Neil Lennon will always hold Celtic close to his heart and the clubs fans will always hold him in high regard, both as a player and as a manager.

His stint, away from Celtic Park, at Bolton Wanderers hasn’t gone swimmingly to say the least.

Bolton along with Leeds United are the closest examples English football has to what happened to Rangers up here. Reckless spending has caused a financial meltdown at the Macron Stadium and near extinction.

Yesterday saw the Sport Shield consortium complete their £7.5m takeover of the English Championship club. The new owners still have creditors at the door demanding money but at least their seems to be a slightly brighter future on the horizon.

What future Lennon has in England’s north west isn’t known as of writing.

The fact is that the Trotters are bottom of the Championship and are ten points away from safety!

I’d imagine Neil will stick it out and try and bring in some loan deals once the transfer embargo is lifted on his side. But come the end of the season, would he really want to stay on?

The last fifteen months would have been extremely exhausting at Bolton with Lennon at times having both arms tied behind his back as he’s tried to get a team out on the park. Last season he managed to rescue the side from relegation but it looks less likely this time around.

You’d imagine that he would be better off stepping away from the situation in the summer, now the club has more long term stability.

Plus maybe Sport Shield will want to bring in their own manager. If they were to go down then I think the new board might see it as an ideal opportunity to cut ties with Lennon and lower the wage bill by bringing a young manager from the lower leagues, someone more suited to League One perhaps.

Just a few weeks ago Lennon spoke to The Guardian newspaper.

In that interview the Northern Irishman revealed his continued connection with Celtic and his desire to go back there one day:

“Would I go back? Yes, eventually. I was there for 14 years, I have such a great affinity with the club. In some capacity, I would like to be around the club again at some stage in my career.”

Now in that quote, Lennon doesn’t exactly suggest that coming back to Celtic is something in his near future but never say never.

The Glasgow giants are leading the Scottish Premiership by just one point (albeit with a game in hand). The east end support haven’t taken to Lennon’s Norwegian replacement Ronny Deila.

Deila has failed to get Celtic into the group stages of the Champions League and this term he failed to do much in the Europa League. In fact many would suggest that the standard on the pitch has declined dramatically in the last twelve months.

The Hoops were soundly beaten by Ross County in the League Cup semi final at Hampden earlier in the year and now face rivals Rangers at the same stage of the Scottish Cup in April.

Lose to Rangers or slip up in the league and the Celtic board will have no option but to sack Ronny Deila.

So if Neil Lennon is on the lookout for a new job, could he go back?

Well Peter Lawwell would need to convince him that the downsizing at the club has finished and they are ready to release extra funds (many believe that will take a miracle).

The probability that Ranger are finally ready to return to the top flight could interest Lennon. He never seemed as happy when he didn’t have the Old Firm fixture to look forward to. Lets face it, he’d like nothing more than to bring the Gers fans back down to earth.

He may also think that there is some unfinished business left for him in Glasgow. After all Lennon didn’t match his heroes Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill in winning a domestic treble at Parkhead.

Plus you might find the allure of returning to the club and making it better is too strong. Prove that getting into the Champions League again can be done as well as keeping Rangers or anyone else away from the league title.

Oh and then there is the possibility of nine in a row to chase, if Ronny’s men haven’t messed that up by the summer.

Really this is just an idea I thought about this morning. But stranger things have happened and it could make next season a lot more exciting and interesting!

Posted on March 11th, 2016 by scott
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