Lennon says the club comes first amid Rodgers departure

Neil Lennon has announced that Celtic is his main priority, following an abrupt appointment as interim boss yesterday afternoon.

He has taken over the job from Brendan Rodgers, who has now been confirmed as the new Leicester City manager.

This has caused outcry among supporters, with it now a nervous time for Celtic fans and Lennon knows exactly what is at stake and how important the next few weeks are for the hoops.

The club comes first, and obviously the players, and I want to bring as much success here in my time as I possibly can.

Neil Lennon has revealed that he had plans to go on holiday to enjoy his time off – but when Celtic came calling, he could not say no to a return to Celtic Park.

Lennon will be taking charge of the team immediately and will be the manager for Celtics fixture against Hibernian in the Scottish Cup Quarter-Final at Easter Road on Saturday. He will be attending the league match against Hearts tonight at Tynecastle but it is likely that John Kennedy will be in control of that side.

Speaking to The Independent, Lennon said this:

These are tough games, but this is the business end of the season and looking at the mentality of the players, they look really focused.

It is going to be tough for Lennon to prove himself at this moment in time as all the talk is about Rodgers’ departure. He assures Celtic fans not to look back though and concentrate on the rest of the season.

It’s not about me coming back, it’s not about Brendan leaving, it’s about Celtic winning the league and hopefully winning another cup as well.

To come into a club as a manager at this point in a season, when there is so much at stake for the club – it is a extremely difficult task. He has to make sure that he continues to get the same quality out of the players as Rodgers had done when he was in charge. He will be looking to John Kennedy for help in this.

I’m going to lean on John Kennedy a lot, he knows how it works, he knows the system, the routine and I’ll be tapping into that a lot. I don’t want this disrupting the flow.

John Kennedy has been a coach at club for many years now and knows the ins and outs of the club more than most people. He was an important figure to Brendan Rodgers and how the team played – especially defensively. It will be wise of Neil Lennon to work very closely with him and make sure there is continuity in the style of play in the Celtic tactics. Changing too much in the style, would be very costly at this time in the season.

Neil Lennon is a real fan favourite here for Celtic fans. He had a terrific spell at the club as manager before and knows Scottish football more than most people. He is showing a tremendous amount of desire and determination to come back in these tough times and it sounds as if he’s very prepared for the job ahead.

It will be interesting to see how he performs in the next few games and if he’s up to the task of taking the job on full-time.