SECOND COMING
Lennon lapping up life with Celtic again... and eyeing success home and away
THE clocks were yet to be wound forward for summer when Celtic clinched the title in 2014, one of a host of reasons why Neil Lennon felt his time was up. A 5-1 midweek thrashing of Partick Thistle on March 26 confirmed Lennon’s team as the earliest crowned top-flight champions for 85 years.
He had brought back the thunder, as promised, with raucous nights against Barcelona. Equable forecasts for the climate ahead, however, did little for stimulation four years into the job.
There were 29 points back to Motherwell as Celtic sauntered to Lennon’s third title by tasting league defeat, to Aberdeen, only once on the way.
Inverness Caley Thistle, Ross County and St Johnstone were comfortably in mid-table. Hearts crashed into administration and hurtled to relegation, followed on the chute to the Championship by Hibernian.
With Rangers still missing and set to join Edinburgh’s finest in the second tier, this was a time of diminishing investment in the Celtic squad.
Disillusionment setting in, a fresh environment was hankered for. A brave decision was reached. That the resignation reasons were appreciated and the handshake with Dermot Desmond on May 19 in Dublin that year was sincere and cordial has served Lennon well.
For now he is drinking in glory nights beating Lazio home and away and guiding Celtic to the last 32 of the Europa League with two games to spare.
Grateful for the opportunity, he says. Savouring every moment of a second chance as manager of his club in the knowledge he will never willingly walk away again.
Lennon explained: ‘When I left first time around, I was ambitious and wanted to try other things. But I feel differently now. After Barcelona, we changed the squad, we sold a lot of good players — and there was no Rangers.
‘In my last year, we won the league by however many points. So you’re thinking: “Is it time for me to change and time for the club to make a change as well?”
‘Maybe it needed a new voice. Because four years is a long time in modern-day football at a club like this.
‘So it was a good time for me to go. I don’t regret it because it was the right thing for me to do — at the time. And I left on the best of terms, with the opportunity of the door maybe being open again in the future.
‘You can’t predict that. But thankfully that’s the way it’s turned out. Now I’ve got a second crack at it, I’m really grateful for the opportunity. The Lazio win was the perfect storm for a European game at Celtic Park. The game matched the atmosphere, the occasion, the performance and result.
‘We got a taste of it against Cluj at home but Lazio was even better. And I want more of it. I wanted to bring those type of nights back to Celtic Park — and it makes me never want to leave again.’
Within five months of leaving and setting Celtic on the trail to Ronny Deila, Lennon accepted the challenge of saving Bolton from a drop into League One.
It proved a thankless task over 17 months where he discovered that his previous concerns over Celtic’s transfer budget were a trifling worry compared to the meltdown at the Macron.
He dragged Hibernian back to the Scottish top flight at the first time of asking then surged them into a fourth-placed Ladbrokes Premiership finish.
Yet nothing incites Lennon like the scrap for supremacy with Rangers, precisely the ding-dong dynamic playing out in the early months of his first full season back at the Parkhead helm.
‘The fact that Rangers are back challenging, that drives me on, too,’ he admitted. ‘It heightens the senses and pushes me on. I’m older and wiser now. I know it’s a highpressure job but I’m embracing the challenge.
‘The way we’re playing right now is fantastic. We’re top of the league and top of our Europa League group and we’re in a cup final. So I can’t ask any more of the players in terms of what they’re giving me.
‘I inherited a really good squad and we’ve brought in quality players. So I’m really loving what I’m doing here at the minute. With all the big games we’ve got coming up, I can’t ask for much more as a manager. But I know it can flip very quickly.’
Lennon’s appreciation for his position was sky high after Christopher Jullien’s late winner at Celtic Park last month defeated Lazio on an insanely intense European night.
Then a few days later, the vanquished Italian head coach Simone Inzaghi revealed he would remember the night for the rest of his life and tell his children about it for years — so taken was he by the atmosphere in Glasgow’s east end.
‘I can’t imagine the feelings we had on the nights against Lazio anywhere else in football, that’s just what Celtic brings,’ stated Lennon.
‘What that can do for the players in terms of their own gravitas, is brilliant. And that feeling. I talk to the players a lot about the feeling. It’s not about the money or the medals, it’s about that feeling you get after a performance like that.
‘Only those players as individuals can experience that glow of complete satisfaction. Once you get a taste, you want the players and the fans to get more nights like that because we all enjoy it.
‘It doesn’t last long in this game — but that’s what you play for. When you hear Inzaghi referencing it, it’s a great compliment.
‘I thought he spoke really well after the Lazio home game. It made me very proud of the club and, coming from a coach at a side like that, it meant a hell of a lot.’
Coaching £7million players is another intoxicating element to Lennon’s second shot at the job.
French defender Jullien is only one of the summer signings to enhance the group Lennon inherited from Brendan Rodgers and steered to the end of last season’s treble-Treble triumph.
Alongside Kristoffer Ajer, Lennon boasts an imposing young double act at the heart of his defence and in front of old favourite Fraser Forster, who knew all about the Celtic experience.
‘Christopher’s in a good place, he’s enjoying the intensity of being at Celtic,’ noted Lennon. ‘Players grow into it.
‘At first, it’s a bit of a shock, then they think they really want some of it, then it becomes a very exciting environment to be in.
‘That’s what he’s beginning to experience now. He should have scored a few more goals by now but he’s come up with a couple already. He’s really adapting to the British game very well and has performed well in Europe.
‘I liked his physicality, his aerial threat and his defensive capabilities as well. And we’re now seeing that manifest itself in his performances.’
‘I LEFT ON GOOD TERMS... I’M REALLY GRAT EFUL FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY’