Now, I would usually shy away from saying that anyone should look to ‘Arry Redknapp for inspiration.
His loveable cockney rogue image which is a sort of OTT Michael Caine in the Italian Job, his WII adverts, his availability for anyone with a microphone and love for Peter Crouch mean that the gut instinct is the want to see him floating face down in a Malaga pool tied to Terry Venables.
That view softened the other week – it was downgraded to Level 3 Method Of Death: Overdose of fake bake – when I read that he told Roman Pavlyuchenko to “f*cking run around a bit” when the Russian was preparing to come on as a sub and Rafael van der Vaart stating that “There is a clipboard in our dressing room but Harry doesn’t write anything on it“.
The nerdy Football Manager obsessive w*nk idol, Johnathan Wilson, wrote about Redknapp and Clough the other week. Clough, he says, was scathing of those ‘over complicating’ the game and spoke of tactics dismissively. It’s something I can hold dear.
I blame Strachan and Pendry for me now having a massive clipboard phobia. The sight of them taking ten minutes to bring on a sub as they went through pages and pages of diagrams was one of many frustrating things about them (10 mins to bring on Chris Killen at 1 nil down). Strachan coached the life out the players.
Last week I saw Roy Keane send on a 6 foot plus centre forward who then passed a bit of paper Ipswich right hand sided midfielder. I thought to myself what sort of idiots are you dealing with when they need a note that tells them: “hoof it in the fecking box.”?
Ok, 90% of footballers are slacked jawed imbeciles. Lennon admitted this himself pre-season when he said that you can spend 15 minutes talking to a footballer but they will only remember the last thing you say. He also spoke about asking players not to do things they can’t do. It rings of keeping it simple. That’s something Lennon maybe wants to revisit.
He seems to be forgetting his mantra. Keeping it simple means playing players in their best position, this means that some will be disappointed. That’s why he gets the big money to make those decisions. His subs seem to be trying to hard.
Instead of doing the simple thing, like against Hearts when instead of bringing on a centre midfielder and taking off the useless Samaras – a blind monkey could have seen that sub – he waited then brought off a wide player and right back and replaced them with a wide player and a right back leaving Maloney and Ki as our centre midfield.
Dundee Utd and Inverness saw our midfield get over-run, twice, and a flirtation with a 3-5-2. At no time did he tell an on-coming midfielder “just go and fecking hold onto the ball for a few minutes and stick your foot in“. He changed players up front and out wide to no great effect.
Like Clough and Redknapp, Lennons strength seems in motivation and building team spirit. He needs to stop trying to impress and send out his team to follow simple instructions and himself to follow simple game changing instructions.
No fancy tactical wankery. We’re not intelligent enough for it.
I’ve been trying to preach to people about this stuff with Lennon, a lot of people can’t see it at the moment, To much analysing going into games IMO, with no plan B, It’s not a Clough/Redknapp mentality that’s needed thou, It’s a mentor, someone who is Technicaly experienced, I would bring Davie Hay in to add a bit of experience on the touchline for the remainder of the season, or If not him that Chris Hughton who just been sacked by NUFC, Thompson was his No2 down there, A wee word in his shell Alan,If wee leave Lennon to do it on his own I’ve got concerns,same story as last season, wait on Jan transfer windy and fingers cross it works out, Big gamble,My last 2 articles on my Blog been on this subject,everybody naming players to bring in Jan, I want to start hearing the word assistance for Lennon, A lot of player`s getting the finger of blame at the moment, but the chopping and changing of formations and tactics isn’t allowing them to settle and get a bit of consistency,From Ross county to the Braga,Utrecht,etc etc Nobody (Lennon) is learning from mistakes.
It’s too late to bring in a mentor. That should have been done at the start and to do so now admits to failure and self doubt. I’m also sure he has a few numbers in his mobile that could give him advice.
What an utterly stupid article.
I’d rather have a winning team on the park than slag off almost anyone else.
And, why this continued slating of Strachan? Me, I’d love three in a row again.
Thanks for commenting on this utterly stupid article. Strachan started this rot, but history will be kind to the wee man.
If a player has to be played out of position it should be tried in reserve games. 🙂
I also think that the team should be getting more from the players who are there and not look to the transfer market for salvation. That includes me not buying new things if the wardrobe is already fu`. 🙂
Good blog as ever. (sigh)
Cheers, I agree but have you seen the centre backs in our squad?
What’s more important, Admitting to failure, or losing out for the 3rd year in a row ??, If Celtic don’t win the title this year the Stands will be bare next season, Mowbray tried to hand his resignation in November, so the rumour goes, Its possible if we brought in a replacement then, things might have been different,I suppose it’s easy to say that in hindsight. As a board they keep repeating same mistakes, just like Lennon repeating same mistakes, and When he say’s he got Advice on the end of the dog and bone, What good is that during a game Neil when it’s clearly there you need help with re-jigging formations and changing tactics and leaving the player’s on the bench for the 10-15 minutes when it’s to late,And are these guy’s on the end of the phone watching every minute of every game before they giving advicee ? To many people tip toe-ing around this at the moment, because of who the guy is and the service he gave to the Club, If this was some unheard of Johnny Foreign manager and performances like this we would be lining up at the Guillotine to release the catch, My Hopes for winning the league this season revolve around ‘ Hoping more ‘hun’ player’s hit the treatment room ‘& Sold in January etc. I’ve seen this movie so many times before Celtic…Hail Hail
Il take losing out if we are showing signs of recovery, which we are. Mistakes are and will be made, hence why Lennon has to keep it simple and get back too basics. You can’t make a pedigree from a mongrel which is the job Lennon was left with.
Give him 2 full seasons. No more changes.
Like most folk I want Lennon to be successful. In the goldfish bowl however you’re judged compared to yer rival in the blue corner.
Unfortunately, the waistcoat’s pact with the devil is casting an ominous shadow over our coach this season.
Learning curve has been too steep, too many distractions off the field, too many weak players.
After hoping for activity in numerous past transfer windaes, I don’t hold out much hope for the next one.
An excellent windae combined with an overnight transformation of Lenny’s coaching abilities is what’s needed to get our title back.
Wish I could believe in Santa as well.
Sorry to be so negative, lads, but that the gut feeling. 🙁
Santas no real?
Naw, but Satan is
and he supports the dark side.
Hi Sixtaeseven! I wish I could lift your gloom. That is up to the Bhoys!