Celtic still a good option for the right man

SOCCER ANGLES:Mowbray's successor will find a league where the two big clubs are as dominant as ever, but where only one of them, Celtic, have resources, writes MICHAEL WALKER

THERE ARE defeats and there are defeats. For all those with Celtic in their blood, it is usually the losses to Rangers that cut deepest, though in one way a defeat by Rangers should be more acceptable as they are like-for-like competitors.

It’s losing to Hibs at home that should hurt as much – and more given the embarrassment factor – or falling at Kilmarnock or, as happened on Wednesday night, collapsing to defeat at St Mirren.

Celtic have lost four of their last 10 games in Scotland. It’s a sentence you don’t expect to hear. Hibs, Kilmarnock, Rangers and St Mirren have all beaten them in the past two months.

This has left Celtic 10 points adrift of Rangers having played two games more. Celtic are actually closer to third-placed Dundee United, who also have a game in hand. It’s enough to turn a Celt green.

In the modern football world of knee-jerk directors and boo-clap fans, even Jock Stein would have struggled to survive such a situation – so there was little chance that Tony Mowbray could ride it out.

Mowbray has long come across as a painterly idealist trapped in a painter and decorator’s body. There was little of the edge of Gordon Strachan about Mowbray, nor was there much of the romantic determination of Martin O’Neill. He was a manager who actually practised what he preached; he preferred his players to do their talking on the pitch.

Mowbray was less and less at ease in the Glasgow fishbowl discussing his club. The trouble was, his players’ eloquence was decreasing too.

It was not a hugely persuasive combination and one reason why there has been no outpouring of sympathy for Mowbray following Thursday’s departure from Parkhead.

The decline of Mowbray and Celtic must be seen in the context of Scottish football. We have been here before, this season and others. Economically paralysed, the SPL should be a place where a little money goes a long way.

Mowbray will claim that in English terms the €8.9 million or so he spent last summer was peanuts. Not in Scotland, it wasn’t. In Scotland it was €8.9 million more than Rangers or anyone else, barring Falkirk, spent. Falkirk spent €73,000, by the way. Rangers, the great institution across the city, was and remains in financial peril.

It has been a season when Ibrox has been run by bank managers. In the circumstances, either Walter Smith has done a magnificent job, or Mowbray missed an open goal. Certainly, it looked like an opportunity for Celtic to kick on, create distance between themselves and Rangers as clubs as well as teams. Richer off the park, Celtic could have left Rangers standing on it. But, no.

“Maybe it isn’t a league for trying to be expansive,” Mowbray said after the 4-0 defeat at St Mirren, “maybe it’s for playing defensive, negative football.”

Maybe Mowbray’s right. Or maybe, as Con Houlihan said of positive thinking, “you can overdo it”.

Smith is not a manager known for all-out negativity, though the run to the Uefa Cup final two years ago was no exercise in total football. As with most experienced men, Smith makes the best of what he has and if there can be a flourish added, there will be. It was a churlish remark from Mowbray but we will give him the benefit, his mood was darkening.

As he revealed in his autobiography, Neil Lennon knows all about depression. He, more than anyone, knows the hazards of Old Firm life. But as a former player, captain and current reserve team coach, Lennon understands Celtic from the inside and, as they say in Scotland, outwith.

Lennon made a decisive start yesterday. While expressing disappointment for Mowbray, Lennon said he wants the job on a permanent basis. There was no pretence at not wanting it, which is something. Whether that makes the 38 year-old from Lurgan a good manager is another thing altogether.

It begins for Lennon at home today against Kilmarnock. Nothing less than three points would do for Mowbray and the same expectation will hit Lennon. Celtic are 6 to 1-on to win the game so not much may be deduced if they do beat Kilmarnock, but it would at least be a reasonable end to a particularly bad week for the club. Then Celtic can regroup until the end of the season and think of the next one.

Whoever comes in will find an almost identical situation to that facing Mowbray last summer: a league where the two big clubs are as dominant as ever, but where only one of them, Celtic, have resources. For the right man, Celtic is an opportunity.

Hoolahan impresses at Norwich

PAUL LAMBERT, inevitably, was installed among the favourites to replace Mowbray as Celtic manager. Lambert is a living Celtic hero, but then so was Mowbray. There are no guarantees.

A few weeks ago in Glasgow, Lambert commented on the difficult lifestyle an Old Firm manager has to accept. He did not sound like a man keen to return.

Lambert has his own job to look after, and he's doing it well. He has resurrected Norwich City to the point where they should go up from League One as champions soon. Today they host Leeds United in a sell-out at Carrow Road.

Last week, talking to Lambert, he spoke of the "intensity" of Norwich City. It is the only club in its area and there is tradition. It's smaller than Celtic of course, but Norwich City still matter.

Lambert also spoke of Wes Hoolahan, one of the club's players of the season.

"He's been unplayable at times, Wes," Lambert said.

"We moved him into different positions but, wherever he's played, he's been terrific. He's probably been one of the best players in the league.

"We have played him in behind the front two and he's been man-marked but he's still got a hell of a lot of assists and scored a lot of goals.

"I brought him to Scotland, to Livingstone, so I knew all about him.

"The Irish manager knows what he's doing but I'd definitely say 'give him a shot'. I'd never dream of telling him how to do his job but Wes has been exceptional."

Staunton not the problem

AND FINALLY. Steve Staunton lost his job at doomed Darlington, following their 2-1 home defeat by Barnet last Saturday.

Darlington’s owner cited a crowd of just 1,463 as being central in his decision to end the Louth man’s reign.

Staunton will have noted that, three days later, Darlington played at home again. Again they lost 2-1, this time to Aldershot. The attendance was down to 1,296. Perhaps the club will acknowledge sometime that the problems there are rather larger than Steve Staunton.