BOBBY LENNOX 10 ALBIAN AJETI 9
LISBON LION Bobby Lennox scored TEN goals in two games within two weeks in 1968.
That’s one more strike than Albian Ajeti managed in TWO years at the Parkhead club.
The expensive Swiss misfit, reportedly on £25,000-per-week, eventually left the Hoops this week with the tag of being one of the worst purchases in the club’s history.
Ajeti netted six goals in Neil Lennon’s final season and a mere three in Ange Postecoglou’s first year in charge.
After a failed loan move to Austrian club Sturm Graz last term, he has now signed a one-year deal with Turkish team Gaziantep.
He may have had more success in Glasgow if he had studied some tapes of Lennox who amassed a total of 273 goals to make him Celtic’s second top scorer behind the legendary Jimmy McGrory on a remarkable 472.
Remarkably, 10 of that tally came in two back-to-back League Cup-ties against Partick Thistle and Hamilton Accies.
In the first at Firhill on August 31, Celtic won 6-1 in their final group fixture. Lennox opened the scoring in only FIFTEEN SECONDS when he latched onto a rebound from keeper Billy Ritchie to whip a shot into the exposed net.
George Cumming put through his own goal to make it 2-0 at the interval before the man known as Buzzbomb went into overdrive in the second period when he netted within a minute of the turnaround.
Lennox then thumped in three goals in a whirlwind eight-minute spell to knock the stuffing out of the Jags, whose consolation came from George O’Neill.
Only 11 days later, the prolific Celt staged an extraordinary replay when he thumped five past hapless Hamilton Accies keeper Billy Lamont as Jock Stein’s went on the rampage in a 10-0 win in the League Cup quarter-final at Parkhead.
Lennox had already claimed two with 10 minutes to go when he fired in a sizzling hat-trick to bring the curtain down on a striking masterclass.
Fellow-Lisbon Lion shared the goalscoring highlights with five on an evening the Hoops proved to be irresistible.
It’s an old adage that you only get what you pay for.
Ajeti cost £5million from West Ham in 2020. A more modest signing-on fee of £250 was Lennox’s windfall for stepping up from Ayrshire Junior outfit Ardeer Recreation in 1961.
As our friends across The Pond are fond of saying: Go figure.
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Brendan Rodgers shares his plans for international break; change from first Celtic spell
Brendan Rodgers says he wants to enjoy more of Scotland in his second stint as Celtic manager.
Rodgers returned to the Hoops hot seat in the middle of June, more than four years on from his controversial exit to Leicester City.
Things have been a little bit strange since then if we’re honest. The team hadn’t really looked convincing in any match while the transfer window ended up being a bit of a late scramble.
That all appeared to change on Sunday though as Celtic battled a number of issues to beat Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox. It could be the big result we needed to blow away the cobwebs and go all in for the second Rodgers era.
The derby win was our last match for the best part of a fortnight with the season’s first international break arriving almost out of nowhere. Rodgers has plans to get away from the football for a few days at least.
“It’s been absolutely brilliant,” he said on talkSPORT Breakfast on Wednesday morning. “It was a big part of it, coming back up here. The family loved it.
“In actual fact, this time I’m going to enjoy more of Scotland. When I was up here the first time I loved it. But I probably took it for granted a wee bit if I’m honest.
“So for example, now in the international break, I’ve got a couple of days away up in the highlands. And I’ll just really enjoy the life here because it’s an incredible life, Glasgow’s an amazing city, and I’ve settled back in really quickly.”
So Rodgers may well be enjoying this article from Glenfinnan, Fort William or Aviemore. We hear he reads all of our stuff.
The enjoyment of living in Scotland is something that the former Liverpool boss has referenced on a number of occasions.
“I have to say, Scotland brought me a lot of happiness on and off the pitch when I was here,” he said at his unveiling press conference. “I had a lot of respect for the city and country as a whole, hence why when we were thinking of coming back, it was not just about the football side.” (Keep Up)
As supporters, we tend not to spend too much time thinking about managers’ or players’ personal lives. But we all know that a happy life away from work is more likely to leave you happy at work.
Rodgers and Celtic have come out fighting after a testing few weeks. Far more tests are to come, but we already can’t wait for everyone to be back at Celtic Park for the Dundee game a week on Saturday.
