In the past few days there have been rumours linking Neil Lennon to the job at Leicester. My answer to that is, please go!!! Celtic have some deep problems at the moment, and I don’t think Neil Lennon has the managerial experience to know how to sort them out. Celtic are on a downward spiral, and after their draw against Hibs, they are now 12 points off the leaders. I have no idea how Lennon is still in a job.

Isn’t it obvious? Martin O’Neill. One man can save Celtic. And it’s him. He hasn’t got a club, and they fire Lennon and his him. He brought them huge success in the past and won the SPL with them. Got them playing Champions League football to a good standard, I’m sorry this really is a no-brainer, as Harry Redknapp would say.

To not win the league in your first season, fair enough. You’ve won the cup, and a lot of new managers don’t win the league first time round, even if you’re talking about the SPL. But then in your second season for things to go so disastrously wrong as they are doing now, that’s way too far. At this rate, Celtic could finish behind Motherwell for crying out loud!!!!

If it’s not O’Neill, then it’s Gordon Strachan, who also gave Celtic Champions League football, but it can’t remain Lennon. Legend on the pitch, total plonker off it.

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Charlie Mulgrew, Celtic’s left back, is one of those players who just doesn’t get enough credit. When you look at his performances, he rarely puts a foot wrong (a part from bad back pass vs Kilmarnock) and he is a really exciting, attacking full back.

I reckon that Charlie Mulgrew could play first team for almost any side, and he’s really been overshadowed by Emilio Izaguirre at Celtic, which is a shame. Mulgrew is a great free kick taker, creates opportunities, but he also scores quite a few goals for a full back. He’s a Scottish international, and hopefully people will start to take more notice of him.

Huge credit to Neil Lennon for finding him and signing him. It’s arguably the best thing he’s done in all his time at Celtic. If I were a Premier League club in need of a left back, he would be my first choice. He contributes to all aspects of play and really is, I cannot stress this enough, top class.

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Hibernian fans finally have something to cheer about. Their win against St. Mirren takes them further away from the bottom of the table and they can breathe a sigh of relief. After their dismal start to the season, Colin Calderwood must be happy that his team are finally progressing, even though it took longer than expected.

Hibernian started the season terribly, and before their win against St. Mirren, they only had two wins in 12 games. Hibernian are meant to be up there battling their arch rivals Hearts for 4th place. Not lingering around 10-12th position.

The manager Calderwood had huge pressure on him, and this victory will not doubt have taken some off his shoulders. The question remains though, can Hibs build on this and go on to achieve greater things. They have a good squad, having resigned Garry O’Connor, and if things go their way, they should be able to move up a few more valuable places.

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So Bristol City have confirmed that former St. Johnstone boss Derek McInnes will be their new manager. This is a blow for St. Johnstone. He is arguably the main reason they got promoted back in 2007. St. Johnstone then established themselves in the SPL, again, largely thanks to McInnes.

Whoever is going to replace him will have large boots to fill and a tough job. Will the Perth club be able to keep up their good form so far this season, or will they become relegation battlers once more? It’s a tough one to answer.

St Johnstone have a pedigree for finding talented managers. Owen Coyle was McInnes’ predecessor, and if they can once again find a reasonably young, but unproven manager who can make them progress then there will be absolutely no problems.

McInnes is reportedly going to advise on who they should choose, so that will be a massive help to them. If I were The Saints, I would pick somebody who is not old and experienced but somebody who is young and full of energy. That’s what they need, and that’s what they’ve had before in Coyle and McInnes.

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From now on, you can expect at least one post every two days. I’ve been slacking on this blog and I do apologise, but this will stop now.

Having got that out the way, I want to turn my attention to what was undoubtedly the game of the season so far. Celtic 3-3 Kilmarnock. Celtic played dismally in the first half. Anthony Stokes missed a total sitter. As the old saying goes, my gran could have scored it. Kilmarnock scored 3 well taken goals and when all hope seemed lost, Celtic scored 3 goals in 8 second half minutes to grab the draw.

Kilmarnock will be really disappointed, and Celtic will probably feel the same way despite their phenomenal comeback. Their defending in the first half was totally woeful. It was all to easy, and Charlie Mulgrew really messed things up with a dodgy back pass which led to Kilmarnock scoring their third.

At 3-0 down, as a Celtic fan, I was bemoaning  Neil Lennon, calling for him to be fired etc… At 3-3, the situation obviously improved, but I’m still not satisfied. Neil Lennon as a player is a legend. He was a great leader on the pitch and was inspirational to Celtic. But as a manager I’m not convinced. It seems to me that he hasn’t got the required attributes to be a good manager. He’s a leader, but I’m not too sure about his recruitment (Wanyama, Bangura and El Kaddouri have only been average so far). I think that if Celtic are to well this season, somebody like Paul Lambert of Norwich is required. Somebody who has more of a sense of direction and who knows what he’s doing (no offence, Neil).

Even the one and only Henrik Larsson could be worth a shot. Something has to change, because Celtic are failing at the moment and at this rate, even Motherwell will do better.

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Football is a funny game. How things have changed, especially within a month, is quite striking. Rangers had an unimpressive start to the Premier League season, drawing their first game and not qualifying for the Champions League but now they top of the table and have just comfortably beaten Celtic in the first Old Firm clash of the year.

