Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill recently appeared on the BBC’s ‘Sportsound Podcast’ where he shared his thoughts on the club’s current manager Neil Lennon, who is currently enjoying his second stint as Celtic boss.
O’Neill has plenty of history with Lennon, having signed the current Celtic boss during his playing days when O’Neill was manager of Leicester City. Lennon joined O’Neill at Leicester in January 1996 and remained a Foxes player until he departed the club to join Celtic in January 2001. O’Neill subsequently linked back up with Lennon in June 2001, when he himself made the move to Glasgow to become Celtic boss, remaining at Parkhead until May 2005.
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O’Neill was full of praise for Lennon’s “strength of character” during his playing days and he also shared his thoughts on the 48-year-old’s managerial qualities during this podcast appearance.
“He has done very, very well indeed, and to come back after Brendan [Rodgers] had gone down to Leicester, I thought it was just the perfect choice, again, for him,” said O’Neill.
“He will have learned a lot from his experiences as the manager before. He was coming into a totally different setup, maybe a different philosophy in that sense, and he had to go and win those games from day one, and he’s done that exceptionally well.
“Now he’s set his sights on European football. Of course, that’s very, very important. It’s important for the fans and it’s great for him to say that, but deep down, at the end of the day, if he clinches 10 in a row, which he has got a good chance of doing and can do, that would be fantastic.”
Is Neil Lennon a better manager than Martin O'Neill?YES
NO
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TIF Thoughts…
Considering that he managed him at two different clubs, it may not come as a surprise that O’Neill has been speaking positively about Lennon recently and it may not be too surprising that he seems to want Lennon to do well as Celtic manager.
Furthermore, the 68-year-old Northern Irishman seems to have plenty of confidence in Lennon’s capability of guiding Celtic to what would be their 10th Scottish Premiership title in a row next season and that confidence may be seen as high praise by the current Celtic boss, considering that he played under O’Neill and won a total of three Scottish Premiership titles during O’Neill’s tenure that lasted from June 2001 until May 2005.