JK ON RONNY
It should never be forgotten he blooded Tierney and McGregor. He put things in place PUSH US FOR No.10
never change is Neil’s drive to succeed – it’s second to none.
“Neil’s relentless. People take their lead off the manager and you can see how the players have responded. Even in training he’s relentless. His standards never drop.
“Neil probably now chooses his moments to lose the plot. He’s definitely mellowed.
“But no player wants to suffer his wrath. When Neil’s unhappy it’s still completely natural, not manufactured. It’s part of his make-up, it’s what makes him special.”
Kennedy also reserves special mention for former mentor Ronny Deila who he insists is an unsung hero for laying the foundations for the current dominance as well as Brendan Rodgers, who he hopes will in time be forgiven for jumping ship to Leicester.
He said: “Ronny’s a terrific guy and you have to consider he was relatively young when he came to Celtic. Coming here was a huge challenge for him but I thought he rose to it.
“In terms of his methods, he was trying to change the style at the club and training ways. A lot of them still stand to this day.
“Ronny put things in place before Brendan came in and raised the bar once more.
“It should never be forgotten Ronny blooded Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor, signed players like Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie and Patrick
Roberts. The second season was a difficult one, especially being knocked out in the Champions League qualifiers and losing to Rangers in the Cup. But Ronny won the league again – and planted a few seeds for what was to come.
“Brendan raised the standard with everything at Celtic. Plenty of fans couldn’t get their heads round the timing of his departure. They’d completely bought into Brendan and loved what he achieved. So when he left it provoked anger.
“But once time goes by, I’m sure people will properly reflect and appreciate what he did for us all.
“Brendan came in when things weren’t going smoothly – and he certainly delivered with the Trebles, including the Invincible campaign.
“He’s part of the history of this Nine.”
FROM BACK PAGE their Ibrox rivals lacked the stamina to deliver a sustained challenge to the champions last term as the campaign was brought to a premature end with the Celts 13 points ahead with eight games remaining.
Kennedy admits Gerrard’s men have a distance to go from being pretenders to Celtic’s throne to becoming the real deal as he threw down the gauntlet for when the new Premiership season gets started.
He said: “We’re the best team in the country and have been for a number of years. We intend to make sure it stays that way.
“We trust the players to believe over the course of a season they’ll prove they’re still the strongest team.
“As much as everyone else will come and have a go, we’ll be fully prepared.
“Rangers have improved over the past few years.
“They’ve had good spells and up until the New Year they were on our tails, which was fine. They were pushing us all the way. We had no problems with that, it didn’t bother us.
“Our players responded to any questions that were asked of them and silenced the doubters in the second half of the season.
“For periods in the campaign, Rangers did well. But over the course of a season they’ve not really fully delivered on that.
“We’ll see what next season produces, if they improve again.
“But one thing’s for sure, we will certainly be better again.”