No knee-jerk reaction from Celtic manager as he refuses opportunity to put the boot into the Scottish game

Football Writer

Friday 19 October 2012

NEIL LENNON could have been excused for thinking that everything was fine on the international football front.

Neil Lennon has said that he could not do without the talents of Scotland internationalists Scott Brown and James Forrest at Celtic. Picture: SNS

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Graeme Macpherson

After all, his countrymen from Northern Ireland had just pulled off the result of the week by coming within 11 minutes of winning in Portugal. The Celtic manager, though, is so ingrained in Scottish football that it was never likely to be the case that he would simply shrug and say that it was someone else's problem.

When the national team stumbles – and it is happening increasingly often these days – the resulting post-mortem tends to be all-encompassing. As the manager in charge of the strongest club in the country, his input into any debate about the quality of players, youth development, facilities, coaching or any other pertinent matter is always worth listening to.Lennon, as a non-Scot, can afford to be rational and pragmatic about the national team's slump to the foot of their World Cup qualifying group. An enquiry into every facet of football in this country is almost inevitable but Lennon wonders if it is necessary. Celtic provided four players for the Scotland squad for the games against Wales and Belgium and if their talent is representative of the squad as a whole, then Lennon believes Scotland have players good enough to do better in future."We do this all the time," he said. "If things don't go well, we ask: 'What's wrong with the game? What's wrong with the set-up? What's wrong with the academies? What's wrong with the future?' There is a call to go back to the old days. Are kids getting enough football in this country? Have they got the hunger? Do we need boys' football back? Do schools do enough? People go on about facilities but I think we have got enough facilities here in Scotland. "I think people are working really hard in the background to rectify it or make it better. But there are too many people on the outside looking in, who all have an opinion but who do sweet FA about it. We've got too many chiefs and not enough indians. I think Scotland have got good players. The four I've got have played a huge part in this season already, as well as previous seasons under my reign – and I probably couldn't do without them, to tell you the truth."James Forrest – you won't get a better young player in Britain. Scott Brown is playing at the top of his game despite being hampered by a chronic hip problem, Charlie Mulgrew has been a revelation and Kris Commons has been our best player so far this season. They are quality players."It's not beyond Scotland to qualify for another major tournament; the Republic of Ireland were at the last Euros. It might come in cycles. Belgium are having a wonderful time now but haven't qualified for quite a while. You have to be patient."On Craig Levein's future, Lennon was respectfully non-committal but felt the Scotland manager had endured some wretched luck in Cardiff. "It's a results-driven business," he said. "I don't know what Craig's remit was, whether it was to qualify or to make progress. I know he has put a lot of plans in place for player development for the country. But it's not my call."It is a fine line [between success and failure] and I've crossed it many a time in my playing and managerial career. My own opinion, looking at the Wales game, they played as well as they have for a long time in the first half. They were in control, had good shape, good tempo and were never in any danger. I didn't think Scotland got the break. That goal [Steven Fletcher's effort that was ruled out] was a scandalous decision, a big moment. You go 2-0 up and it changes the landscape of the group, certainly the game. Then you go to Belgium in a better frame of mind."There is a school of thought that international football holds less appeal for many players now, especially for those participating in the Champions League for their clubs. Lennon, who waved off 35 players on international duty almost two weeks ago and is still waiting on some to return, does not agree, citing the patriotism prevalent among his own players as evidence."I see a lot of countries and players who play a lot of football. But I only have to look in my dressing room and know how much playing for Greece means to Georgios Samaras, Victor Wanyama for Kenya and Emilio Izaguirre for Honduras. I had a chat with Mikael Lustig this morning and he's still on a high [after Sweden came from 4-0 down to draw with Germany]. These guys are very patriotic and it means so much to them that you don't want to stand in their way."

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No knee-jerk reaction from Celtic manager as he refuses opportunity to put the boot into the Scottish game

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