Neil Lennon demands Desmond put his money where his mouth is for MON – pot, kettle, and the blackest of blacks…

Well, well, well…

It seems the pundit conveyor belt is now in full swing.

After Alan McInally on Monday telling Martin O’Neill that a “bumper war chest” is on its way, as I covered in my earlier piece this morning on Read Celtic, we now have the next instalment.

The next former Celtic supremo to step up to the microphone with a wee bit of unsolicited advice for Dermot Desmond.

Step forward, Neil Lennon.

The current Dunfermline boss has decided that this is the moment, in June 2026, to tell the Celtic board to “put their money where their mouth is”.

Right???

Aye.

This is Neil Lennon.

That Neil Lennon.

The Stenography Corps, of course, were on hand to amplify it.

Let me get this straight…

Speaking to PLZ Soccer, and duly reported in the Daily Record by Robbie Copeland.

The man who twice sat in the Celtic dugout under Dermot Desmond.

The man who twice waved through every single marquee player sale put in front of him without so much as a public peep.

Yes, Neil Lennon.

The man who twice took a recruitment list that read like the bargain bin at Aldi at closing time and simply got on with it.

That man.

Has now decided, for reasons known only to himself, that what Martin O’Neill needs from this Celtic board is more.

More what, Neil??

More backing??

Which is it??

More money??

More “ambition”??

Pot, meet kettle.

Then they can have a wee chat about who is the blacker of the two.

Here’s some of what Neil had to say:

“There’ll be a budget, whether it’s the Champions League or the Europa League, and they’ve got to maximise the budget for Martin. So I’m sure there’ll be talks going on, and Martin will hopefully get what he wants.

“As Celtic managers, we always want more. That can’t be always the case. But they’ve got to give him the best possible chance, which I’m sure they will, of qualifying for the Champions League, and then the whole season opens up.

“The recruitment’s got to be a lot better than it was last season. I’m sure it will be because there’s been changes from last season to this.”

“Maximise the budget for Martin.”

“Recruitment’s got to be a lot better than it was last season.”

“Give him the best possible chance.”

Aye, ok Neil.

I’ll just leave these here.

A wee history lesson, for those at the back. And that means you too, Neil.

Stint one. 2010 to 2014.

Ki Sung-Yueng – sold.

Victor Wanyama – sold.

Virgil van Diijk – sold.

Gary Hooper – sold.

Fraser Forster – sold.

Joe Ledley – allowed to walk.

Kelvin Wilson – sold.

Georgios Samaras – shown the door.

The entire spine of his title-winning squad.

Out, out, out.

In through the front door at Parkhead in their place?

Amido Balde.

Stefan Scepovic.

Derk Boerrigter.

Jo Inge Berget.

Mubarak Wakaso.

Steven Mouyokolo.

I shit you not.

And from Neil Lennon at the time?

Silence.

Not a syllable.

Nor a press conference.

Not a single quote on the back page of the Daily Record demanding that the board “put their money where their mouth is”.

Funny that.

Stint two? Even worse.

Stint two. 2019 to 2021.

Brendan Rodgers had just walked out the door.

Precisely because he could not get the recruitment he wanted from the men upstairs.

The very same problem Neil is now urging the board to fix for Martin O’Neill.

In through the front door at Parkhead came Neil, with a year of “In Lennon We Trust” tattooed on his forearm.

And then?

Kieran Tierney – sold to Arsenal.

The money?

Vanished.

The replacements?

Vasilis Barkas (£4.5m).

Albian Ajeti (£5m).

Shane Duffy.

Patryk Klimala.

Mohamed Elyounoussi (loan).

Boli Bolingoli.

Diego Laxalt.

Hands up if you wanted any of those names through the door at Celtic at the time??

Anyone??

I’ll wait.

And again, from the manager?

Not. A. Peep.

No press conferences demanding the board “max out the budget”.

No PLZ Soccer chats fronting up to the Celtic board on behalf of the support.

Nothing.

That recruitment cycle cost the Ten.

That exact recruitment cycle that Neil now wants the board to “do a lot better” than.

He has no excuse for not remembering it.

He was the man in the dugout while it happened.

Sad, but true.

And now, suddenly, Neil cares about backing the manager??

Neil Lennon managed Celtic through two separate asset-stripping cycles.

Neil Lennon said nothing.

Bollocks.

Where was this energy when it was your squad being asset-stripped, Neil, and where was the PLZ Soccer interview when Hooper went??

Where was the press conference when Wanyama left??

And tell me, where was the call to “maximise the budget” when Brendan walked out and you walked in??

Where, Neil??

Where??

I’ll save you the trouble of answering.

Oh wait.

That’s right.

It wasn’t there.

It was never there.

Because back then, the rule for any Desmond manager at Celtic was simple.

Keep the head down.

Keep the mouth shut.

Take the cheque.

And don’t ever, ever be seen to publicly demand more from the man in Barbados.

Neil knew the script.

He played it to the letter.

Twice.

So forgive me, Neil, if the sudden courage rings a little hollow from where we’re sitting.

Of course, now that you are no longer the one having to take the calls from Dermot.

Now that you are no longer the one having to lift the boys’ spirits after seeing your best players carted off to the Premier League.

Now that you are no longer the one having to defend yet another Vasilis Barkas signing in front of the press.

It’s all dead easy now, isn’t it??

Now that you’re sitting at Dunfermline, with the safety of a microphone in your face and not a P45 hanging over your head.

You’ve suddenly found the courage to tell the Celtic board that they need to “put their money where their mouth is”.

Now you’re brave.

Now you care.

Suddenly it’s all about “maximising the budget”.

Indeed.

Look. I’ll say this once.

I respect Neil Lennon, and I respect what he achieved during both of his tenures at Celtic.

Maybe I don’t respect his behaviour towards the end of his second tenure.

I’m sure there aren’t many that do.

But the man is Celtic to his bones.

He won three titles in his first stint when this club needed somebody to step into the breach.

I’ll go to my grave defending what he gave us as a player.

That’s not in question here.

What’s in question is the brass neck of him stepping up now, in 2026, lecturing a board he himself never publicly challenged.

On behalf of a manager who already has more leverage in the boardroom than Neil ever did or ever could.

Martin O’Neill does not need Neil Lennon’s PR campaign on PLZ Soccer.

Martin O’Neill is the one man at Celtic right now who can pick up the phone to Dermot Desmond and tell him, directly, that the recruitment last summer was a shambles and it cannot happen again.

Because O’Neill has that leverage.

He doesn’t need Neil to do that for him.

He needs Neil, frankly, to just enjoy his summer at Dunfermline.

And here’s the final word on this one, Neil.

If you really want to know what backing a Celtic manager looks like?

You should know.

Because for seven seasons across two stints, you were the one who never got it.

And you never said a damn word about it at the time.

So please.

Save the lecture for somebody who hasn’t heard it before.

We’ve watched this Desmond board operate on the cheap for the best part of two decades, Neil.

We’ve watched it happen to you.

We watched it cost you Ki, Wanyama, Hooper, Forster, Tierney, and the rest of the silverware, and we watched it cost you the Ten.

We don’t need a sermon from a man who lived through it all and said nothing.

Pot.

Kettle.

Black.

I’ll leave it at that.

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