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Former Celtic defender Darren O’Dea reckons Neil Lennon can cope with the high expectations at Celtic Park and be a success during his second spell as manager, as reported by The Daily Record.
What’s the story?
Lennon has been offered the role of manager heading into next season and although there’s been no confirmation of his appointment, there’s an expectancy he will be in the dugout at Celtic Park when European qualifiers kick off in July.
There’s a significant amount of pressure on his shoulders after phenomenal recent success at the club, but O’Dea reackons that Lennon can handle it and maintain that level of achievement seen over the last few years.
As quoted by The Daily Record, the 32-year-old said:
Ten-in-a-row is the holy grail. There is no doubt that is where the fans’ attention is. You don’t want to be that guy, the guy who is in charge of the team that loses it. But on the flipside of that, you would be immortal if you are the guy who manages to do it.
The highs are seriously high, the lows are seriously low. That is part of being a Celtic player or manager and if anyone knows about it, it is Lenny.
You either deal with it or you don’t. Lenny knows how to deal with it. Lenny has coped with it so I don’t see that as a problem. Yes there is enormous pressure but he could come back in 10 years’ time and there would still be enormous pressure.
He has been successful, he can do the job. It was just whether Celtic felt they would give the job to him. I have no worries about whether he will do well or not – he will do well.
Watch a tribute to Celtic’s late Lisbon Lion and greatest ever captain, Billy McNeill in the video below…
High standards
Unless Celtic make significant progress in Europe, there’s really not much more Lennon can do in the job beyond what has already been achieved by his predecessor Brendan Rodgers.
Building a squad capable of winning a domestic treble three years in a row is a magnificent achievement.
Lennon of course played a part in the final part of that success, but the expectation is that he continues this after rebuilding his team this summer.
Being offered the job has certainly raised eyebrows, with some fans craving a big name manager to come in, but Lennon is no slouch when it comes to generating his own Celtic success.
Winning record
To date Lennon has been in charge of 241 matches as Celtic manager, winning an incredible 169 of them. That means he’s won 70.1% of all his matches since first landing the job in 2010. It’s an incredible record that puts him right up there with the Celtic greats.
It’s actually an even higher winning percentage than Brendan Rodgers, who won 69.8% of his matches between 2016 and 2019.
The two records are remarkably similar, so any worried Celtic fans should heed O’Dea’s words and the evidence of Lennon’s record at the club and be prepared to win the vast majority of their matches again next term.