KENNEDY IS THE HEIR APPARENT
Lennon sees No. 2 as the man to take over the manager’s chair at Celtic Park
Neil Lennon has identified John Kennedy as a future manager of Celtic.
His No. 2 was recently sounded out by Hibs about succeeding the sacked
Paul Heckingbottom. Lennon persuaded the 36- year- old to go nowhere, and believes the Hoops will be the big beneficiaries from that decision.
“John came to see me about it, and I gave him short shrift!” said Lennon.
“I told him: ‘ Look, I am not surprised by this, but you are just too important to what we are doing here. You know your time will come’.”
Neil Lennon views John Kennedy as a future manager of Celtic.
The Hoops assistant boss was targeted by Hibernian for their top job earlier this month, prior to the appointment of Jack Ross.
On that occasion, Lennon was able to dissuade his No. 2 from moving on. But he is convinced big things lie in his future. “John came to see me about it, and I gave him short shrift!” said Lennon.
“I told him: ‘Look, I am not surprised by this, but you are just too important to what we are doing here. You know your time will come’. John is ambitious, he has his own ambitions, but Celtic means a lot to him.
“He had a really difficult time as a player with his injury, and the club was very good with him.
“I think John appreciates that, and it has worked both ways because he has been very good for the club since then.
“He has studied the game very hard and made a huge contribution to the club on the coaching side of things. And I believe he still has a big contribution to make before he either steps in here – in the hot seat eventually – or goes and does his own thing elsewhere.
“People might say that, at 36 years old, he is young enough to not yet take the plunge. “But if you ask me if he is ready to go into management, I would say, yeah, he could do it now.
“He has been coaching now for four or five years. “People say you never know when