Three but not easy: Looking back on Neil Lennon’s season

In winning manager of the year Neil Lennon has secured an awards treble for Celtic

CELTIC had already missed out on the all-important treble by the time they clinched the title. But in today being named the Scottish football writers’ manager of the year, Neil Lennon brings up another sort of treble for his club. Earlier in the week, Charlie Mulgrew and James Forrest proved landslide winners in the player and young player categories. Lennon’s victory wasn’t so clear cut, however. It came against strong opposition from Stuart McCall, with Motherwell claiming a Champions League qualifying berth via third place in the Scottish Premier League, and Derek Adams, who has earned Ross County unprecedented top flight promotion with an astonishing 34-game unbeaten run.

Indeed, set against his main manager of the year rivals, there seemed attempts by some to scale down Lennon’s achievement in delivering Celtic a first title in four years. To their credit, the football writers were able to look past more niggardly assessments. Lennon may have had the most heavily resourced squad, no serious challenge for the title after only rivals Rangers’ financial meltdown and lost it at the Scottish Cup semi-final. But a successful title challenge has never been drawn from the depths in the manner it was by Lennon this season.

It is forever pointed out that Celtic were 15 points behind Rangers in November. However, it isn’t always remembered that their immediate response to finding themselves in a position that would have previously spelled the end for championship ambitions was the longest run of domestic victories in the post-war period – a total of 20 – and the second-longest sequence of consecutive league victories in that 65-year span. Only the 25-game sequence by Martin O’Neill in 2004 betters their 17-match tally. Moreover, after the 1-0 win against St Johnstone the other night, they have now set a new, 24-game record for SPL shut-outs. Clean sheets away to Dundee United today and as they complete their league campaign at home to Hearts in a week and they will set a 100-year high for that figure.

Celtic and Lennon this season have earned their accolades through excellence, not by default. The Irishman is the first manager at the club to win his first 16 league games. Last year he completely rebuilt a team – within budget – that came within a whisker of taking the title and equalled the SPL shut-out record. Across two years and two months he has been impressively recalibrating his club’s standards and knows the challenge is to keep nudging them up. To that end, he accepts his most important game next season could be the first they play – the first leg of their third round Champions League qualifier on either 31 July or the following day.

“We’ve done what we set out to do. I think we’ve made progress and I think we’ve improved over the course of the season,” he says. “I think some of the players have really covered themselves in glory. We’re looking like a quality team. I can’t guarantee we will win the league every year but these are exciting times ahead. It’s a privilege to win the award from the football writers. It means a lot to me. I’m delighted and also delighted for Charlie and James.”

His first league crown as manager means more to him than his five league badges as a player but the satisfaction to be derived from any success is far more transient. Hence the Champions League, and the reshaping of his squad, now beginning to dominate his thoughts. “As the manager, the buck stops with you,” he says. “When I was a player, I had people to help me out if you’re having a bad time of it. As a manager then it is all up to you to find the answers. You have to analyse it all and get everything right. It’s a huge undertaking and a huge challenge but it’s one I’ve really enjoyed. One week you win the game and you might enjoy it for 15 minutes. Then you immediately look to the next game and start planning for it. If you lose a game then you analyse it to death and try to get it right for the following week. You’re always being tested and always being asked questions. The next question is can we qualify for the Champions League? It’s a huge test and challenge but one we’re looking forward to taking on.

“I haven’t really even really reflected on winning the title yet. We had the semi-final the week after and the disappointment of losing that. We won last Sunday against Rangers and won well. That gave me a day or two to really enjoy that. We now want to better our points total from last year and I’m always looking for improvement from myself and my backroom staff.”

Lennon will look to add three – one a target man in the John Hartson/Chris Sutton mould – and move in the region of eight players on as he seeks to strengthen his squad. With many midfield options, he could cash in on such as Ki Sung-Yeung, one of the many £5 million-rated assets in a promising young squad, to strengthen his purchasing power. Not having so many air-miles from pre-season exertions could be important to preparations for their first European sortie. Last summer, Celtic circumnavigated the globe, taking games in Australia and America, criss-crossing that continent in pursuit of lucrative appearances fees. They may take a game in America against Chelsea and are also looking at a training camp in Austria. Lennon accepts the need for “balance” but also speaks the language of his chief executive Peter Lawwell. “The club has to try and make money out of pre-season because whatever money we do make goes back into the playing side of things,” he says.

The most money, as well as prestige, the club could earn would be in featuring in the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2008. Although their champions route means they can only face countries ranked from 14 to 53, Lennon knows it could be fraught. “You could be playing an unknown team and they could be in Kazakhstan, so scouting would be a problem. We have had our fingers burnt before with Basel and Bratislava so we are wary, obviously.”

Lennon was burned, justifiably he accepted, by the SFA this week with a six-game ban, three suspended, for his on-field barking at Euan Norris after the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat. He says recent troubles for comments and the Hampden confrontation have been aberrations.

“I sailed through the season without any sort of controversy for the first six or seven months,” he says. “When we were 15 points behind I wasn’t blaming referees for this, that or the other, or calling people out. It just seems to come in threes doesn’t it?”

Well, press awards and punitive measures for Celtic and their manager, at least.