Lennon says Hibs can live Foxes dream
NEIL LENNON insists Hibernian should take inspiration from Leicester City’s fairytale Premier League triumph and strive to win a dream Premiership title in future years. Lennon, who played over 200 games for Leicester after moving from Crewe Alexandra in 1996, has high ambitions for Hibs as they target a top-three finish and European qualification this season.
However, the former Celtic boss believes the Easter Road outfit should not be satisfied with just challenging the likes of Aberdeen and clinging to the coat-tails of his old club and rivals Rangers.
Instead, citing Leicester’s incredible against-the-odds title success in 2016, he is adamant they should set themselves even higher goals — even if he confesses they may prove to be out of reach.
He said: ‘I want us to be challenging the top teams year-in year-out, week-in weekout, consistently.
‘Aberdeen are a little bit ahead of us at the minute, in terms of finance and the structure they have.
‘But there’s no reason why we can’t start breaking into that bracket.
‘It’s always going to be difficult to break the Celtic-Rangers duopoly, but we will try.
‘We will strive to do that, we’ll try to maybe finish second one season if we can, or upset the apple cart.
‘Leicester won the Premier League, there’s no reason why Hibs can’t do it some time.
‘But you need all the stars to be aligned at the right time.
‘We are in a good place as a club, I think we’re in a good place as a squad, and from what I’ve seen we’re in a good place in the support as well.’
Hibs have been beaten only six times in the league this season, fewer times than Rangers and Aberdeen, and have beaten both in recent weeks.
They have also provided stiff opposition for champions Celtic, earning two draws and suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat so far this term.
However, happy though he is by the way his team have competed on the club’s return to the Premiership for the first time since relegation in 2014, Lennon has reiterated his thirst for continued improvement at the capital club he took over in 2016.
With a huge Edinburgh derby against rivals Hearts at Easter Road on Friday night, he added: ‘I think the players have made huge strides this season in adapting to the competition of the Premiership.
‘It is a very competitive league, but overcoming that and playing football that is easy on the eye, in a style that has been in the club’s DNA, you have to earn the right to do that, and the players are.
‘You’re never going to get the perfect player, the perfect team or the perfect manager — but we are striving for that.
‘We’re never going to get there, but we strive for it. You get days like a big game against Aberdeen, and I thought the performance at Ibrox the week before was excellent as well.
‘The quality of our football and attacking intent is of a very high calibre at the minute, and we want to try to maintain those standards now, and keep people coming in the gates.
‘But we must progress, we have to build.’