LENNON REVEALS SECRET OF HIS SECOND COMING AS CELTIC MANAGER

My first thought on taking Celtic job was ‘Don’t go in and knock the china over’

IN HINDSIGHT, a lack of time to think proved a blessing. Thrust suddenly into the size nine shoes of Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon’s first task as interim Celtic boss was to prepare a team to play Hearts. There was barely the scope to meet the players let alone forge a new Jerusalem.

After seven straight trophies, it wasn’t entirely clear what more he could do. What he couldn’t afford to do was knock the prospects of a third straight Treble off course. Prospects of overcoming the reservations of fans to land the post permanently depended on it.

Charging in to a dressing room of Rodgers players, nostrils flaring, was never an option. First time around, a younger, less experience Lennon might have gone ahead and done it anyway. The manager who returned to the club 12 months ago had to be a calmer, more measured, figure.

‘Don’t go in and knock the china over was the guiding principle,’ said Lennon. ‘Don’t start thinking: “This isn’t working and that’s not working and I want it done this way and I want it done that way”.

‘Just let it go and adapt to the way the club works and the players work. They were in a good position, a strong position. They had already won the League Cup and were in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup.

‘You listen to John Kennedy, talk to Stevie Woods, get to know the players as you go along.’

Most of the Celtic players knew him only as the former manager of Hibs. While Scott Brown, James Forrest and Callum McGregor had a notion of what to expect, he knew most of them only by sight.

The temptation to start throwing his weight around was tempered by the knowledge that it’s perfectly easy to lose a dressing room quickly.

Regaining their trust would have taken time he simply didn’t have as an interim manager taking the reins in mid-February.

‘That could have led to confusion for the players if I’d gone in and tried to change the style of play. I didn’t have time to do that,’ said Lennon.

‘I was straight into a game at Hearts, then another one against Hibs, so I didn’t have the time, even if I wanted to do that.

‘You always want to do things your own way and there are things you look at and think: “I could tweak that” but, at the time, there was a familiarity with the way the players were working.’

Look at the team now and the changes are clear to see.

When Rodgers quit, Celtic were eight clear of second-place Rangers on 60 points. They had won 19 of their 26 games and scored 60 goals in the SPFL Premiership.

Twelve months on, the gap has widened to 12 clear after 28 games. They have scored 82 goals. Seven wins from their last ten league games — maybe less — will make them only the third team in Scottish football history to reach nine-in-a-row.

And tonight comes the chance to do something they never managed during Rodgers’ tenure; win a knock-out tie to reach the last 16 of a European competition.

Pleased with the progress since his return, Lennon adds a necessary caveat.

‘So far, yes,’ he said. ‘But we’ve got a bit of work to do yet. I’m delighted with the way the Europa League has gone and the position we find ourselves in the league. We’ve won the League Cup.

‘We brought in some good players and we are playing a good style of football as well. Pride? I’m just happy with the way things are going.’

That many supporters owe him an apology is hardly up for debate.

The sniffiness which followed Lennon’s reappointment on a permanent basis has been replaced by surprise and satisfaction at the realisation he’s a better manager than most gave him credit for.

‘I’m far more experienced and more mellow,’ he acknowledged. ‘There’s a lot more technology you can use at the training ground to your advantage for post-match and pre-match analysis of the opposition and your own players, but I know the Scottish game and I’ve known it for a long time. I know how difficult it can be — and the pressures that come with it.’

That’s why he accepted the job with private reservations. His first spell at Celtic had ended in frustration and there was a sense of apprehension among some fans that he was back in the hot seat.

‘It was a big undertaking,’ added

Lennon. ‘The timing of it. Going in on your own as well... It was a big ask. The pressure was enormous. It was a real character build for me as well.

‘But it was the Celtic job. If you have been asked to take it, take it. Trust yourself, go with it.

‘I really didn’t have much time to think about it anyway. I really don’t know what else I’d be doing. Sitting in the stand? Sitting at home watching it on TV? No, it has been very fulfilling so far.

‘It’s never the same as your time as a player when you go back as a coach and then a manager — and then again. The game evolves, personnel change, the club changes, whether it be at Lennoxtown or here at the stadium.

‘We have moved on with new technologies. We live in an age now of social media. That has needed a