Celtic look to have little hope of securing their tenth successive title
Despite the intense pressure that has been heaped on Neil Lennon this season, there have been some who insisted he could turn the ship around.
With his side now 23 points behind Rangers in the Premiership, however, many of those have admitted the manager’s hopes of turning things around appear to be slim.
One of those is Craig Levein, a one-time rival of Lennon’s when they managed Hearts and Hibs respectively.
The former Scotland manager has backed Lennon until recently, but now concedes he’s had a change of heart.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Celtic Park against St Mirren meant they ended January with just one win in six games, and Levein is struggling to see a way back.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound, he said: “I’ve been behind Lenny all the way through here, but what I saw in recent games, I think he’s struggling to turn that ship round.
“In fact, the ship’s heading for disaster, in all honesty.
“We spoke earlier on about his character, his resilience as a person. He will not want to walk away from this, because he’s a proud guy and he’ll think he can fix it.
“But, for the first time, I really think that he’s in trouble.”
Celtic return to action on Tuesday night when they face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
Lennon castigated his players ahead of this week’s match, with Record Sport quoting him as saying: “With what we’ve achieved over the past decade or so, we’ve fallen way short of the standards we set for the players and what the supporters expect as well. We can’t hide away from that. There has to be a positive reaction and if I don’t get that, that’s on the players.
“They need to show professional pride. They need to show personal pride now.
“As I said after the game, in any walk of life when things aren’t going well, you have to show your personal and individual feeling for what you’re doing.
“Rather than feel sorry for yourself, you have to dig deep and turn it around.”
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