I love living in Glasgow for many reasons, one of which is how you can "star" spot some fairly low-level celebrities. It's actually really fun when you notice them in public, because it takes a second to fully appreciate what you are seeing. That "and then it clicks" moment is something that seldom happens in Fort William, unless you consider Steve Peat a celebrity. And I don't. No offence.
I've actually spotted a few faces since I've been here, the list consisting of (drum-roll please):
*David Weir
*The drummer from Franz Ferdinand, you know, the one with bad teeth?
*Shaun Maloney
*Neil Lennon
*The lead from Twin Atlantic and today
*Bobby the bar man from "Still Game" (he has a name, no doubt, but if I just said his name it would be fairly insignificant. Then again, "Still Game" hasn't been on for years. The point is I would see anyone like this in Fort William, ok?)
It's quite interesting that Neil Lennon is on that list considering it is unlikely I'll be seeing Tony Mowbray in my jaunts around Glasgow. Mowbray was sacked by Celtic after "that" defeat to St. Mirren (see previous blog) which was the icing on a cake consisting of bad defending, poor tactics and an absence of luck. The caretaker manager for now is Neil Lennon.
Watching his first press interview today was interesting. Lennon is the only figurehead left from the Martin O'Neill era, and it showed during the press conference. He referred to the current team as being soft and sensitive, and answered the question of playing football "the Celtic way". "The Celtic way" of playing football, apparently, is to not only win football matches, but to win them with style and flair. This mentally is counter-productive, since it's tough to play beautiful football with the players Celtic can afford these days. Also, this way of football has never truly been successful since Jock Stein, whose superb team was an one-off and a reminder of just drastically football has changed in the last forty years.
When asked about the "Celtic way" Lennon simply said "the Celtic way is to win", and he is right. Under O'Neill Celtic could play decent football, but first and foremost they were tough. Really tough. The defence had the metaphorical height of the Alps, with Bobo Balde, Stan Varga and even Ulrik Laursen and the midfield had Paul Lambert and Lennon himself (who were strong in the tackle and in the shoulder). With the brilliance of Henrik Larsson was Chris Sutton or John Hartson, who would bully defences with their physical presence. Much of Rangers' success under Walter Smith has been with similar tactics. This is not to say Celtic weren't skilful either back then (Petrov, Thompson, Larsson, Moravcik etc) but they just had more of a spine than what the current squad have, although the budgets between now and 2000 are vastly different.
I don't know how well Lennon will do as caretaker manager, I'm quite sure he doesn't know either. But if there is one thing Celtic are lacking the now it is leadership, which I'm sure he can provide.
DC
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