Celtic Through And Through

Neil Lennon is currently guiding the club as manager, but back in 2000 he made the switch to Paradise when he signed for the Hoops… and he was delighted to talk to the View about his dream move

IN the pre-transfer window days, players could move between clubs at any point in the season and Neil Lennon did just that nearly 19 years ago when he joined Celtic from Leicester City on December 8, 2000.

Just two days later, he made his Hoops debut, helping his new team to a 2-1 win over Dundee at Dens Park. And then, just 12 days after joining his boyhood heroes, he sat down with the Celtic View for the first of countless interviews with the club magazine.

The Irishman was the main interview in the Christmas issue of the View that year (December 20), and in this week’s If View Know The History feature, we revisit that first interview of the man who is the current Celtic manager…

SPENDING Christmas and New Year alone in a hotel room is not a prospect most people would relish; Neil Lennon is no different.

However, add that you are doing so because you have just signed for Celtic and the blow is softened somewhat; again, Lennon is no different...

For, although he is now subject to the occasionally smothering attentions of the Glasgow public, having arrived amid a media frenzy, he has accepted the hype with a shrug of the shoulders and a faint smile. In part, that is because Lennon is, in short, a good guy.

He’s the way you would like to see yourself were you ever to become a Celtic player, a man whose amiable demeanour will endear him to those he meets.

But it’s the Lurgan-born midfielder’s genuine and unquenchable desire to become a Celtic success story that gives him a philosophical outlook on the traditional downside to life in the Hoops.

Sure it’s early days, but being a Celtic star is not a novelty that will easily wear off on the Northern Ireland internationalist.