Head for heights or too far to vertigo?

Published 8th Apr 2019

Has anyone ever actually asked Neil Lennon if he wants to take on the Celtic manager's job on a full-time basis from the start of next season?

It was undoubtedly the case that he answered a call of the heart when he replaced Brendan Rodgers under emergency circumstances following his fellow Irishman's departure for mediocrity, otherwise known as Leicester City, earlier in the season.

It is also undeniable that Neil has taken an eight point lead and turned it into an eleven point advantage over Celtic's nearest challengers in the Premiership.

All good so far.

But you would need to have a good head for heights to undertake the immediate tasks which lie ahead for the next full-time manager at Celtic Park.

All you have to do for starters is win a treble treble this season.

Then you have to do Nine in a Row for a history-making second time next season.

And for the piece de resistance the season after that you have to write a fresh chapter in the Scottish football history book by becoming the first manager to lead a club to ten titles in succession.

The rest of the time is your own after that.

Now comes the small print.

Aberdeen, the perennial bit players when it comes to playing a subordinate role against Celtic in keynote matches at Hampden in recent years, will surely never have a better chance of re-writing the script when the teams meet in Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final.

Celtic are staging a bronchitic stagger towards the finishing line in the league title race, coughing and spluttering towards the winners' podium on the back of one less than awesome performance after another.

Can they clear their tubes and suddenly be restored to previous health all of a sudden?

If you were an ultra demanding Rangers supporter, and that should just about cover every man, woman and child who supports the club, you would surely pause for reflection on this season and wonder what all the fuss was about over Steven Gerrard.

Celtic have so far shipped a whopping twenty-two points in the league so far, the equivalent of seven defeats and a draw, and they're still eleven points clear of a side which had millions of pounds spent on it in order to halt their greatest rivals in their history-making tracks.

This is a Celtic side who have had two goal-less draws with Livingston this season and another one against a hapless St. Mirren into the bargain.

Invincible they are not. Far from it.

And yet Rangers trail in their slipstream.

It was fairly mediocre under Rodgers, who accounted for eighteen of the points dropped so far by Celtic in the league, and even the pyromaniacs behind the goal at away matches would have to admit there have been a lot of damp squib displays since the former icon left for England.

I know the ladies and gentlemen who attended last night's awards bash in Rangers' honour would have had a superb night out, but is a trophy-less season a cause for celebration when your rivals were showing signs of vulnerability?

Now the job for Rodgers' successor gets even more complicated, and the strain on Gerrard becomes even more palpable.

Celtic need a raft of new signings in the close season and the club needs to spend serious money or be deemed to have betrayed the supporter base.

The manager left undermined is the manager who has no chance of delivering history on an industrial scale.

The present incumbent on an interim basis left his permanent role once before at Celtic Park for the reason that he could see a glass ceiling above his head.

Would he put himself through a re-run of that particular movie?

Sunday at Hampden will bring Celtic's current standing sharply into focus, as will post-split league fixtures at Easter Road, Pittodrie and Ibrox.

Rangers have no option but to break the bank in an attempt to make next season better than this one.

Celtic have arrived at a watershed moment, likewise their adversaries.

The once discernible mutual respect between the two clubs has gone. There is, at directorial, managerial and supporter level, an open hostility.

The club which most disappoints the fans under those circumstances will have the biggest problem.

Now, do you want to put your Celtic legacy at risk under those circumstances, Neil?

Just asking.

Incidentally, there's no point in complaining that there has been no mention of objects being thrown on to the pitch at Motherwell yesterday.

When coconuts start getting launched at the pitch, as they were at Tynecastle on Saturday, we have officially claimed the immoral high ground for idiotic behaviour unworthy of comment in this country.

Throw what you like. The day of reckoning is coming and it'll be your own fault.