The Hoops icon thinks there’s been something fishy happening with recruitment for the reason that summer season switch window.
Neil Lennon has slammed Celtic’s ‘disappointing’ recruitment over the course of this season following their Europa League exit. It was a valiant effort from The Hoops in opposition to Stuttgart as Luke McCowan’s early objective gave them their first European away knockout stage victory since 2023, nonetheless it wasn’t sufficient to overturn the 4-1 hammering they had been on the top of within the first leg at Celtic Park.
There had been many questions being requested earlier than the sport concerning Martin O’Neill’s staff choice – whether or not he would have one eye on Sunday’s all necessary Old Firm Derby at Ibrox. The veteran boss made a few notable adjustments together with bringing in Viljami Sinisalo between the sticks, Colby Donovan and Dane Murray in defence and Junior Adamu up entrance.
While Celtic nonetheless gained the sport, after a January window of mortgage after mortgage, the shortage of depth within the European squad additional raised questions concerning the membership’s recruitment. Lennon, who introduced within the likes of Virgil Van Dijk and Victor Wanyama throughout his first Celtic stint, is conscious that the Hoops mannequin depends on offloading gamers for revenue and reinvesting in younger prospects, nonetheless he believes this season something has gone flawed.
‘The recruitment has been disappointing’
Speaking on Premier Sports Ireland, he defined: “Something wasn’t right in the summer. I’m not sure what it was. There was disagreements within house, with Brendan Rodgers, who was definitely disconnected and you could see that towards the end of his tenure. Also, there’s no Director of Football at the minute, that needs to be addressed.
“Overall, I think the recruitment has been disappointing. Of course, you’re not going to get it right every year. But I do add value to some of the fans questioning decisions that have been made as to why we haven’t spent more money or why we haven’t brought more quality in.
“Certainly with (Cameron) Carter-Vickers being out. He’s been a big loss. Celtic knew he’d be out long term and they’ve still not brought in a mature centre half to compliment Scales. They might’ve tried to do that. Okay January can be a tough window to navigate but they are valid questions to be asked of the board.”
Celtic can’t emulate success of European shock package deal
Lennon was then requested by host Aisling O’Reilly what’s holding Celtic again from turning into the subsequent Bodo Glimt – the Champions League shock packages who’ve simply knocked out Inter Milan. To which he responded: “Bodo Glimt are maybe an exception to the rule this year.
“They have their own way of doing things in terms of salary caps – can’t do that at Celtic. They’ve basically only got Norwegian and Danish players, so what would Celtic do? Just reset and only sign Scottish and Irish players. And then you’ve got to develop a four or five year plan.”
“Are the Celtic fans going to be willing to sacrifice domestic dominance to build a team for Europe in four or five years time. That’s the question. Since 2000, we’ve been to three Champions League last 16s and a UEFA Cup final. When we got to the knockout stages in 2012, the following summer we sold Victor Wanyama, Gary Hooper and Kelvin Wilson, because it’s not sustainable.”
