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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Pirie

Neil Lennon ponders Celtic exit misstep as he reveals the Martin O'Neill theory that 'very rare' call proved wrong

Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon admits he has considered that he may have made a mistake when he walked away from the Parkhead hot seat during his first spell as boss.

Lennon spent four seasons as manager at Celtic Park from March 2010 to May 2014 and lifted three Scottish Premiership titles during his first tenure, and famously led the Hoops to the last 16 of the Champions League during that time after claiming a group stage victory over Barcelona. However, after securing his third consecutive title the Northern Irishman would draw a line under his time in Glasgow's east end to try his luck elsewhere.

He would endure ill-fated spell at Bolton before leading Hibs back to the Scottish top flight, and after leaving Easter Road Lennon would eventually be back in the Parkhead hot seat when Brendan Rodgers left the club for Leicester City. Despite a relatively successful stint in Cyprus with Omonia Nicosia after leaving Celtic, where he lifted the Cypriot Cup and secured Europa League, he is out of work and weighing up a return to the game.

While he is out of the game he admits he has looked back on if it was the right decision to leave the Scottish champions back in 2014, as he targets his next job. Lennon told The Sky Sports' Essential Football podcast: "It's hard to take because you put so much into the job, and you have a huge amount of professional pride.

"You think 'oh God, this is the end of the world' and it's not. Martin O'Neill always said to me the one thing you are guaranteed in this job is the sack. In my first spell at Celtic I made the decision to leave after four years, and it's very, very rare you get that.

"Even with that, you sometimes look back on it and wonder if it was the right thing to do. At the time it was the right thing to do for me. But yeah, sometimes you get a bit bitter. You look back on what went right, but you are always going to face the same problems. If the players are good enough, if things are going well behind the scenes, if you have an interfering sort of person up the stairs like a director of football when you go back in, but you love it.

"It's what gets you up and out of bed in the morning. I miss it. I miss the chaos sometimes and the feeling, but initially when you are first out for a couple of months it's good and it's quite relaxed. Then you start watching games and you think 'I could do that'. You start getting the itch again."

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