They say silence is deafening. When it comes to Hibs apparent reluctance to offer any form of statement on Lennygate then there’ll be an uptake of orders for hearing aids from Leith chemists this week.
Hibs have offered no explanation as to the suspension of Neil Lennon. They airbrushed his name from a statement made informing the supporters Eddie May and Grant Murray would be leading the side for Sunday’s trip to Paisley.
Clearly there will be things which cannot be mentioned from an HR and legal perspective however football is a completely different working environment to a normal 9-5 job where suspension matters are kept in house. Football clubs are almost solely reliant on income from their customer base and they’ve received no communication in relation to the most important figurehead at the “business.”
Speculation in the Scottish Sun claims our alleged hands off chairman Rod Petrie is forefront of the investigation into claims made by the playing staff into Lennon’s behaviour at a team meeting last Friday.
Petrie is no stranger to player revolts at Easter Road. He was in charge when the team of 2007 snuck behind John Collins back to report things weren’t going swimmingly during training sessions and wanted the manager out.
Lennon and Collins have similar traits. Both were winners on the park and had an authority few could compete with. Is there an underlying problem with footballers being unable to handle criticism from those who have actually been there and done it on a higher stage than themselves thus when times are hard they fail to have the mental fortitude to dig deep and perform as they can. Certainly JC or Lennon would have as a player so when they are having a go it’s perhaps better to listen.
Granted it’s difficult to accept if you’re the constant target of a coach’s ire such as Florian Kamberi appears to have been but there’s not a single Hibs supporter who can claim the Swiss striker has played to anywhere near the level he produced during his loan spell of last season.
The public condemnation of Flo’s performance’s were likely a final attempt by the manager to give the player a kick up the backside but after last week’s showing at Motherwell, Lennon was well within his right to single anyone out for the hairdryer treatment. Whether or not this was one heated blast at the squad too many we’ll unlikely ever know.
His pre match press conference, which took place mere hours prior to news of his apparent suspension broke, included the curious statement:
“This pressure we have at this club isn’t very demanding. It’s an environment where they should be thriving, not putting in half-baked performances week in, week out. Because it won’t be tolerated.
“I can’t keep whipping them but I will do until I get a response. How else are you supposed to approach it? You can’t go: “It’s all right lads, we’ll move on to the next game.
“You have to make demands of players. The manager always takes the brunt of it and that’s fine, I get that, but there has to be a responsibility of the players as well.”
Obviously Lennon was rightly concerned with club performances on the park. It appears the board have silently vilified the manager in order to protect the playing squad who may look good on the balance sheet but are unwilling to shoulder any blame for the Irishman’s apparent departure.
