Second best team in Scotland?

[Keith_M]

According to Neil Lennon, Hibs are the "Second best team in the country". That's quite an about-face from him after calling the team 'pathetic', surely.

I wonder if he felt bad about his previous comments and this was his way of making amends.



Kind of contradictory, though.



Maybe he should heed the advice, "Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt"




....not that I do, but anyway

[Coults1875]

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According to Neil Lennon, Hibs are the "Second best team in the country". That's quite an about-face from him after calling the team 'pathetic', surely.

I wonder if he felt bad about his previous comments and this was his way of making amends.



Kind of contradictory, though.



Maybe he should heed the advice, "Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt"




....not that I do, but anyway

Poor post, he actually says; "The first 30 minutes was pathetic and totally unacceptable" . He doesn't call the team pathetic as you are suggesting, purely the way the team started which lets be honest, it was.

[WeeRussell]

He's wrong on both counts for me.

We're not the second best team in Scotland.

Our performance wasn't pathetic at the weekend, though the way we lost goals and started the game was somewhere in the pathetic region.

[WeeRussell]

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Poor post, he actually says; "The first 30 minutes was pathetic and totally unacceptable" . He doesn't call the team pathetic as you are suggesting, purely the way the team started which lets be honest, it was.

In that case maybe he's not wrong about both, I wa going on the assumption the OP was accurate ;)

[660]

He said it to hibs TV right after the game but the media are coming out with it now to make it look like he regrets his original comments.

It's not contradictory to say Hibs first 30 minutes was pathetic but given we pegged back the 2nd in the league to 2-2 and probably deserved to win, we are the second best team in the country.

[Keith_M]

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Poor post, he actually says; "The first 30 minutes was pathetic and totally unacceptable" . He doesn't call the team pathetic as you are suggesting, purely the way the team started which lets be honest, it was.

OK, fair enough, but he was quite scathing about the team and not very complimentary.

I still think he's engaged in quite a bit of hyperbole to try to compensate for his previous comments.

[Onion]

Lennon is talking nonsense for reason's only he knows. Talking up the club to encourage some players to sign new deals ? Making himself feel better ? Over-reacting to our first defeat in months ?

Winning the odd cup game, as under-dog, against Hearts or DUFC goes no where near matching Aberdeen's record in the SPL over a complete season.

[TheHarpy76]

Given our form since the start of February,that's pretty silly talk from our manager.

[Jag7]

Think he is way off the mark and don't understand why he said that. Aberdeen second in the premier league and in 2 cup finals .. he will be laughed at I am afraid.

[calumhibee1]

Absolute nonsense.

[Lee Marvin]

Whilst this is clearly not true, let's put a bit of context behind it. The interview was given about 1 hr after the game were he was obviously still very emotional.

We are around the 3rd to 5th best team just now imo, however with the right recruitment could potentially challenge for 2nd or 3rd.

[Barney McGrew]

I can get where Lennon is coming from......our record against SPL teams and in the big games is very good, where we've struggled is against teams that put 10 or 11 men behind the ball and sit very deep.

That's a lot less likely to happen next season, and I think we'll see a team with a bit more creativity and the room to pick teams off and play football.

There's nothing to suggest we can't mount a serious challenge for second next season. Rangers have hired the Portuguese Le Guen and don't have a pot to piss in, Hertz are in a laughable freefall with Cathy in charge and won't even make the top six which leaves us, Aberdeen and St Johnstone to fight out for the top four. It would be a really disappointing season if we don't get to fourth at worst.

[BegbieHSC]

Regardless of whether we are at present, surely this is indicative of Lennon's ambition for the club, as surely if this is the case, anything less is unacceptable?

Good times ahead I feel!

[flash]

Talking rubbish, utter nonsense, man's a fool
Thought I had logged into Kickback by mistake.

[Hibernia&Alba]

Did he make that remark? Seems an odd to thing to say. Aberdeen are the second best team in Scotland: second on the SPL and made two cup finals.

[neil7908]

I'm in two minds about this.

I like the idea of a confident Hibs manager but we've just lost to the indisputable 2nd best team in the country. Doesn't matter how close we ran them, they've made it to 2 cup finals and are 2nd in the SPL. We've drawn 40% of our games in the second division!

