Sorry Lenny but it is time to go for the good of Celtic

It is hard to say this but the time has come for Neil Lennon to step down as manager of the club. It is for the best of Celtic.

Firstly, let’s give Neil Lennon the respect that he has earned both as a player and a manager at Celtic. 11 trophies as a player, 9 as a manager. Those are staggering numbers. But it is time to think about the present. And the hard truth of the matter is that he needs to leave.

Two wins in the last nine games. Not good enough. The club has just been handed back-to-back 4-1 defeats by Sparta Prague. When we had faced them at Parkhead, they had not played league football in over a month and had lost their first two Europa League ties convincingly. Tonight, they were coming off the back of two defeats in the Czech league.

Who is to blame for these performances? The players or the manager? Is it Lennon’s lack of tactics? Or is it the players who have let him down?

The truth, like in most cases, is somewhere in the middle. There is no doubt that the players have been nowhere near the mark this season. But then, Lennon has not done much to change things up either.

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There are players like Karamoko Dembele, Luca Connell, David Turnbull and Ismaila Soro, waiting for a chance. When nothing else is working, give them a run out in the park and see what they do. Instead, the manager has decided to play the same set of players week in and week out, hoping that things improve. Sadly they have not.

One thing is clear, something needs to give here. And at this point of time, sacking the manager is the only option that makes sense. It will take seasons to revamp this squad but one can hope that a new boss can come in and freshen things up. Maybe someone like Eddie Howe who has been linked with the club continuously in recent weeks.

Again, there is zero doubt that Neil Lennon is a Celtic legend. But the time has unfortunately come for the board to take a tough decision. We cannot leave it too late with the fate of 10IAR hanging by a thread.