A Sort of Defence of Neil Lennon: In Response to DowntheMannyRd

I will begin with one point in DowntheMannyRd’s piece (read here) I cannot possibly agree with at all. This is the notion that a different manager could have turned the Bristol City game into a 2-0 win. How on earth is he meant to make Gary Madine able to direct a header on target!? How would a new manager make Shola Ameobi not take such a poor penalty?

This is a big problem a new manager would have to deal with and I see no way of doing so, unless this takeover happens and brings investment into the first team of course. But let’s assume here that that will not happen.

For me the problem is more the players than the manager. That does of course leave a lot of blame at Lennon's door as he signed a lot of these terribly preforming players, most notably our entire misfiring strike force.

But I will ask the question of whether he could have been expected to get better players in under the circumstances. Yes he could have maybe unearthed a hidden gem but that is hard to do and you can't really expect a manager to do that.

I would be very surprised if Madine was his first choice, and it was painstakingly obvious that Ameobi was not. If Lennon had had the luxury of any form of transfer budget the first team would, I have no doubt, have a very different make up to it.

That being said I would agree that a new manager would likely gain the bounce effect. We might find a short upturn in form and you never know even emerge from the relegation zone! But would this last? I don’t think so. I think the systemic problems in Bolton Wanderers’ playing staff would remerge and we would plunge back down into the relegation zone regardless.

Right now I am on the fence as to whether Lennon should go. He just about still has my backing but I would not shed any tears should he go. But what I am sure of is that whoever comes in will have the same problems in relation to putting the ball in the back of the net and without some serious investment in the first team will simply replace Lennon as the guy who is in charge as we drop into League One.