Neil Lennon heralds a beginning and not the end

Published on Sunday 15 May 2011 17:13

THOUSANDS of adjectives have been used to describe Neil Lennon this season, but at the end of Celtic's 4-0 victory over Motherwell yesterday, only one seemed to fit: Churchillian.

Although more than 50,000 supporters were still singing in a bid to keep their spirits up, this was a day of deep disappointment at Parkhead. The league title had been Celtic's to lose just a couple of weeks ago, and they had duly lost it, finishing runners-up by a point thanks to Rangers' win at Kilmarnock.

They needed reassurance at the end of what has been the most traumatic league season in living memory, and they got it from the man who has been the focal point of much of that trauma.

At the end of his first full season as manager, Lennon is not yet sure that he will be asked to carry on by the board. But he made his own intentions clear when addressing the crowd mere minutes after the end of the game, and at the same time he promised them that better would come.

"This isn't the end," he said to rapturous applause. "This is just the beginning. We as a club this season have nothing to reproach ourselves for - the board, the supporters, the players, they've dealt with a lot of issues with great dignity. The players have played with real panache and style. We've tried to entertain all season. I think a lot of other people in the game here need to have a good look at themselves in the mirror."

Speaking around an hour later at his post-match press conference, Lennon fleshed out those remarks. "I was just being presumptuous," he said when asked what he had meant with his comment about "the beginning".

Lennon is on a rolling contract, and Celtic said as long ago as February that they would wait until the end of the season before discussing the future formally. They have been true to their word, as the season does not end until this weekend's Scottish Cup final, also against Motherwell, and negotiations have yet to start.

Lennon has made it plain he wants to stay, but yesterday he made it equally clear that he wants to be appointed on merit and not because of any sympathy the board of directors may feel for him as the man who has been sent letter bombs and attacked while going about his work.

"Not yet, no," he said when asked if talks had started. "They won't do that till the end of the season. I might not be here.

"We've had a good long chat with Mr Desmond (director Dermot Desmond], the chairman (John Reid], and Peter (Lawwell, the chief executive]. I'm hopeful that I'll be here next season.

"They might not want me - the aim is to win the championship and we haven't done that. I can't really comment on what the board are thinking because I haven't sat down and spoken to them yet and I probably won't do that until after the cup final.

"I don't want it through sympathy or anything like that. If they are to give me a three-year contract then I'll want it because they think I'm the right person to take the club forward and bring it success."That's what I want to do, not just for myself, for the players. If I was to walk out on the club or resign . . . I've brought a lot of those players here and they've been magnificent all season and I think we've got the nucleus of a very good squad."

Lennon admitted that the thought of walking away had crossed his mind "once or twice - but I think Why? Being a manager is a very precious job. We're in the game because we love it. All managers think they can make a difference, and that's what I want to do here."

Last Wednesday, when he was attacked in the technical area at Tynecastle, has been seen as the most traumatic moment of the season for Lennon personally, but the manager insisted it had not been that difficult to get over.

"Not at all, no. Not at all. I'm not happy about it. I'm not happy that my personal safety was under threat, but that's not an issue for myself or our club to deal with, that's for other authorities and clubs to sort out," he said.

In the aftermath of that incident, as previously this season, the argument has been heard that Lennon brings the hostility on himself. He said he found such an attitude "astonishing", and added that he hoped he and everyone else in the game would be able to concentrate on football next season.

"Astonishing is one word. But it tells me a lot about those people who are saying these things - it tells me what their mindset is like and what their views are. It's not a slight on me - I think it's a slight on them."

"I'd like to think (we can concentrate on football next season]. I'm here and I'm a football manager. I talk about football, whether you like my views or not. I'm not there to hurt people or damage them, I'm there to build a football club and team. I give answers to questions and some people take that the wrong way."

Asked what he had meant when he told the Parkhead crowd that others needed to take a look at themselves, Lennon expanded a little, but declined to say precisely whom his remarks were aimed at.

"I think there's people in the Scottish game who take a lot out of it and put very little back in it," he said.

"There's people in your section of the game, people in associations, people at clubs, definitely people in the media - and all they seem to do is criticise clubs, managers, boards and players and they're not making a positive contribution."

Going back to the main issue of the day, he expressed his club's feelings of dejection about failing to win the title on the final day, and congratulated his retiring counterpart at Rangers."We're very, very disappointed," Lennon admitted. "I don't like finishing second at anything and the priority was the championship. I'd like to congratulate Rangers: to win the league on 93 points takes some doing. And I'd like to congratulate Walter as well. He's been a tremendous ambassador for the game in Scotland."

Although by saying "This isn't the end" Lennon was referring to his own desire to go on and win the title as Celtic boss, it was also, more immediately, a reference to the cup final on Saturday.

"It's been a pretty emotional week for a lot of people surrounding the club," he concluded. "It would be fitting for the players to finish the season with something in the trophy cabinet. I think they deserve it and the supporters deserve it."