There’s a lot of newspaper and forum inches being dedicated to the interesting disappearance of Neil Lennon. His agent has come out to say he has ‘personal issues’ – thought to link to the distance between him and his missus and child, Smoulds says he has a back problem, and the rumour mongerers – predictably – have much more interesting theories.
So, of the options available – where’s Lenny?
1. He’s had a strop because Breckin has pinched the captain’s armband back, and despite questionable performances and the apparent return to fitness of Wes, he remains in the side. (Forum rumour)
2. He wants to join the coaching staff at Leicester City now his mate Gerry Taggart is in charge of the Foxes following the spectacular appointment of Gary Megson at Bolton Wanderers. (Forum rumour)
3. He has a back injury, one of those mysterious injuries that only the sufferer is likely to know if it’s genuine or not. This may rule him out for the weekend too. (Smoulds post-match comments)
4. He’s having ‘personal issues’ – which loosely translate to him being geographically far from his girlfriend and child, who are still up in Glasgow. (Lennon’s agent to the Evening Post today)
They’re all a bit flimsy for me, and I guess depending on the severity of potential ‘personal issues’ perhaps we shouldn’t expect to know exactly the truth. However, it’s made Smoulders look a prize twat to have colluded with some kind of cover story around an injury, only for his agent to tap up the next day with vague tales of personal issues.
When oh when will this terribly shambolic club of ours ever sort itself out, eh?
Filed under: News
I guess Calderwood could have come out with the s**te about a back injury because he didnt want to put too much emphasis on the personal issues. I wonder actually if there may be a Nottingham ‘Fiona Brown’ and that Lennon has been playing away a bit more than he should have been. To avoid personal embarissment Smoulds (being the ladies man we know him to be) could simply have been covering and it was the agent who’s dropped a clanger.
I guess we’ll all have to wait for Lennon: the Autobiography to be published!
I feel I have to comment, not from a footballing point of view but from a management standpoint.
Do you a) Give your employee a few days off and cover for him? b) Announce the real reason for his absence?
Argument goes along the lines of: Go with a and if (when!) then truth comes out, you look silly. Easily explained as not being authorised to release personal information pertaining to an individual employee – quite rightly, thats the employee’s decision. Go with b and you have the whole world speculating that given your employee’s recent admission that he previously suffered from depression, he is on the verge of mental breakdown, etc, etc and a whole load more damage is done.
Where we are right now is that we have someone authorised by the player to release a statement saying that he has personal issues. That has to be taken at face value and we should all get off our high horses, leave him alone to resolve those and hope he returns soon.
CC and lennon had a fight on the training ground on Monday. Lennon openly critisised CC’s tactics and training methods. The player took Lennon’s side. I believe he has walked out the club.
Ooh, there’s option 5 then!
Sounds rather like Charlie McP’s departure post playoffs…
Neil Lennon is going to be the new manager of Leicester City.
This was from a member of staff at the club, he had to help break the pair up. Also this may expalin the player’s ‘not too bothered and sloppy’ attitude, especially in the first half.
Reading a bit more into it, it seems Lens agent has agreed to have talks with CC, will be interesting to see what come’s of this.
The training ground comment is interesting and not wanting to rubbish Lennys tactical knowledge and training regime, up until a couple of weeks ago we were winning games and scoring freely ? and given his age and physical stature he doesn’t look to me like he enjoys training too much.
With regard to the back issue, it may be that is what the player told CC and the coaching staff ?
We will just have to wait until the talks with CC, but the last thing Forest need at the momment is player unrest on any level.
If the training ground incident is true and the players backed lenny, then CC has now become a Martin Jol !!
What? CC is good at his job?
It’s not very good that Lenny is not available for an important league game. I hope that a better explanation than we’ve had is forthcoming. If I were CC, I would want this situation resolving very quickly.
It’s axe wielding time Colin. No more trying to keep all of your squad happy, just pick the best team! Here are my thoughts based on recent performances;-
Drop Breckin and move Wes or Chambers alongside Wilson.
Give Maloney a chance at right back?
Davies has to be given a starting place on the right wing, so…
Choose between Lenny, McGugan, Cohen and Sammy in the middle.
Stop playing Holt if he’s not fit – give Sinclair a chance to show us what he can do!
Here, here with the Holt comment Aylesbury. He’s clearly suffering so get him on the op table asap. What is he offering to the team whilst still playing with an injury? Surely this is the perfect opportunity to give Sinclair the chance he deserves!
Sinclair wasn’t even on the bench last night (in fact, no forwards at all on bench) – is he injured too?
I have only been to one game this season because I don’t enjoy going down anymore, however I listened to last nights game on the radio. What worries me most is the lack of atmosphere at Forest now. The ground is very quiet.
Is this what it is like every week? I use to love going down trentside to sing the hearts out for the lads?
Saying that, I think from reading most fans comments on forums etc etc, the football is not exactly anything to shout home about. Unfortuanately the buzz of watching Forest is fading fast.
Things like this Lenny thing just deepens the gloom on trent side.
Come you reds, start giving us fans something to shout about….
at least we’ll have the world cup at our new stadium
@Mr B: It’s the third division. At its best, the football is shite.
Lennons ‘personal issues’ are the fact he has been attending court to explain his lies in the press regarding the girlfriend and daughter he dumped and slated in the record. U wont read about it though as he put a privacy order on it preventing the press from reporting – i guess he didnt want his fans knowing of the threats he made or the fact his daughter was sick and he said and i quote @so f***k. Oh and if theres any doubters court records are public so have a look under paisley sherif court !
Hmm, I just had a quick look on the Paisley Sheriff’s Court website and couldn’t find a way to access anything online, then had a think about it, and figured that really it’s absolutely none of my business anyway.
Whilst whatever he has or hasn’t done in his personal life may be or may not be negative – there’s usually two sides to everything, and your comments read as though you’ve certainly chosen which one.
But, the bottom line is he’s a player for my club – and I support him in that context. His personal life is wholly irrelevant to that, particularly since there’s no conclusive evidence I could find anyway.