Whats your thoughts on Lennon this season

Me, an untrained chimp could be a success at Celtic !!!

The truth is that all football fans think they know more than they actually do, and Lennon just can't win (no pun intended) with some of the decisions he makes.

The latest argument going round is that his subs are always too late.

He brought Silva on for 5 minutes against Ipswich, made a massive impact.
"Imagine if Lennon wasn't a dick and had brought him on earlier," they said.
So Silva gets half an hour against Preston, and does absolutely nothing in that time.

He has made mistakes, don't get me wrong, but does that necessarily make him a bad manager?

I think people just fancy a fresh start because they're pissed off that we're going down (understandably) rather than being 100% satisfied that Lennon doesn't know what he's doing and won't get us back up.

He can moan all he wants about no budget but the fact is the squad he has should be doing a lot better than they are. I liked him when he came in but he is clueless and needs to go. If we didn't have the money worries he would have been gone by Christmas

doffcocker wrote:The truth is that all football fans think they know more than they actually do, and Lennon just can't win (no pun intended) with some of the decisions he makes.

The latest argument going round is that his subs are always too late.

He brought Silva on for 5 minutes against Ipswich, made a massive impact.
"Imagine if Lennon wasn't a dick and had brought him on earlier," they said.
So Silva gets half an hour against Preston, and does absolutely nothing in that time.

He has made mistakes, don't get me wrong, but does that necessarily make him a bad manager?

I think people just fancy a fresh start because they're pissed off that we're going down (understandably) rather than being 100% satisfied that Lennon doesn't know what he's doing and won't get us back up.

Look at Warnock at Rotherham, he's a good manager, Lennon has won as many matches in 50 games as Warnock has in 12 games.

Even bloody Charlton won today. We're probably not the worst team in this league,but we're certainly the worst coached.

MartinBWFC wrote:

doffcocker wrote:The truth is that all football fans think they know more than they actually do, and Lennon just can't win (no pun intended) with some of the decisions he makes.

The latest argument going round is that his subs are always too late.

He brought Silva on for 5 minutes against Ipswich, made a massive impact.
"Imagine if Lennon wasn't a dick and had brought him on earlier," they said.
So Silva gets half an hour against Preston, and does absolutely nothing in that time.

He has made mistakes, don't get me wrong, but does that necessarily make him a bad manager?

I think people just fancy a fresh start because they're pissed off that we're going down (understandably) rather than being 100% satisfied that Lennon doesn't know what he's doing and won't get us back up.

Look at Warnock at Rotherham, he's a good manager, Lennon has won as many matches in 50 games as Warnock has in 12 games.

But Lennon took 24 points from his first 12 games, yet you think he's a nincompoop.

Management is about getting the best of what you have got control of.

We haven't improved over the length of the season - so either he's got us playing to our maximum or he doesn't know how to improve what he has anymore.

Regrettably it looks like the latter to me.

doffcocker wrote:

MartinBWFC wrote:

doffcocker wrote:The truth is that all football fans think they know more than they actually do, and Lennon just can't win (no pun intended) with some of the decisions he makes.

The latest argument going round is that his subs are always too late.

He brought Silva on for 5 minutes against Ipswich, made a massive impact.
"Imagine if Lennon wasn't a dick and had brought him on earlier," they said.
So Silva gets half an hour against Preston, and does absolutely nothing in that time.

He has made mistakes, don't get me wrong, but does that necessarily make him a bad manager?

I think people just fancy a fresh start because they're pissed off that we're going down (understandably) rather than being 100% satisfied that Lennon doesn't know what he's doing and won't get us back up.

Look at Warnock at Rotherham, he's a good manager, Lennon has won as many matches in 50 games as Warnock has in 12 games.

But Lennon took 24 points from his first 12 games, yet you think he's a nincompoop.

new manager syndrome, he's done nothing since especially this season

doffcocker wrote:

MartinBWFC wrote:

doffcocker wrote:The truth is that all football fans think they know more than they actually do, and Lennon just can't win (no pun intended) with some of the decisions he makes.

The latest argument going round is that his subs are always too late.

He brought Silva on for 5 minutes against Ipswich, made a massive impact.
"Imagine if Lennon wasn't a dick and had brought him on earlier," they said.
So Silva gets half an hour against Preston, and does absolutely nothing in that time.

He has made mistakes, don't get me wrong, but does that necessarily make him a bad manager?

I think people just fancy a fresh start because they're pissed off that we're going down (understandably) rather than being 100% satisfied that Lennon doesn't know what he's doing and won't get us back up.

Look at Warnock at Rotherham, he's a good manager, Lennon has won as many matches in 50 games as Warnock has in 12 games.

But Lennon took 24 points from his first 12 games, yet you think he's a nincompoop.

He had Mjallby carrying him.

Norpig wrote:
new manager syndrome, he's done nothing since especially this season

That's sort of the point I'm making.

Fair enough if you think Lennon simply walked in and turned us round by his very newness to the club - no tactical input, no change in ethos, nothing like that, just the new face is what did it.

But surely the same theory could apply to Warnock.

MartinBWFC wrote:

doffcocker wrote:

MartinBWFC wrote:

doffcocker wrote:The truth is that all football fans think they know more than they actually do, and Lennon just can't win (no pun intended) with some of the decisions he makes.

The latest argument going round is that his subs are always too late.

He brought Silva on for 5 minutes against Ipswich, made a massive impact.
"Imagine if Lennon wasn't a dick and had brought him on earlier," they said.
So Silva gets half an hour against Preston, and does absolutely nothing in that time.

He has made mistakes, don't get me wrong, but does that necessarily make him a bad manager?

I think people just fancy a fresh start because they're pissed off that we're going down (understandably) rather than being 100% satisfied that Lennon doesn't know what he's doing and won't get us back up.

