FANTASTIC MANAGER

Brendan has been called a fraud, a Judas and a rat. But Celtic board have got the best man for job. He's a...

- MICHAEL GANNON

IT’S not just the elephant in the room. An entire herd has squeezed into the Jock Stein Lounge at Celtic Park and not left much wriggle room for anything else. 

Neil Lennon admits there’s no escaping the fact Brendan Rodgers didn’t exactly exit Parkhead on the best of terms when he left the circus and headed down the M74 for the border.

But that doesn’t mean Hoops fans will stay in a huff forever.

As Rodgers arrived for his second coming at Celtic, the man who stepped into the breach following his shock departure for Leicester in February 2019 reckons the Northern Irishman may have some making up to do.

However, he’s convinced the former hero can once again win the adulation of the masses.

Lennon knows what it’s like when the crowd turns at Parkhead.

He’s a club legend but it didn’t save him from the wild backlash when the side’s 10-in-a-row bid was circling the drain during the frustration of the Covid shut-out season.

The man before him suffered a similar outpouring of abuse for daring to take a job in England when prizes were still to be won in Scotland.

It was spurned lover stuff as Rodgers went from the chosen one to Public Enemy No.1, branded a fraud, a Judas or a rat and sometimes even worse.