Neil Lennon is looking forward to taking a ringside seat at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday as Sunderland face Norwich City.
A decade ago Martin O’Neill managed Paul Lambert and Lennon but will now be at the mercy of the two midfielders who contributed so much to his success at Celtic.
Lennon will be sitting in the Sky Sports studio delivering his verdict on his two former colleagues while Lambert will be plotting an away win from the Norwich dug out.
While enjoying his return to management O’Neill has also been keeping tabs on the progress of his former players and is delighted to see Lennon and Lambert making a success of the management game.
“Lenny has fought back really strongly; it has been a great riposte to what happened earlier in the season,” the Sunderland boss told Scotland on Sunday. “I am obviously delighted. I always felt he would find his own way to be able to do it.
“I always said that if he became half the manager he was as a player, that would be pretty good for starters. It has been tough for him, being hit, assaulted so it is great credit to him what he is doing in one seriously difficult job, considering it has come to him so young.”
On Lambert he added: “I was lucky enough to learn under Brian Clough, a great manager. And Paul’s had experience in Germany under [Ottmar] Hitzfeld and… somewhere along the line if he’s picked up something from myself, that’s fine.
“Lenny, Paul and all the others who have played under me and are now managing with credit, they had it in them, they had the personalities. You can talk about reflected glory, but I am just genuinely pleased for them.”
As Lennon battles Ally McCoist for the title the impact of a certain derby clash from 12 years ago is still bring felt.
O’Neill famously defeated Rangers 6-2 in his first derby match to set the tone for five years in the ascendancy that is still costing the Ibrox side.
Dick Advocaat brought Rangers to the East End with his league winning squad bolstered by the expensive signings of Bert Konterman, Fernando Ricksen, Peter Lovenkrands, Kenny Miller, Paul Ritchie and Allan Johnston.
After a 6-2 defeat the Dutchman was back in the transfer market splashing out £17m to bring Tore-Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer to Ibrox.
The high spending Advocaat days have left Rangers financially cripped with O’Neill speculating at the long term impact of the 6-2 match.
“When I look back now that 6-2 win over Rangers it was a bigger victory than I was aware of at the time,” the Sunderland boss added. “ I mean, I knew it was big but it lifted the whole club.
“You can get carried away with one victory but it gave us serious belief that, even getting beaten at Ibrox next time, didn’t upset. The 6-2 might have set us up for the next two years.”
CLICK HERE for exodus underway at Ibrox
CLICK HERE for Burnley move for former Celtic defender
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube