17 Feb 2014 19:47:35
Listening to snyde and Mr controversy Hugh continually asking"do u think in the 3.5 years has Neil Lennon won the domestic trophies he should have?" Dismissing any reason of champions league games impacting results just having a wee usual dig at the mighty Celtic? I put it to him sir Alex Ferguson the so called greatest manager has only won 4 English league cups in all his time is he a failure? League cup couldn't care less Scottish cups always nice to end a season off with any thoughts folks?
17 Feb 2014 21:15:11
As much as I hate to agree with that reptile I do. With no real so called competition we should be doing the double minimum every season. Nl has already said his cup record is not good enough. The main priority is the league and cl qualification every season, but as a club we seem to be easy beats in cup competitions and for me it,s not good enough.
Unfortunately, Neil Lennon has played into their grubby wee hands by failing in games we should have won.
St Mirren, Kilmarnock or Hearts would have been bad, but losing all three?
If I can just highlight this season as an example, we went out of two cups in Home ties - a rarity in itself to be drawn at home - against Morton and the dons. We were very poor in both. Very winnable games any week of the season, but, in cup games we have let ourselves down badly the most.
NL would tell you the same thing.
JJ
@big p league cup is far more competitive in england mate. 4 could be classed as a good achievement as the game is not so much a walk in the park compared to scottish football.
Lennon has underachieved and shouldn't have got job in first place.
There is too much publicity about lennon as manager, makes you wonder if a storm is brewing
Does anyone think that we could take a leaf out of Wengers book for the cup games and use them to blood the youngsters and fringe players.
Reminds me of people calling for alex ferguson to go at man utd, lennons still a young manager, hopefully he'll learn from his mistakes as fergie did.
@aindoh ferguson had 12 years experience behind him before Manchester United and was already a proven manager with aberdeen winning cup winners cup with aberdeen. EPL is far more competitive, therefore more challenging. SPL is dross, we are massive compared to rest of league. For lennon to have 4 years at helm and have not mastered tactics, signing quality or giving youth a chance is unacceptable. He simply must go, no "learning from mistakes". If this was mowbray, he would of been long gone by now! Also ferguson was in first season when his head was called for, lennon is in 4th season! No excuses
@arrowh mate I agree with you. Its a good youth set up at arsenal, they reap the rewards by playing youth in cup games
6 games a season shouldn't take it's toll on a one horsed race to a treble. We've been let down badly since the demise of RFC.
What rewards to Arsenal reap exactly though? What we're doing now is similar in ways to Arsenal prior to the past couple seasons. Buying mostly substandard youth and the few gems that do get unearthed get plucked from the nest anyway. It's only recently they've started buying genuine first team quality and that's why they've improved. That's what we need to do now. Plus, why risk an even greater chance of getting knocked out cups for the sake of playing several youngsters. Bleed youth in during league games.
I wish you Lennon Bashers would all shutit, the question should be How have a Team playing in a dross league, with dross money for winning it reached the last 16 of the Champ Lge twice with a young manager of very little experience when he took over from Tony Mowbray. Answer me that, Youz all make me sick. Rant over, Hail Hail
Tam we didn't reach the last 16 twice so uv kinda shot urself in the foot there
Aye, Ah Know Gunnie but even once and qualifying for the Group Stages is still an acheivement. Credit where credit is due. If he hadn't have qualified for the Champ Lge in the past 2 seasons we would be giving him pelters and he would be out of a job. We should not be qualifying for the Champ Lge giving the opposition we play each week but we do, and I am glad we do. In Neil I trust, Hail Hail
I agree about credit where due, but tbh - if we didn't make it past Helsinki, Helsingborg, Cliftonville, Elfsborg and Shakhter Karagandy over two legs then there's something seriously wrong.
Tamtimtic maybe you should shut it, you don't have a clue!
how should we not be qualifying for CL? just look at B. Munich they are head and shoulders above of the rest of the teams in the bundesliga, they tank teams 4, 5 or 6 nil almost every week.
Why shouldn't we be able to beat the teams that HB listed above?
And its fans like you, that make the majority of posters on here sick.
@barrybhoy I agree with u mate. It makes me sick to the bone some of the nonsense posted on this. Lennon must go no other way about it
@jimtim likes of fabregas, wiltshire is what they reap. In no way do we do the same, its always lennys pals that get in starting 11 unless a crisis.
TamTicTim, what have you been watching, certainly not the same tripe I've had the misfortune to endure this season.
Lets try and detach our emotional feelings surrounding Neil Lennon, let's concentrate on Neil Lennon the manager.
Yes we got to the CL qualifiers with about 90 seconds to spare against what I would describe as a pub team. The CL qualifier draw was very kind to us. We finished behind Ajax, we were outplayed by Ajax over both legs to be honest.
An analysis of the CL games will show you how inept our manager is, poor team selection, poor tactics, appalling first touch from players, shocking discipline, I could go on. Needless to say we got what our manager deserved. Can you name a worse central midfielder in Europe than Charlie Mulgrew (he is a decent full back nothing else)
Domestically we have been poor, we play against teams who's first team budget wouldn't pay our reserves wages. Yet unless Commons is on form we struggle to beat them. Even domestically we treat the football as a hot potato. What is the most our competitors spent on a player?
People can go on and on about Morbray's mess, players being sold, NL not being backed etc but at the end of the day, NL is managing our Club like the rookie manager he is. He is living the dream.
We need a new coach and manager that will get rid of some of Lennon's undroppable players, start afresh, work on players fitness, work on their first touch, work on their passing and the rest will surely come right.
Say Tim you have two cars in a race, one a BMW and one a Fiesta and the fiesta wins the race, what do you change, the driver, you know the BMW should win hands down, guess what, we are that BMW and NL is the driver.
God whit a mauling I've got just for being happy with the position we are in. I know we should have done better in the cups but to tell you the truth, apart from the Scottish Cup, never really been bothered about the other one. We have a calibre of player in our Team and Teams like Munchin, Real, Barca ect have a calibre of player in their team. They all play in good leagues, we play in a crap league (with crap rewards). Don't want my Club spending to try and compete with the teams previously mentioned. Sevco tried that. Yes NL might have taken us as far as he can but I can see a glimmer of potential in this Team and I think we will be a lot stronger next year with everyone having a good pre-season and qualification for the Champ Lge again. Glass Half Full Bhoys, Glass Half Full. If we do get rid of NL, who would you have come in, Owen Coyle, Big Malky no way, if we did go down a different road I would have been glad to see Steve McLaren (Spelling), too late now though. Hail Hail
No one is expecting the club to financially compete with R. Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Man Utd, PSG, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Juve, Milan, etc. They're football's elite. However I would expect us to compete on the pitch with other Champions League sides like Schalke, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Zenit, Ajax, Basel, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Leverkusen, Kobenhavn, Napoli, Anderlecht, Steaua, Viktoria Plzen, R. Sociedad, Austria Wien, etc! In terms of Lennon's replacement, my first choice would be Ronald Koeman or Michael Laudrup. After them I'd take Steve Clarke, Malky McKay or even Martin Jol.
19 Feb 2014 14:38:08
I would think we could compete with most of those teams problem is we don't really get the lower end team because of seeding.
Ajax we competed with we beat them and lost by a goal away.
Napoli can spend 34m on 1 player
Zenit likewise why on earth should we be able to compete with them.
If Lennon goes would need to be a foreign manager for me not a relagation fighter in England
Those teams are 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds from this seasons Champions League group stages, so we could've pulled any 9 of those clubs in Pot 2 + 3 from the draw. We got lucky against Ajax at home, we were embarrassing away. Overall we played poor both legs against Ajax and in no way competed with them. Have you watched Zenit in the Champions League? This year they went through on a record lowest points total of 6/18 - drawing at home to Austria Wien (who have a smaller budget than ourselves) + losing 4-1 to them away. Why can't we compete with teams like that? Fair enough about Napoli, Rafa has been a revelation this season, but before he arrived they were a mediocre Italian team. It was only 10 yrs ago they suffered bankruptcy. The reason they can spend big is they invested around €5m on Cavani as a hot prospect then sold him to a greedy PSG for around €65m.
PS: I wouldn't class either of my first choices as a relegation fighter. Koeman has held his own with a young Feyenoord side on a shoestring budget, Laudrup won Swansea a League Cup last season and led them in to Europe where they've held their own - they're still in the Europa League, where as we were (mathematically) out of Europe by November. Before splashing out on Bony they were buying players like Michu for €2.5m.
19 Feb 2014 16:15:19
Hamy a agree wit a foreign manager like you mentioned, not a relegation fighter (Clarke, McKay or coyle).
We shouldn't be able to compete with a cash rich club full stop unless they perform badly. There spending power dwarfs ours like we do Morton or aberdeen.
Napoli signed cavani for £17, prob due to prize and TV money
Apologies mate, you're right. Napoli paid an initial fee of €5m up front for Cavani then another €12m (including add-on's) for full ownership.