Celtic assistant manager John Kennedy has praised Hoops boss Neil Lennon for his character in what has been a tough season that has seen the Northern Irishman coming under heavy pressure.
As reported by Sun Sport, speaking after yesterday’s 1-0 win over Aberdeen Kennedy revealed his delight for Lennon after the pressure he has faced and was quick to mention the amount of work they do together as management staff but still admitted the huge underperformance from the club this season.
Kennedy also noting the huge change in mentality from the Celtic manager over the years.
“Neil has been terrific. He has come under a lot of pressure and scrutiny.
“But he’s a terrific guy, a terrific manager, and works hard. He spends a lot of time at the training ground.
“We do a lot of work together and we aren’t shying away and saying the season has been fine.
“It hasn’t and we have underperformed.
“We have had a high bar in terms of what everyone expects and we haven’t quite got to the level we have wanted to, or expected to.
“Neil has been great with myself and the staff, and he has been very calm too.
“In the past, Neil was fiery and emotional but he has stayed very calm.
“He has been clear in where we need to go to get improvements and albeit, we are behind, in recent games it’s been a lot better.
“We’d like to have been out of sight against Aberdeen but we weren’t and ultimately we had to defend our box well at the end.
“Second half we had to grind it out and when it’s 1-0, teams are always going to throw everything at it.
“But we stood really strong and that’s pleasing as in the past we have conceded late goals when we’ve come under pressure.”
It certainly has been a tough season due to no fault of our own which has to lead to the heavy criticism of Lennon.
Ultimately it just hasn’t been good enough overall and at this, the majority feel it would have been better if a change had been made at some point.
Recently there has been an upturn in results, with yesterday’s game being the fifth win on the bounce but it’s too little too late now.
The next few months are about beginning the rebuild ahead of next season and you would hope the board are taking steps towards that already.
