Neil Lennon....

Noone will ever represent the club like Tommy Burns. He had his faults managerially but I have never liked any Celt as much as him.

 

If you need a mentor then you should be nowhere near the managerial game, never mind Celtic football club.

 

Ok i can see how that could be taking the wrong way...
What i meant is the type of fan who when you ask what Lennon has done they reply with "bringing back the thunder" "in Lenny we trust" or some other bullshit quote that means nothing in the cold light of day!

And personally i think the Green Brigade have brought the atmosphere back to Paradise not Neil Lennon... & its ok having atmosphere but our Club needs Trophies..European Victories & not having the indignity of having our biggest rivals walk all over us like yesterdays utter utter disgrace!!

 

I agree that McStay was a top player and a true legend but so was Lenny as a player and he had plenty to do with us reaching Seville...

 

Can you imagine TB in charge of the squad we have now there yesterday.. it may have ended up 4-4 or something but we would have showed passion commitment & most importantly we would have played the Glasgow Celtic way!!

 

There is NO WAY lennon will get a mentor now - It`s going to look as a sign of failure and that the board dont trust him anymore. They will have to sack him 1st if we drop anymore points between now and christmas.cos right now between us & them we look the more likely to drop points.

 

That is going too far. It would take a lot of really bad SPL games to even start thinking of that. Even if Lennon does walk, he'll probably have a better record than Mowbray.

 

Playing the Glasgow Celtic way isn't really the most important thing though is it ?

After 3 seasons without winning a league title, winning games is all that matter. By hook or by crook....

 

This is true but tell me what youd rather do.. go to Ipox play our best team & go for their throats.

or go there & * it like we did with that team formation & selection and still get beat anyway??

 

I'd have played Stokes and Hooper and went for the *' throats.

The refusal to play Stokes in the big games, instead going with a guy who scores once in a blue moon, is something which * me off big time with Lennon.

 

I don't think McStay lacked any winning mentality. The circumstances at Celtic during his tenure as captain dictated that it would be a largely unsuccessful stint. Combined with what the Huns were doing and what they were spending at the same time. Lennon would have suffered the same fate.

In contrast Lennon was captain of Celtic when we were an awful lot better than the Huns financially and it was them who were in disarray not only financially but on the field too. Even Hearts finished above them in one of the seasons that Lenny added to his trophy haul as captain.

McStay is a few tiers above Lennon in the pantheon of Celtic greats and always will be. One of the best Celtic midfielder's of all-time. Outrageously talented combined with unbelievable loyalty throughout what is undoubtedly the darkest days in the club's history. So dark were they that I find it a joke to even try and compare he and Lennon's trophy hauls as captains and then put it down to Lennon's apparently superior winning mentality.

 

I would take winning ugly or scraping 1-0 away wins like they do constantly. its not pretty to watch but i think the "Celtic way" is a thing of yesteryear we havent the players to play that way. teams are not scared of coming to parkhead now so that shows you the celtic way died a long time ago.

 

I agree entirely with you on the Maestro but the bit in bold isn't necessarily true at all.

 

We haven't got the players to play that kind of football because they aren't trained in such a way. Look at Barcelona, the U13's train the exact same way that the first team do. When Xavi or Puyol or whoever retires, a youngster will be ready to step in and they'll look like they've been playing in the system for years.

I doubt that the youths at Celtic train the same way that the first team do and I'd wager that neither level train to play beautiful football. Probably focused mostly on fitness.

Beautiful football is possible if we're dedicated to it and coach it into the Celtic players of the future. It'd take time but highly worth it.

 

If Mcstay played in a team containing the likes of Henrik Larsson ,Sutton Hartson Thomson et al you can bet he would have won as much if not more Medals than Lennon..

McStay was a diamond in a team of * (90s anyway) Lennon done a thankless job in a team of winners & Superstars!


Cant really compare like for like.

 

I think giving up on technical football is the problem. One or 2 games kicked off the pitch trying to play football and it's "it doesn't work in the SPL". I think it's very important to stay to a good footballing style, considering we are so, so much better than 10 of the SPL teams- they can beat us occassionally, but we are miles better than all SPL teams, bar the huns (who I believe we are better than marginally). Mowbray played the worst brand of football I've seen at Celtic, horrible stuff. No fluidity or technique that he promised- it was all just * football. Last season, from January to the end of the season, 90% of the time we played really good passing football, and we amassed much more point in the second half of the season than we did the first. Staying dedicated to a good style of football is what we need to do, instead of panicking and changing to * styles because we don't win every single game.

 

There will also be numerous people on here who think McStay is rightly in the greatest ever 11. That's football.

He hardly stood out due to the dross around him. He played with some fantastic players in the 80's. McGrain, Burns, Nicholas and McClair to name a few and he still stood out.

A fantastic footballer who was loyal to the club through the dark days. One club man who gave about 15 years of top quality service, lovely guy who epitomized Celtic and he was a massive Celtic fan. Legend material in my eyes.

The retirement of McStay had nothing to do with us winning the league. Hun arrogance and the greatest Celtic striker of all time had everything to do with us stopping the 10.

Lennon won more but with a vastly superior side. Like I said earlier, Lennon never played a major contributing role in the majority of his titles as a Celtic player.

[YOUTUBE]7Vry20TZAnE[/YOUTUBE]

The tackle at 49 seconds is class and then the clip after it as well. Fantastic player.

Then the pass at 2:53 is one of the best I've ever seen. If someone like Xavi or Fabregas did it in today's game everyone would be raving about it.

 

What does it matter what they done as captains? The circumstances were so different that you wouldn't believe it was the same club that both captained.

Over the piece McStay was the better footballer. That much cannot be disputed even from the most ardent Lenny supporter.