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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Mark McCadden

Neil Lennon on the one Irish player he wishes he could have signed at Celtic

Neil Lennon has revealed the one Irish player that he wishes he could have signed at Celtic.

Lennon managed the Scottish giants during two spells and won five league titles and four Scottish Cups across his tenure.

Among the Irish players he managed at Parkhead were Shane Duffy, Anthony Stokes, Jonny Hayes, Daryl Murphy and Robbie Keane.

But there was one that eluded him, with Lennon telling Boylesports: “Damien Duff is the one player I wish I had with me as a player at Celtic

“Robbie Keane came to Celtic for six months and I was interim manager at the time before I got the job permanently.

“I would have loved him to have stayed a bit longer. He was an unbelievable, outstanding striker.

“Damien Duff is another one. I ended up coaching with Damien for a year at Celtic and he was fabulous. I would've loved to have had him with me as a player.”

Duff is now in charge of League of Ireland side Shelbourne. He led the Reds to the FAI Cup final last year, his first campaign in the dugout.

Lennon added: “It's up to him how high he wants to take his managerial career.

“We were very successful alongside John Kennedy and we were doing great things until the season was curtailed by lockdown.

“We looked like we were going to reach 100 points and 100 goals and we'd also beaten Lazio home and away that season.

“We were romping the league and you wonder where we would've ended up if it wasn't for the lockdowns and COVID.”

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