Rodgers is sure Lennon will lead Celts once again
SAYS BRENDAN RODGERS
BRENDAN RODGERS believes Neil Lennon will one day be back at Celtic as manager. The Parkhead icon returns to his old stomping ground today as Hibs boss, three years after bringing the curtain down on a decorated managerial tenure. Lennon was in the mix to return to the helm before Rodgers was appointed last year. And the former Liverpool boss believes it is only a matter of time before he’s granted that wish. ‘There is no doubt that if I wasn’t manager here, if I was to say who’ll be Celtic manager, I would say Neil Lennon,’ said Rodgers. ‘There is no question about that. I think the board spoke to a number of people but he was very good in his time here and if it ever comes to him again he would do equally as well, if not better.’
SEPARATED by two years in age and the length of Lough Neagh in distance as they grew up, for long enough, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon were forced to admire each other’s talents from afar.
‘I first saw him playing for Motherwell as a guest player in the Northern Ireland Milk Cup,’ Rodgers recalled yesterday. ‘That was the first time I saw him. He was playing centre-midfield. He then joined Manchester City.
‘I didn’t know Neil so well but I knew Micky Hughes and big Gerry Taggart and I followed his career.
‘He went to Crewe and had a good grounding there with Dario Gradi and then to Leicester where he did great. Then obviously he had real prominence here at Celtic. He was an outstanding player. I never really came across him in too many circles. I first really bumped into him then when I was a manager.’
The man from Carnlough remembers that encounter with Lurgan’s most famous son well.
Back in 2009, the dedication Rodgers had shown to the craft of football management after succumbing to a knee injury had manifested itself in him being offered the Reading job.
Entrusted with the Celtic development squad a year after ending his own playing days, Lennon’s determination to leave no stone unturned in his quest to succeed was blindingly obvious to anyone.
‘What struck me then was that he was reserve-team coach and it was the international break — when you can do one of two things,’ added Rodgers.
‘He wanted to go out and have a look at different methods and whatnot. He came down for a couple of days and we spent a long time chatting, and from that moment on, we have always had a close connection.’
By the end of that season, Lennon would be thrown in at the deep end. Tony Mowbray’s downfall saw him initially put in temporary charge of first-team affairs. It quickly became apparent that his comparative lack of experience would be no barrier to success in the role.
‘As a manager, he stepped into here,’ continued Rodgers.
‘This is my fifth club but for him to take this as his first and to do as well as he did was amazing.
‘He is a winner. He has certain standards that he drives into people and he wants to meet. He really does have an incredible football brain.
‘He has played at the level, so he knows what it feels like but he also thinks about football. Football is his life. He loves football. He is passionate about it.’
Lennon’s four years in charge at Celtic Park were an unqualified success. He won three top-flight titles, two Scottish Cups and twice qualified for the group stage of the Champions League — with Barcelona famously being slain as his side reached the last 16 of the 2012/13 edition.
His mere presence seemed to arouse a sinister element in society, though. He was assaulted on the touchline at Tynecastle. Packages containing bullets were sent through the post.
‘Everything else that surrounded his time here too isn’t nice and you don’t want anyone to go through that,’ offered Rodgers. ‘This is a job that is big enough itself without any additional pressures.’
Rodgers’ admiration for Lennon as a player and a manager is evidently enormous. His respect for his compatriot as a man knows no bounds. The importance of his decision to go public with his battle with depression is perhaps impossible to quantify.
‘Part of my big admiration for him comes from his openness,’ said Rodgers. ‘The courage he showed to come out and speak openly about it (depression).
‘I read his book and it was a real admission of his life and where he was at and it takes a lot of courage to do that.
‘He would have opened up a lot of doors for a lot of people in that situation. I can understand exactly where he was coming from but he was a real pioneer.’
Given their obvious affinity, it seems strange that the sum total of their professional engagements to date were a couple of FA Cup skirmishes as Liverpool and Bolton managers, respectively, two years back. Rodgers believes there might well have been many more.
Ensconced at Liverpool as rumours of David Moyes’ defection to Old Trafford surfaced, Rodgers felt the Everton board were missing a trick by not giving the thenCeltic manager’s name careful consideration for the post.
‘I thought whenever Lenny was leaving here that Everton would have been a perfect job for him,’ he revealed.
‘I felt Neil was a Premier League manager in waiting.’
Alas, despite his notable successes both domestically and in Europe, Lennon had to settle for the poisoned chalice that Bolton had become for an opportunity to manage south of the border.
Burdened by a staggering £170million debt, it was a classic case of the right club at the wrong time. Hibernian, his next port of call after just three months out, represented stability and potential.
‘There is no doubt he deserved a
better offer. That’s no disrespect to Bolton,’ said Rodgers. ‘If they had been in the Premier League, it would have been a great job.
‘He has come up to Hibs and invigorated them. You see how well they have done since he came in.’
It is a matter of common knowledge that, prior to taking the Easter Road job, Lennon was one of a number of candidates for the Celtic post eventually filled by Rodgers.
There were no hard feelings between the pair over how it all panned out. Instead, the football world was put to right over dinner.
‘We are both Celtic men and we know the demands here,’ Rodgers recalled of that night.
‘Of course, we spoke about the job. We understand the pressures and enjoyment of it.’
Lennon this week equated the position to being President of the United States in the sense that only a select number have done it.
‘There are certainly the same expectations there,’ said Rodgers.
‘I was fortunate that I managed Liverpool before I came here with huge expectation and the demands of a worldwide fanbase.
‘It makes his job admirable because it was his first job. He would have known the expectancy as a player, but that increases 100 per cent when you become a manager.’
To date, Billy McNeill remains the only man to have managed Celtic twice. With Rodgers rewriting the record books at the Parkhead club, the fervent hope is he will stay for the duration of his four-year contract.
At Hibernian, too, they know a good thing when they see one. Lennon completed the club’s revival by winning promotion back to the Premiership last season. Season tickets are booming. No one wants it to end.
There will come a point, however, when Rodgers moves on and Lennon also seeks another challenge. The current Celtic manager has a rough idea what it might be.
‘There is no doubt that if I wasn’t manager here, if I was to say who’ll be Celtic manager I would say Neil Lennon,’ he stated.
‘There is no question about that. He was very good in his time here and if it ever comes to him again. he would do equally as well, if not better.’
THE Celtic Foundation has donated £10,000 via Santos Laguna to help the Mexican community after the country was struck by a 7.1 earthquake earlier this month.