The latest rumour, via the Daily Record is that Celtic would prefer to wait until the summer to make changes and that there will be a major overhaul of the football operations after this dreadful season is over. Although, that is not an official position from the club, who are mute on the matter amid growing supporter unrest.
Neil Lennon admitted, in an interview with the BBC, that he fears for his position but insisted that he will not resign. It will be up to the board to act and with season ticket renewals coming up, they must do so quickly.
It is unclear as who leaked the news to the press, as has often been done this season, or if it was a deliberate attempt to read the room before acting. If indeed that was the attention, an example of how the Celtic supporters will be analysing today’s news is as follows:
“Waiting until season’s end to act is effectively writing off the Champions League qualifiers. New manager coming in few weeks beforehand, in the first round and in non-champions route, while having also to handle the sheer scale of player turnover this summer, would take a miracle to qualify,” The Athletic’s Celtic correspondent Kieran Devlin tweeted.
He added: “If Celtic fail to qualify for the CL next season it’ll be the first time in Lawwell’s reign that they would have gone four consecutive years without CL group stage football (and the revenue injection from it)” before concluding…”Makes zero business or sporting sense.”
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It appears most Celtic supporters want change right now, so that a new man can come in, overhaul the playing squad and hit the ground running in Europe next season. Similarities can be drawn with Brendan Rodgers’ departure when he left Celtic to join Leicester City in February.
Rodgers got time to assess things and with a favourable run of winnable games in the remaining Leicester City fixtures, he was able to hit the ground running and see what he had at his disposal in the squad before the new season. Earlier this week Leicester were top of the Premier League. Lee Congerton was praised for his top class recruitment with the two full backs James Justin and Timothy Castagne being regarded as being brilliant buys – both were on the radar when Rodgers and Congerton were at Celtic. Even the Celtic blogger that Rodgers took with him as an analyst was being praised this week by James Maddison!
Getting that little period at the end of a season to have a look under the bonnet seems to have been a decent call for Leicester City.
Celtic could please their fans by recruiting early. Last night the bookies suspended all betting on Eddie Howe becoming next manager of the Glasgow giants. A man who is available, but very much on Newcastle’s radar, Celtic would be best to act swiftly if they do want him.
Further to the club’s inaction, the lack of communication with supporters has not gone down well. According to The Celtic Star, fans want to know what is happening before investing in a new season ticket again.