Look at Warnock at Rotherham, he's a good manager, Lennon has won as many matches in 50 games as Warnock has in 12 games.

But Lennon took 24 points from his first 12 games, yet you think he's a nincompoop.

He had Mjallby carrying him.

But you don't actually believe that do you, it's just one theory that would conveniently suit your argument.

For a start, the rot set in a long time before Mjallby left.

Didn't Dougie have a guy "carrying" him as well. Some guy that fucked off to Australia or something when he was at Palace.

that little myth always seems to pop up. 

Despite all the problems we've had this season I don't for a minute believe this team is 10 points adrift at the bottom of the champo bad, it's bad but it is no way that bad.

It seems like individually this team gets lambasted left right and centre - Madine, Heskey, Pratley, Feeney, Trotter, Amos, Dervite, Osede, Prince, Wheater, each been completely scrutinised at some point or other this season - yet when the topic of Lennon comes up it's a case of "well we shouldn't be in this mess with the players we've got".

A few years ago I'd have wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment, but clearly the squad gets smaller every summer, and the purse strings tighten. For the sake of argument, let's imagine we stay up and we lose another round of our best players. Are we still too good to go down? What about the year after that? And then the year after that?

I think coming into this season Lennon fell for quantity over quality with what money he had to spend, Prince Casado, Pisano, Heskey, wilson and Dobbie have either failed and left or are good for 20mins a game, combine all the wages for those guys and you could bring in a better quality player, and supplement it with the youth players that have now been brought through, like Woolery, Holding, Walker, Thomas, Threkeld etc.

Lennon had enough time to look at the young lads and make that decision but it's only after wasting what little cash we had on failing players that the likes of Holding and Woolery have had a sniff, that is poor judgement. You may say that I have the benefit of hindsight, however surely Lennon must have known that Heskey and Dobbey where only good for half a game at best and if not why not?

As for getting the best from players, Lennon seems to treat all the players in the same way, if they don't perform he drops them and then rushes to the first press conference to tell anyone who will listen how rubbish they have become. This may work for some, however not for all, he seems unable to adapt his management style and has a one method suites all approach. This shows the inflexibility of the guy.

That brings me on to his tactics and team selection, he stubbornly stuck by players who constantly don't perform most notably Pratley, and Devrite despite having other options available, I think Holding and Wheater would have made a great pairing earlier in the season and it's no coincidence that our form improved when spearing came into the side. he fails to get the best out of our attacking players, asking Mavies to drop deep to pick the ball up in our own half when he is much better receiving it and carrying the ball in the final third, similar with clough, he's been asked to play a deeper role due to his lack of physicality, but is playing too deep and not picking up any second balls from the target man.

More recently it seems we have also realised that we are not winning our share of long balls and so we are looking to play out from the back more, holding is a great ball carrier and moxey is comfortable on the ball but we should have realised this much sooner in the season.

Finally there is the man himself, all the rumours off the pitch have not helped, if you want to manage you have to be respected in what you say and the way you behave, unfortunately for a manager that also means how you behave in your private life as due to the high profile it will always affect your position. It would seem Lennon has had plenty of issues and I don't believe that these can be separated from the job he has done this season as they will have affected him and the way he is viewed within the club.

Personally I think we need to part company as soon as possible, get a new manager on board as soon as possible and let them use the remaining games as a way of testing the squad so he knows what he has to work with next season in league 1.

Brilliant post Fabian!

Can't argue with that.

The art of managing people is to adapt your approach to the individual - get inside their head and suss out what makes them tick.

And then tailor how you manipulate them accordingly.

Lennon clearly doesn't do this.

He's old skool, like British Leyland in the 70's and Trim Phones (Google them kids).

I can't remember what it was but I read something in an interview once (possibly on here) where he was lauding the idea of just telling the collective to do as he said and that was about it as far as his approach to management went.

(Take that fuckin' woolly hat off!)

But he's not even a very accomplished practitioner of that approach.

Look at when Madine told him to fuck off on telly and he just laughed it off.

Surely an old skool manager wouldn't have done that?

He's out of his depth, confused, struggling, not used to having to work with average players (although given that he's only ever managed in Scotland, even that's debatable) and he hasn't got a clue.

Yes, Doffy.....he's clueless.

Is Phil Brown the answer....?

Fuck knows.

But I can say with a fairly strong sense of conviction that Lennon isn't.

I agree with Fab and Breaders. 

I've wondered about Lennons coaching since the time we signed ALF and he basically told him to go and do whatever it is he does on the pitch because he can't coach that sort of thing, it's just an ability. 

What sort of coach has no confidence in himself or his staff to be able to improve a player? If that's the level of your belief you may as well just pack it in. Can you pick one player in the whole squad who has improved noticeably in the last 18 months?

Bwfc1958 wrote:I agree with Fab and Breaders. 

I've wondered about Lennons coaching since the time we signed ALF and he basically told him to go and do whatever it is he does on the pitch because he can't coach that sort of thing, it's just an ability. 

What sort of coach has no confidence in himself or his staff to be able to improve a player? If that's the level of your belief you may as well just pack it in. Can you pick one player in the whole squad who has improved noticeably in the last 18 months?

Clough, Holding, Moxey, Vela

Clough and holding were already good players in the development squad that just needed a chance. Vela has always been a decent player as well imo, he just didn't get a sniff under dougie. I'll give you Moxey though.

Fab, you say that Lennon "seems to treat all players in the same way, if they don't perform he drops them" then you say that he stubbornly sticks with under-performers like Pratley and Dervite. Which is it?

And out of interest, what were your thoughts when Freedman was manager because he did an awful lot of squad rotation and I don't remember too many supportive voices for that at the time.