Celtic on the other hand have gone the other way. After a good start they lost their way, losing to St. Johnstone and at the weekend to Rangers. Celtic look promising, but they’re not getting the results.

Their signings have been questionable: they’ve gone for unknown supposed wonder kids instead of going for established players. They laos sold Shaun Maloney, and as a fan I’m really disappointed with that decision. He is not a consistent performer, but at his best Maloney is brilliant.

Rangers on the other hand have been solid ever since they fort knocked out of the Champions League by Malmo, and Ally McCoist seems to have given his team a new lease of life. Only time will tell whether they’ll be able to keep it up, but they look good.

When the only way for one of the Old Firm teams to get into a European competition is to do so off the pitch, you know something is seriously badly wrong. Celtic won their appeal against Sion, who apparently fielded several ineligible players, and so take their place in the Europa League. But only because of that. What has gone wrong? Rangers failing to beat an average side in Sweden’s Malmo, and Celtic not being able to beat on the pitch a reasonably small Swiss club?

From Scottish football’s peak, when Celtic became the first British club to win the Champions League in 1967 to now has been a rapid decline. I think that the main reason for this has got to be the low standard of the SPL compared to the other European leagues.

Rangers and Celtic play teams of arguably not even half their calibre week in week out and so when it comes to playing on the European stage, they can’t handle it. The solution would be to somehow increase the competitiveness of the other teams in the SPL. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the Old Firm get shocked, Celtic lost to St.Johnstone recently for example, but generally speaking it’s a walk in the park for the Old Firm.

If somehow 10 rich Qataris could be assembled to buy the 10 other SPL teams, I reckon you would see a dramatic improvement in Europe from the Old Firm in the seasons that followed. It’s really sad not to have a more prominent Scottish presence in Europe, and it’s definitely something that has to be addressed ASAP.

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Celtic’s win today at Pittodrie sent them top of the table with 1 game in hand. Although it’s possibly too early to tell, Celtic seem to have the upper hand over Rangers so far in this early season. Rangers drew their opening game to Hearts and have never really looked that convincing. Needless to say that they also went out in Europe against Malmo, who, even though they are a good team, Rangers should have gone through.

Celtic good start to the season is promising for them, but the one cloud that looms over them is Emilio Izaguirre. The Honduran Player own the Year was taken off against Aberdeen this afternoon with a suspected broken ankle, so maybe the future for Celtic isbn’t so good. It will be a blow to Celtic, but I still feel, as a fan, that we still have what it takes to be superior to Rangers.

After all, on field problems are not the only things that Rangers are having to deal with. It remains quite unclear, but the financial situation of the club is pretty bad, and from what we have seen so far, it’s unlikely they will make any big name signings, further strengthening the argument that Celtic will win the SPL this year with ease.

I mean, I know all the pundits keep saying that the Old Firm can never be split, but I think it’s plausible that it could happen. Unlikely, but plausible. Motherwell and Hearts look pretty good so far this year, and it really is now or never. This is the weakest Rangers has been in a long time, so they have to take their chance.

It seems only days ago that the old season finished and yet this weekend a new season of SPL will start. Celtic have somewhat strengthened their squad already with the signing of Wanyama, the Kenyan midfielder and are looking at signing Stipe Pletikosa as their new goalkeeper. Rangers on the other hand are looking at bringing back Carlos Cuellar, and have also got an agreement on Lee Wallace, who will sign once he passes his medical.

So, who will win this year? Will it be Rangers for the third time running, or will Celtic finally manage to nail down an SPL win which is overdue? I think that this will be Celtic’s year. I’ve said this previously many times and I feel that Rangers are on the decline, and Celtic are coming forward. You may accuse me of being biased as I am a Celtic fan, but even before hand, when I was a neutral, I said the same.

The battle to avoid relegation will also be quite an interesting one this year, with Dumfermline being promoted. My gut feeling is that they will stay up. I see more a team like Kilmarnock going down. Also, if you look what happened last year to the newly promoted Inverness CT, they stayed up quite comfortably.

So, it all kicks off this weekend: Celtic face Hibs and Rangers face Hearts, so it’s not the easiest start for the Old Firm, however they really shouldn’t have too many problems. I can’t wait for it to get underway and for the Old Firm battle to begin. The first derby takes place on the 18th of September.

Even as a Celtic fan, I am truly impressed. David Weir is extending his contract for another year, by which time he will be playing aged 42. This is of course an incredible age to still be playing football at the highest level and it just shows that he really is, unfortunately for Celtic fans, a great player.

Wier started off his career at Falkirk, and he has made over 100 appearances for the all the clubs he has played for bar Hearts, which also shows his loyalty and durability. Everton was the team who he made the most appearances for, with 235 and he has also had 69 caps for Scotland, scoring 1 goal. Needless to say, the fact that he still plays internationally is also unbelievable.

There are some players that you just have to respect, not necessarily like (I’m honestly not a big fan of David Weir), and he is one of them. Just as even if you support Liverpool for example, you have to respect players like Giggs and Scholes, just for what they’ve brought to football, even though you might hate them.

So Rangers will just hope that he can continue performing as he has done over the past few seasons, as he really has been their key centre back, maybe not as much last season but definitely over the course of his time at Rangers. He’s also apparently training for his coaching badges for he’s finished playing, so he should be a manager or be involved in football long after his retirement.

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