Whats your thoughts on Lennon this season

Sorry Doff was in the middle of a bit of a rant, what I meant is that when he does take action against players he believes are under performing it always seems to be the same action, public slating and drop for a couple of games ie he treats them the same way once he thinks action is required.

I think there are some in the squad that he is blinkered about and has taken no action, these are the under performers that he sticks with, some would call it loyalty, and I think to some extent that this is why Heskey got his contract extension.

Freedman had his faults, the main issues where the way he handled the fans and his inability to bring the youngsters through, footballing wise I would suggest he is ahead of Lennon, but I believe both are poor man managers. For me I don't mind squad rotation and with the number of midfielders we had / have it would make sense, however what we have lacked for years now is a settled back four.

Both the players and the manager have to bear some responsibility for our predicament despite the disruption they've faced and the fact that the initial problem was caused by the Board, not them. Lennon clearly has problems managing this squad and I think that's partly because he expects them to be as combative and competitive as he was as a player and they're not. Add to that a litany of individual errors, injuries and more than our fair share of bad luck and we have a manager who is not a happy bunny.
A truly great manager would be able to rise above the chaos that has been BWFC in the last few years and find a way of winning games despite everything.
That's not Lennon unfortunately however he has been loyal to the club and has gone as far as expressing a wish to stay on as manager despite the shitty hand he has been dealt.
To get out of our situation we need a truly great manager - but they don't grow on trees and I can't imagine such a manager would want to look after us in League 1 so I don't see the point of trading Lennon in for another average guy.
It's also possible that the drama we are going through could be the making of Lennon if he's given the chance. Where else could a manager get experience like this?

I've already made my opinion known on other threads but since this one is specifically about Lennon I'll do it here too in the interest of (hopefully) getting my voice heard. 

I personally rate Neil Lennon. I think he's been working with both hands tied behind his back from the moment he walked through the door. He hasn't been able to sign a single player he actually wanted, he hasn't been able to get rid of the dead wood because they're on ridiculous wages that they know won't be matched anywhere else so are hanging on til the end of their contracts. The club's very existence has been in doubt for much of the season and the players and staff have spent much of it not being certain when or even if they'd get paid. 

I firmly believe any other manager operating under these circumstances, particularly one who was lied to about what was available to him in order to get him to take the job would have walked long ago. The fact he hasn't is something I truly admire and in truth I believe we're lucky to have him. 

The brutal fact is that many of our players are just not good enough and nowhere near as good as they're meant to be 'on paper' and I really do think we would be in an even worse position under somebody else. By that I mean we'd be bottom with even fewer points than we have now. 

The whole club is in need of a total overhaul and one of the things that needs to go is this utterly fallacious belief that 'our squad should be doing better' because it shouldn't. With the exception of about five players we are a League Two club. It's a harsh assessment but I believe it's an accurate one. 

This summer may not see us able to make the changes needed to get us back up even if we do go down because from what I can see Sports Shield don't have the money to do even that. For years now we've been 'chopping' the wage bill and Dougie survived only because he was able to sign a few loanees in January who performed for us but Neil hasn't even had that desperate option available thanks to the embargo. 

I agree the table and the results make grim reading especially if viewed in isolation but personally I feel doing that is grossly unfair. I'm not making excuses for the poor performances, I'm saying we can't realistically expect anything else under the current circumstances. By all means change manager IF it's going to make things better in the long term but I can't see how it will at BWFC. 

I would give Neil at least one more year and two complete transfer windows where he at least has a chance to do some deals for players he actually wants. Don't forget he can't even sign a player who offered his services for FREE! That's how badly things have gone wrong behind the scenes for Neil. Blaming him for all of this is just ridiculous, a full decade of financial mismanagement has left him holding the smelly end of the stick and yet he's still here, still willing to fight with everything he has to try and make things better. Give the man a chance to do it with his hands untied. In truth I think Bolton Wanderers OWE that to him.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:I've already made my opinion known on other threads but since this one is specifically about Lennon I'll do it here too in the interest of (hopefully) getting my voice heard. 

I personally rate Neil Lennon. I think he's been working with both hands tied behind his back from the moment he walked through the door. He hasn't been able to sign a single player he actually wanted, he hasn't been able to get rid of the dead wood because they're on ridiculous wages that they know won't be matched anywhere else so are hanging on til the end of their contracts. The club's very existence has been in doubt for much of the season and the players and staff have spent much of it not being certain when or even if they'd get paid. 

I firmly believe any other manager operating under these circumstances, particularly one who was lied to about what was available to him in order to get him to take the job would have walked long ago. The fact he hasn't is something I truly admire and in truth I believe we're lucky to have him. 

The brutal fact is that many of our players are just not good enough and nowhere near as good as they're meant to be 'on paper' and I really do think we would be in an even worse position under somebody else. By that I mean we'd be bottom with even fewer points than we have now. 

The whole club is in need of a total overhaul and one of the things that needs to go is this utterly fallacious belief that 'our squad should be doing better' because it shouldn't. With the exception of about five players we are a League Two club. It's a harsh assessment but I believe it's an accurate one. 

This summer may not see us able to make the changes needed to get us back up even if we do go down because from what I can see Sports Shield don't have the money to do even that. For years now we've been 'chopping' the wage bill and Dougie survived only because he was able to sign a few loanees in January who performed for us but Neil hasn't even had that desperate option available thanks to the embargo. 

I agree the table and the results make grim reading especially if viewed in isolation but personally I feel doing that is grossly unfair. I'm not making excuses for the poor performances, I'm saying we can't realistically expect anything else under the current circumstances. By all means change manager IF it's going to make things better in the long term but I can't see how it will at BWFC. 

I would give Neil at least one more year and two complete transfer windows where he at least has a chance to do some deals for players he actually wants. Don't forget he can't even sign a player who offered his services for FREE! That's how badly things have gone wrong behind the scenes for Neil. Blaming him for all of this is just ridiculous, a full decade of financial mismanagement has left him holding the smelly end of the stick and yet he's still here, still willing to fight with everything he has to try and make things better. Give the man a chance to do it with his hands untied. In truth I think Bolton Wanderers OWE that to him.

Finally some fooking sense ......100% correct lad...these other fools will get what they hope for...Phil Brown or Kevin Nolan's first job or somat stupid that that.