There is No Good Way Out for Neil Lennon

As international breaks go, this one fas been a rather interesting one for Bolton Wanderers supporters - though not for the action that has taken place on the various football pitches across the world (unless your name is Liam O'Meara, of course).

Yes, talk of the longed for takeover that every Whites fan has been dreaming of for years now began to swirl like fallen leaves in the brisk November wind. The talk all stemmed from Lion of Vienna Suite's exclusive reveal (which you can still read here), which detailed how a Dean Holdsworth headed consortium was in talks to take over the club from Eddie Davies.

The talk has been a great cause of excitement for Bolton fans because A) this one actually seems to be true and possible B) the complete surreal-ness of the whole scenario, with an ex captain swooping in to save us from tyranny ect, on the face of things seemed so fake, so for it to actually be plausible just breeds giddiness.

Amongst all the excitement and the very understandable trepidation, it seems as if we have all temporarily forgotten the troublesome predicament the Bolton Wanderers team currently find themselves in in the Championship.

It's not like I'm blaming people for it as I think we all needed a little something to take our minds off the doom, gloom and constant disappointment, and I've certainly been swept up in it all as well. So I'm sorry to have to drag you all back down to Earth, I hope your landing is a lot more comfortable than mine, but I do have to remind you that Wanderers currently sit 23rd in the table, three points and a -3 goal difference away from safety. By the time the Reading game comes around on Saturday, the team would have gone a total of 70(!) days without picking up a victory.

We're in an atrocious position, and with yet another move for an attacker, in Wolverhampton Wanderers' Rajiv van La Para, collapsing due to a lack of funds, it doesn't look as if anything is going to change in terms of the team's ability to stick a ball into a goal.

Aside from a miracle.

This article was originally conceived before the talk of the potential take over and the rumours of Lennon perhaps being sacked by the new board, so I won't be taking that into consideration.

My mind got to wondering what would happen to Neil Lennon should this horrid form continue. A quick glance at our upcoming fixtures isn't pretty reading: next up we play the dangerous, but still vulnerable, Reading, who have the likes of Matej Vydra, Ola John, Lucas Piazon and the inform Nick Blackman on their side. After that we play Brentford, who after a very shaky start and sacking their manager, have begun to find their spirit and ability again.

Going in to December we face Cardiff City at home, who somehow find them selves in 7th place and three points from the play offs. After that is a trip to table toppers Hull City, who's momentum does not seem to be slowing in the slightest.

Of course, football isn't a game played on paper, but in our current form do you see us picking up any victories in our next four games?

On paper again, our next winnable game isn't until December 15th when we play fellow strugglers Charlton Athletic, however, that game is away and we all know how we can't win away. That will be 94 days since our last win against Wolves.

After that Tim Ream returns home with his Fulham side who will no doubt improved massively by then after the sacking of Kit Symons. Then we face the only side currently below us, Rotherham United, again seemingly winnable but again away from home. December comes to a close with Blackburn Rovers at home, a festive derby which we tend to do well in and we the New Year welcomes Huddersfield Town to the Macron a few days later - the team who arguably started our downfall this season with the 4-1 drubbing at their place.

So again, look at our team right now and trajectory they're on, how many of the next eight games do you see us winning?

To be completely, cynically honest, I think I'm being optimistic by saying two.

This is of course all projection and guess work and there's no telling what could happen between now and then but back to my original wondering, what is to happen to Neil Lennon if my frightening prediction above turns out to be true? We'll undoubtably sit bottom of the table and probably stranded from safety, look at that dotted line like a shipwrecked man haplessly watching a boat sail into the horizon.

The simple answer is that we will sack Lennon before it gets that bad, and let some other unsuspecting soul take a swig from the poisoned chalice. However, I personally have my doubts whether we can actually financially, literally afford to sack Lennon.

In that case, it would be Lennon himself who'd have to step down, and in that scenario I just see no good way out for him, the same applies for even if we did have the funds to fire.

Whatever way Lennon ends up leaving the club, if he leaves it with us sat at the bottom and destined for relegation the reputation as a manager he built for himself at Celtic will take a massive hit, no matter what reasons out of his control may have effected his time here.

I imagine he'll find it hard to find another job at Championship level after he was unable to shake of the label of only being a good manager in Scotland, a place where I could quite easily lead Celtic to a league title. So who knows where he goes from there.

Should he not leave at all but stay on and results don't improve, well, that'd probably do just as much damage. He'd probably have a relegation mark against his name and have a club that had reverted back to the toxic days of Dougie Freedman. Which, again, would do his reputation a great deal of damage.

So as you can see, I hope, there isn't really a good way out of Bolton Wanderers for Neil Lennon. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

The best way to rectify everything would probably be to start winning some matches - we should do that.