Neil lennon has addressed Celtic supporters’ feelings towards the club(Image: Matthew Ashton – AMA, Getty Images)
Neil Lennon has admitted he completely understands why Celtic supporters are furious with the club’s recruitment both in the summer and January windows. The Hoops crashed out of the Europa League against Stuttgart on Thursday night, with a respectable 1-0 victory in Germany not enough to overturn their hefty 4-1 first-leg deficit.
Celtic now face two Old Firm clashes against Rangers at Ibrox in the space of a week, between a trip to Aberdeen. The club will be aware that anything short of two wins over their fierce rivals will lead to increased fan scrutiny over why more was not spent on strengthening the squad this season.
Speaking on Premier Sports in Ireland during coverage of the Stuttgart clash, Lennon appeared to align himself with disgruntled supporters, pointing to Brendan Rodgers ‘ departure as evidence of an issue within the club. However, the 54-year-old stopped short of calling for a Bodo/Glimt-style fairytale, insisting fans should not expect Celtic to consistently perform well in European competition.
“Something was not right in the summer in terms of the recruitment. I don’t know what it was,” Lennon said. “There were some grievances with Brendan, who was definitely disconnected and you could see the reasons why at the end. There’s no director of football at the minute, that needs to be addressed.
MAKE THE MIRROR YOUR FIRST CHOICE! Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings
“Overall, the recruitment has been disappointing. You’re not going to get it right every year, but I do add value to some of the fans’ questions as to why they didn’t spend more money or bring more quality in.
“Certainly with Carter-Vickers being out, he’s been a big loss. They knew he was out long-term but didn’t bring a mature centre-half in to complement Scales. They might have tried to do that, January is always a tough window.
“There are valid questions to be asked of the board. But over the piece, over the past 15 years, the board’s record has been impeccable.”
However, Lennon disagrees that splashing the cash on new signings could transform Celtic into European giant-slayers in the mould of Norwegian outfit Bodo, who have defeated Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan to reach the last 16 in the Champions League.
“Celtic were on that run last year,” Lennon continued. “So you’re not going to get it every year.
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Latest news, analysis and much more on Mirror Football’s Facebook page
“Bodo/Glimt is maybe an exception to the rule this year. They have their own way of doing things. The salary cap, you can’t do that at Celtic. They’ve just got Norwegian and Danish players. (If Celtic wanted to do that), they’d just have to reset and just sign Scottish and Irish players.
“And then they’d have to have a four or five year plan. Are the fans going to be willing to sacrifice domestic dominance to build a team for Europe in four or five years time?
“That’s the question. These questions were asked about Midtjylland as well. Everyone’s going on about the structure of Celtic… since 2000, they’ve had three last 16s and a Europa League Final. When we got to the last 16 in 2012, the following summer we sold Wanyama, Hooper and Kelvin Wilson. Because it’s not sustainable.
“The other thing is, clubs who are successful get assets stripped. For Bodo/Glimt, can they keep Knutsen? Will there be clubs coming in for their players? And can they then replace that? That’s what Celtic try and have to do year in year out.”
However, when asked why Celtic aren’t investing more money on new players, Lennon admitted: “I don’t know the answer to that, to be honest with you.
“It’s difficult to attract £10m, £12m, £15m players to Scotland unless you’re guaranteed Champions League. That’s in my own experience. If they’d have qualified against Kairat, I imagine they’d have spent a sizeable amount of money on the squad.”