This comes across as arrogance and slightly deluded. Lennon has now set the bar very high next year. I like us being ambitious but now next season anything other than 2nd place and a cup final appearance will beg the question about whether we are underachieving and bring into question Lennon's position.

We've also painted a great big target on ourselves and if we lose a couple of games early on next season there will be plenty folk sneering at us.

[Deansy]

Who gives - Neil Lennon's 'Hibs are the second best team in the counhtry' line has done the biz on the Muppets from the PBS !!. Anyone read the fans-forum in the 'Scotsman' ? - they're going Tonto about it/him !
Hibs are second-best team in Scotland

[SlickShoes]

Neil Lennon says hibs were pathetic and the performance of the first 30 minutes was unacceptable - people on forums go bananas.

Neil Lennon says to hibs TV we are the second best team in the country after watching us outplay the second best team in the country for most of the game - people on forums go bananas.

I don't believe we are any worse than Aberdeen, I also don't think we will finish anywhere near second next season, but I'm not frothing at the mouth if the manager thinks that and wants to believe it.

[SirDavidsNapper]

To be honest Aberdeen are the 2nd best team in Scotland but in saying that I expected us to beat them and we really should have. Where does that put us? Who knows but until we finish 2nd in the top league we can't claim that title.

[JimBHibees]

Dont have an issue with him saying it however he needs to back it up. Maybe more a comment for the Board to back him to get to that level.

[1van Sprou7e]

I don't think he actually believes that, he's probably either making a statement of intent or trying to ensure that the board back him

[Since90+2]

We are not the second best team in Scotland , Aberdeen are. On our day we can more than match everyteam in the country bar Celtic but that does not mean we have shown the consistenency required to be reqarded as the second best team in the country.

If the shoe was on the other foot and we had finished 2nd in the Premiership two years in a row and reached both cup finals we would be laughing at the Championship side making the claim.

[neil7908]

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We are not the second best team in Scotland , Aberdeen are. On our day we can more than match everyteam in the country bar Celtic but that does not mean we have shown the consistenency required to be reqarded as the second best team in the country.

If the shoe was on the other foot and we had finished 2nd in the Premiership two years in a row and reached both cup finals we would be laughing at the Championship side making the claim.

Spot on. There might be a few teams pinning Lennon's comment on the dressing room wall before we played them next year.

[660]

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I don't think he actually believes that, he's probably either making a statement of intent or trying to ensure that the board back him

This is probably the underlying reason.

I heard the jambos were furious after hearing his comments as they thought he was trying to take their title away from them until they realised he said second best team in Scotland not Edinburgh.

[BroxburnHibee]

Whether he's right or not is a matter of opinion.

However our ambition should be for 2nd place next season.

[Andy74]

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Did he make that remark? Seems an odd to thing to say. Aberdeen are the second best team in Scotland: second on the SPL and made two cup finals.

And given he felt we were the better team on the day is he not justified in thinking he has a better team?

[Sioux]

Too many Hibs fans want to come on here and moan and criticise about anything anyone at the club says or does. Even the stadium is getting it.

Maybe rename the forum to Dailymailprats.net

[Hibernia&Alba]

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And given he felt we were the better team on the day is he not justified in thinking he has a better team?

Not really from a one off game. It's difficult to make a claim of being the second best team in the country when in the Championship. We wouldn't be second in the SPL and we haven't made two cup finals this season. I do think the aim for next season should be to compete for second. We mightn't achieve it, but I think it's a realistic target, when you look at the state of the others beyond Aberdeen.

[WeeRussell]

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Too many Hibs fans want to come on here and moan and criticise about anything anyone at the club says or does. Even the stadium is getting it.

Maybe rename the forum to Dailymailprats.net

I don't see much criticism on this thread - plenty of disagreement on the statement itself but not actually having a go at Lennon.

For those who see it as an attempt to get the board to back him... surely he'd be better saying the ambition is for 2nd best, but we're not there yet... so show me the money!!

[Marco G]

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Too many Hibs fans want to come on here and moan and criticise about anything anyone at the club says or does. Even the stadium is getting it.

Maybe rename the forum to Dailymailprats.net

Too right! Lennon correctly said we could and should have won on Saturday. He feels we have a better squad than anyone but Celtic. I could not argue with that. Don't know why so many Hibees want to talk us down.

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