Lennon conquering his demons and confident he can handle the pressure

Rightly or wrongly, and ramped up by a couple of assaults in which he was the victim, Lennon's social life has attained almost as legendary a status as his professional contribution. Now the life-changing experience of being placed in charge of Celtic for the last weeks of the season doesn't just mean his nine-to-five being turned upside down, but also his five-to-nine.

"I can't go to the pub on a Friday night," he says when asked how his new role will affect him. "I'm trying to stay calm and stay away from the hype. I'm trying to keep the players in a good frame of mind."

Frame of mind is also pertinent where Lennon's own psyche is concerned. He has spoken publicly about dealing with depression, an illness which has afflicted many family members. A primary trigger is stress, but the 38-year-old has no concerns about coping. "I'll have to handle it," he said. "If this is what I want to do, I'll have to be able to take all the outside influences that come with it, whether I like them or not. In terms of my own health, I've been on the straight and narrow with that for quite a long time now, and I'm pretty ambitious about what I want to do."

The intrigue is about how he will do the job. A potential difficulty, he accepted, could be "that bit of familiarity between myself and the players". Which explains the decision to bring in Johan Mjallby as his assistant. "He doesn't know the players and they don't know him," Lennon said. "That means I've got a fresh opinion on things from someone who has vast experience."

While Mowbray and his assistant Peter Grant were probably guilty of boxing away their natural passions in an effort to fashion themselves into urbane and cerebral football thinkers, Lennon is preparing to be the same narker, the same wee nyaff on the touchline as he was on the park.

"I was never short of excuses to give players a bollocking when I played," he said. "I'm not a cheerleader, I'm not a ranter and raver, I choose what I say carefully. But I've good experience under the likes of Martin (O'Neill] and Gordon (Strachan]. I've spoken to both about the job, and they both said don't f****** do it. Naw, they said you've just got to be yourself and enjoy it."

Yet Lennon is sure to be heavily influenced by O'Neill, just as his mentor has always betrayed traits he learned under Brian Clough. The Villa manager spoke recently about feeling as if he had known Lennon all his life and, save for a publicly uttered swear word, Lennon was indeed very O'Neill-like on Friday, particularly his caustic quip concerning his transition from former team-mate to boss. "I wasn't really pals with any of the players before, I f****** don't like any of them," he said.

He intends to head in the O'Neill direction on the training pitch where his mentor tends to remain detached. Strachan and Mowbray were the reverse. "Players get fed up of hearing the same voices every day," Lennon said. "I might let Johan take the majority of the training, but if there's anything I want to say, I'll step in and make the point. In the main, I'd rather just watch, keep an eye on them and make sure they're happy and enjoying what they're doing."

Lennon doesn't place the blame on Mowbray for the fragility that has destroyed Celtic's season. The man who was effectively reserve coach until this week claimed he has seen the softness even "at the younger level". "Some of the players do have that will to win, some of them do have that inner drive, as you would want," he said. "I've got to try to find that and eke it out of them. I'm not questioning their talent, I'm not questioning their application, I'm questioning their mentality. I want a bit of character.

"A lot of the games I've watched, they've been on top and not seen it through. A classic example was the Old Firm game (in January]. We totally dominated, but you always felt Rangers might nick one and they did. We were banging away, banging away and eventually got the goal but couldn't see it through. That's the weakness that's been running through the team. I don't think it's anything to do with the manager; it's to do with the mindset of the players. Rangers have had that ability to grind out results. They've been criticised for their style of play but they know how to win football games. What concerns me is that we don't score enough goals in the last ten minutes. If we go a goal down, is there any real belief in the team that we can get a goal back? I'm not so sure. It's not happened much this season. I want us to get that mentality back. It's up to me and Johan to try to find it."

Lennon believe he has a core who possess the right stuff, notably men who pre-date Mowbray. "There are players who've been here for a while: McGeady, Boruc, Naylor, Brown. These players have won championships, they know how to go over the piece; they've just got to drag a few of the others along with them. I've got a few in there who I think are winners. I think I've got a solid enough base of players who can maybe carry the rest through."

If they do, if they lift the Scottish Cup and close the gap on Rangers courtesy of a derby victory, Lennon thinks he "would be in with a shout for it" of landing the job permanently. In terms of continuity and, crucially, cost, the ideal scenario for the Celtic board would be Lennon instantly finding a managerial Midas-touch. He has cited Pep Guardiola as an example of how an inexperienced club insider can flower if thrust into the frontline. The Barcelona man is an exception. Lennon will have to prove truly exceptional if he is to make the same step up.