'Neill, Gordon Strachan, Wim Jansen, Billy McNeil, Davie Hay and Jock Stein and now I can step out from behind them and walk alongside them."
As Lennon basks in the glory of this season - he can still make it a Double if Celtic can win the Scottish Cup - it is fair to say he has had to endure more strife that any other club manager in Britain - on and off the pitch.
In his first season in the job he appeared to be on a collision course with the SFA, while the ugly elements of Scottish society have raised their head in relation to the Northern Irishman.
Last year, Lennon was forced to move his family to a safe house when he became the target -- or intended target -- of death threats, bullets in the post and mail bombs. He was the subject of actual physical attack by the side of the pitch at Tynecastle. Bizarrely, his assailant was found not proven of the offence, supplemented by sectarian intent, despite offering to plead guilty to plain assault.
This term as Celtic pushed to clinch the title, two men stood trial for plotting to kill the Hoops boss with a packaged nail bomb that was intercepted by Royal Mail. "You could almost laugh when you think of it all like that," he said, when invited to survey the incidents that have followed him. "It obviously takes a bit of strength to get through it, but it takes a bit of support as well - and I've got great support from my family, the players, the club, the board - Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell, in particular.
"Everything has been thrown at me, but I'm now at the pinnacle of my professional career, so I'm not going to go away in a hurry.
"I always felt I was on probation in the job. I think people didn't take me seriously and thought I was a bit of a cheerleader, a rabble-rouser - that type of thing.
"Thankfully, the board saw more in me than that and to do it in as emphatic a style as this is a real source or pleasure and pride to me."
And Lennon believes that his young team can go on and make a name for themselves at the club.
It remains to be seen whether or not Lennon can hang onto the nucleus of his side this summer or if some of them may be tempted to go south to the Premiership. If he keeps them, Lennon believes they have the potential to kick on from their first Championship.
"I think the whole season was encapsulated in that one game against Kilmarnock," said Lennon."They're vibrant, they're young, they're naive at times and you have to understand that with young players, but what an achievement.
"I look back to what I was doing when I was the same age as [Adam] Matthews and [James] Forrest.
"I was at Crewe in front of maybe 300 or 400 people, under no pressure.
"These guys are doing it in front of 60,000 every other week, with huge expectations - not only have they got the talent but they have great temperaments as well."
Rangers
Controversial Rangers owner Craig Whyte is understood to be in negotiations to sell his shareholding in Rangers, having admitted that he has spoken to two of the three parties bidding to buy the club.
Duff & Phelps, the Rangers administrators, are currently weighing up the offers received at the March deadline and their next move will be to select a preferred bidder.
The Blue Knights consortium, which is favoured by many Rangers supporters and is backed by three of the club's supporter groups, has been in recent contact with Whyte, although there is a belief that the Rangers owner would not entertain selling his shares to Paul Murray.
Murray and Whyte have traded insults in public since the latter's bid to buy the club was preferred over Murray's offer by the then owner Sir David Murray last year.
However, Whyte has been in talks with representatives from the Blue Knights consortium, which is also allied to Ticketus, the financial firm that funded the businessman's ill-fated takeover. "I've said I won't stand in the way of a takeover and that remains my position," Whyte was quoted as saying. "I am assuming that a preferred bidder can be announced subject to a deal being done with me."
"Best and final" offers were received at the beginning of April by Duff & Phelps, who took over the running of the club after Whyte put Rangers into administration on 14 February. Joining the Blue Knights in the race to purchase the Ibrox club are American tow truck tycoon Bill Miller and a Singapore-based consortium, fronted by Bill Ng, who is the chairman of Hougang United in his homeland.
Ng believes he can offer the club's creditors as much as 20 pence in the pound and secure a crucial Company Voluntary Agreement. He has already begun courting the fans by claiming to have fallen in love with the club when, as a 12-year-old, he watched the Ibrox side lift the Cup Winners' Cup in 1972 on television in Singapore.
The administrators remain confident that a CVA can be put in place, despite recent figures suggesting that the Ibrox club's debts could reach a shocking £134m.
On the pitch, there is a realistic fear that there will be a mass exodus this summer.
The top Ibrox players agreed to a 75% wage cut in order to avoid any redundancies at the club, but given the perilous financial situation it is believed that the bulk of those who agreed to the slash in wages have also agreed buy-outs clauses to their contracts.
That would enable them to move on for a bargain fee this summer and already there are many clubs snooping.
West Bromwich Albion have already made two bids for Steven Naismith.
The Premiership side failed in an offer for the Rangers player towards the end of March, with administrators Duff and Phelps rejecting their undisclosed offer.
The forward is currently recovering from a serious knee injury, with manager Ally McCoist stating his hope the player could make a fleeting return before the end of the season.
"Stevie is doing really well and he was going for a scan today just to check up on his knee and make sure everything is ok," McCoist said.
"For his own peace of mind, if nothing else, it would be good if he could get 45 minutes somewhere and then he could go away and have a holiday knowing he is absolutely fine."
However, McCoist has admitted that he concerned there will be a mass walk-out from his star players.
"If we were in the same situation come the close season I don't think that would be ideal," he said. "I've said all along we are in a really precarious situation, obviously with administration, but with the players as well.
"We need it sorted out sooner rather than later but the timing of the thing isn't as important as the end result. The players have families to look after. They've been great.
"They are really aware of the situation but as their manager I fully appreciate that they have responsibilities as well which will be of paramount importance to them and rightly so.
"If there is interest then we just have to deal with it because there's nothing much you can do about it. If the players are playing well they'll always create interest.
"All I can say is I want them to stay," added McCoist. "I'm not in a position to say they can stay or I'll be in a position to offer them a contract.
"Whatever happens or whoever takes over the club might not want them to be offered a contract. All I can say is I'd like them to stay. The boys out of contract have certainly answered the call when we've been struggling."
Scotland
Scotland boss Craig Levein has revealed his support for Ibrox boss Ally McCoist, who is managing Rangers in an unprecedented financial situation.
Speaking at the launch of voting for PFA Scotland's manager of the year, Levein said: "I've enormous sympathy for him and his backroom staff.
"Any job he does after this one will seem simple in comparison. Managing Rangers is an extremely difficult job.
"The demands and the pressures on the manager are enormous.
"It's an extremely difficult situation for any manager, never mind someone who is in his first job and a job the size of Rangers.
"For Alistair to take over after Walter Smith and the job he did it was always going to be difficult.
"Luckily enough, I've not been in a position like that as a player or a manager.
"My heart goes out to everybody at Rangers for what they are suffering just now.
"It's an extremely difficult situation for any manager, never mind someone who is in his first job and a job the size of Rangers."
As PFA Scotland launched its vote for Scotland's top manager - with those in charge of the country's 42 senior clubs plus the national team manager allowed a say - Levein admitted it may be hard to look beyond Neil Lennon for his success at Celtic.
But he also confirmed he was impressed by Stuart McCall at Motherwell, Peter Houston's efforts at Dundee United, Derek Adams at Ross County, and Steven Pressley's reign at Falkirk.
Asked what he thought should be the credentials for choosing the winner, he said: "Punching above your weight, for me, is the main thing.
"If you can take a club that are expected to be at a certain level and you manage to do better, then I think you have proved your worth as a manager.
"That would be the main criteria."
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