Neil Lennon has shed some light on the nature of his original departure as Celtic manager back in 2014. The Hoops boss left the club after four successful seasons, which saw the team win three league titles.
He has now disclosed that he left the club on good terms, and that is down to his relationship with Hoops chief executive Peter Lawwell.
“You build up an understanding and there is a trust there. I’ve had that with Peter Lawwell for a long, long time” Lennon said, as reported by the Scotsman.
“The best of terms”
“Even when I left the club it was on the best of terms with maybe the objective of being lucky enough to come back and that’s how it’s panned out.”
Lennon has not said a lot about his original departure from the club, so these comments will no doubt be very interesting for the fans to read.
The fact that he has a strong relationship with Lawwell means that the Hoops chief wouldn’t have hesitated when he asked Lennon to return to the club as caretaker manager last season.
Strong relationship led to managerial appointment
Lennon’s success in that role would have persuaded Lawwell to give Lennon the manager’s job on a permanent basis. If the duo didn’t have such a strong relationship that might not have happened.
At any football club, it is important that the chief executive and manager get on well. If they don’t, it usually leads to the departure of the manager.
Lennon might have left Celtic in 2014, but as he says there was ‘maybe’ the chance of him one day coming back as manager in the future. That would not have happened if it wasn’t for the nature of his relationship with Lawwell.
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