Celtic have scored 15 goals in three games, and they’re apparently in crisis – it’s a funny game. But that so-called crisis is only in the Twitter and Instagram world. The club will be calmer than those online. It’s happened before, at the same stage last season, so Celtic will know what happens.
And, let me tell you, there’s nobody better than dealing with this kind of situation than Neil Lennon.
I’ve seen people who look unflappable during television interviews and then go home and crumble and cry themselves to sleep. Neil might not be as good on the telly as some of those but, trust me, on the inside he’s as cool as anyone you’ll meet. He has a way of walking through chaos.
He might get a bit twitchy, or look at someone like they’re daft, during interviews, because he hasn’t had the same level of media training as others have, but he’s perfect for dealing with this kind of crisis, he’s done it all his life.
Of course, he’ll be upset about the result, as so much of his life has been about European football. But all he can do is move on and keep winning, get that ninth title in a row. That’s huge, and Neil knows that. Since they’ve won the eighth one, the pressure around Celtic has been immense to get the ninth.
You say to anyone in the world ‘your team will win the league eight years in a row’ and they’d sit back and wait for the statues to go up and the stadiums to be renamed. Celtic’s a different beast.
CELTIC EXIT NO CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION
Celtic not reaching the group stage of the Champions League affects the whole of Scottish football, not just those at Paradise – there should be no celebrations across the country for fans of other teams.
OK, so Rangers supporters are obviously going to revel in it, and they’re OK, they’ve got enough money, but it negatively affects everybody else in Scotland. For instance, a few years ago when Celtic reached the group stage, Premiership clubs got something like £400,000.
It benefits everyone when they do well.
We need to be asking ‘how can we help?’ – not just Celtic, but the other teams in Europe, Rangers and Aberdeen. Do we need to cancel the league games before European matches to give them more time to prepare? We need to look after our teams.
REINFORCEMENTS NOT NECESSARY
Celtic don’t need to panic buy. They have enough. I really don’t know if they have to do too much.
Do they want to go out and buy someone just to appease the braying hordes – more likely five or six moaners on the internet – or do they just calm down and know that they have enough?
If there’s something super duper out there, of course, they’ll do it, they’ve done that before, but they won’t be pushed into anything drastic.
SPFL Outright: Celtic 4/11, Rangers 2/1