Desmond decision on Lennon will be based on logic

CELTIC fans angrily demanding to know exactly what it will take for Dermot Desmond to finally lose patience with Neil Lennon are entitled to ask the question. But here’s another, equally pertinent, query. Is there anything Lennon could now achieve, any run of results, that would convince a large majority to rethink their opposition to the head coach?

Desmond will currently be making those calculations. Weighing up whether beating Hearts in the Scottish Cup final, as well as winning every league game up to and including the January 2 trip to Ibrox, would represent vindication for Lennon. Games in hand and some fiddling with the fixture list mean even a seven-game winning run in domestic competitions won’t guarantee a drastic closing of the gap on leaders Rangers. The ‘optics’ will almost certainly be bad well into the new year. Does that bother Desmond? Nothing we know of Celtic’s major shareholder suggests he’s prone to snap judgments. Landing Martin O’Neill, the successful pursuit of Brendan Rodgers, even giving Lennon the job second time round, all of those ‘emotional’ appointments were made on the basis of sound logic. They were part of a plan. Still, the head coach will understand that he needs something special — a ‘meaningless’ win in Milan, certainly a thumping home win over St Johnstone on Sunday, for starters — to change the narrative. How does he do that? Now there’s a good question.