Lennon's backroom team and player recruitment...

So, watching us, you didn’t think we lacked fitness wise despite apparently being very unprofessional and not caring about it?

The discussion is about fitness levels in general, Ronny’s teams weren’t fit. Lennon’s were.

 

I think Delia restricted the guys carbohydrate intake, which for endurance is the absolutely wrong thing to do. These players will be burning upwards of 3000 calories on training days. You can train your body to use fat as an energy source but it requires putting your body into a keto state. Again, for weight loss and even physique, that can have terrific results but for endurance it's completely wrong. There does need to be a limit on the Carbohydrate intake but you can't restrict them. Especially when they guys are requiring as much energy as possible.

 

No the discussion was about Ronny Deila saying the players were eating cornflakes for breakfast. Which you said you don't believe.

Were we as fit as we could have been under Lennon? who the * knows. Either way I expect every effort to be made to extract every ounce from professional athletes who are being paid a fortune to give us results.

Rodgers implemented a modern sports science infrastructure and I want to see it carried forward. Quotes about Lennon's first tenure give me cause for concern.

 

I don’t believe Lennon’s team was unfit, which I don’t believe is possible without eating decently. Pretty much sums it up for me.

I agree with the rest.

 

Hes learned as hes went. He was a brand new manager at the time. Hes seen different setups, Rodgers setup and will implement his own ideas now. Itll be fine.

 

Your energy levels on a keto diet would only be low if you weren't eating enough fat. But yeah it wouldn't be a good diet for high intensity sport.. you need to be burning carbs.

 

I think even Lustig when he came here, said he couldn't believe what people were eating.

 

Dont footballers live at nandos anyway? Any time I see one it's in nandos

 

Also I didnt know this until I watched the si ferry interview with rab Douglas tht Henrik.smoked 20 a day that's mind boggling considering the ground he covered

 

Lennon’s team might have “looked fit” because we did not play a high-tempo, high-pressing game like we did under Ronny and Rodgers.

There is absolutely no chance in * that Stokes, Hooper, Commons, Samaras, Mulgrew etc. were fit enough to play a high pressing game.

 

An absolute one in a million athlete that guy.

I think Socrates smoked liked * as well. Game was a lot slower back then though.

 

Commons would have been blowing out his hoop at half time if we played a high pressing game.

 

Those players maybe wouldn't have done so well with a higher intensity pressing game, you're right. That might be a part of the reason why Lennon didn't ask them to do it.

 

So they were not naturally fit enough but here’s some Coke and Chips for your lunch anyway.

This is precisely the type of issue which many of us are concerned about. If there is a cultural regression like this off the pitch this could lead to further regression on the pitch, especially if we are going to stop playing high press and reverting to long balls and crosses again.

 

Yeah I was under that impression as well, loads of players got * of fact with Ronny changing it up.

 

How would he know?

To be fair to Ronny, I don't remember him saying such a ridiculous thing. He was a little out of order with the things he did insinuate; but I forgave him for that as he was just desperate for a little understanding for what he was trying to do here.

If he did say that, he was well out of order.

 

Genuine question, you usually know more about what's said than me; but what exactly did Ronny say about Kennedy and our defensive problems, mate? I only remember him saying Kennedy was in charge of set pieces (and adding that this was because he was better at them than he, Ronny, was).

 

Pretty much that, went out to answer the criticism about them and decided to point in the direction of the young coach under his charge rather than taking the blame on himself.

 

Was it Coke & chips for every player every day? Was there no other choice on the menu? I know what you're saying and I do agree, but at the same time players have to take a bit of responsibility for themselves as well. It's not like Lennon will have been force-feeding people the wrong food, you know? They'll maybe have been given a choice (which they probably shouldn't have) and perhaps too many made the wrong choices. But as people have pointed out it didn't seem to have too much of a detrimental affect on his teams, although it certainly won't have helped.

Diet & nutrition won't have been such a big thing in Lennon's playing career, certainly not in Britain at least. If he was a bit lax on it during his first spell in charge, at least he's had some time away at Hibs and Bolton where he's maybe come to realise the importance of proper diet & nutrition. Even if that wasn't the case, he'll have seen what Rodgers put in place since he's been back at Celtic and will appreciate it's merits. He's not stupid, and my guess would be that he will keep it in place.

I'm sure we'll be fine.

 

If you mean that one I said, that's more cowardly than nasty. He just seemed to panic at times. Still out of order, I agree. His insinuations about Lenny's diet regime were similar in hindsight.

Look, I like Ronny and think he's a very good coach and, while obviously not a great manager, not nearly as bad a manager as most seem to think; but I think it's pretty clear that in some ways he was a bit of a coward. Definitely too much of a coward to be the Celtic manager. More suited to a smaller club with less pressure and scrutiny for sure.

I say that with a great deal of affection and a decent amount of respect for the man.

Regarding Lenny, I tend to agree with you: I definitely don't think he was bad the first time as a rookie manager and he'll definitely maintain Rodgers' even higher standards this time. Total confidence in him.