CELTIC v COPENHAGEN
Celtic 2 Copenhagen 0
BY KEITH JACKSON
SOMETIMES fate has an uncanny sense of timing.
On February 26, 2019, Neil Lennon walked back into Celtic Park to answer an SOS call from the one club his heart could never really leave behind – while inside fearing he may just have bitten off more than he could possibly chew.
The very next morning he walked into the stadium’s plush No.7 suite, suited and booted for his big unveiling to the media.
Yesterday, exactly 12 months on, he walked into the same room, this time in his working gear, with his managerial reputation soaring and with an insatiable appetite for the job in hand.
Back in the hotseat for just one year but in that time almost everything has changed.
When Lennon agreed to be shoe-horned into the position on an emergency basis following the sudden departure of Brendan Rodgers, he was only too aware that his appointment would not be met with universal approval from the club’s supporters.
Having just left Hibs in wholly unsatisfactory, perhaps even career-damaging circumstances, Lennon’s dramatic return to Paradise was viewed by many of those fans as an unwelcome downgrade.
Now, with three more trophies in the cabinet and a ninth successive league title in the post, Lennon is in an entirely different place as he settles into his seat to answer questions on a mouthwatering last-32 Europa League visit from FC Copenhagen.
He’s come an awful long way to find himself sitting here. Again.
“Yeah, there was a bit of trepidation a year ago,” he concedes a little later after the cameras and microphones have been packed away.
“It was a big undertaking. 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 builder for me as well.
“But it’s the Celtic job we’re talking about. If you are asked to take it then you take it. Trust yourself, go with it. If you fail, you fail. If you succeed, brilliant.
“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 tomorrow night? Sitting at home watching it on TV? No, it has been very fulfilling so far.”
Fulfilling? That’s perhaps the understatement of Lennon’s