It’s telling that Neil Lennon is flying off to Spain today, apparently without having signed the deal on offer to manage Celtic.
A contract is a two way agreement, the Celtic board like what they see in Lennon but the Irishman will have a few questions and demands/requests before he signs up to take charge on permanent basis.
Does he want a three or five year deal or a rolling 12 month contract. Does he want the package that Brendan Rodgers enjoyed or will be settle for a contract closer to the one Ronny Deila had?
More importantly for supporters how much money will he be given to strengthen the squad, to return Celtic to the group phase of the Champions League and maintain their dominance in Scotland?
Last summer Lennon had a first hand view of the incident that was the beginning of the end for Rodgers at Celtic. John McGinn played for Hibs at the start of last season as Celtic were losing out on the midfielder to Aston Villa.
In the emotion of Hampden on Saturday some managers might have signed a contract there and then, Lennon has held fire and will finalise his side of it in Spain this week.
After being offered the job he told The Scotsman: “You could say no but I’m pretty steely about it and I know what I want to do.
“It’s been a privilege to manage them the first time and to do it for the second time is just unbelievable really, it’s great. I’ll take stock of things, obviously I have a lot to think about.
“I’m still quite emotional at the minute – there is a lot to take in. There is a lot to think about but, again, when you get offered a job like this it’s really, really difficult to turn it down.”
In less than a month Celtic play their first pre-season match in Austria, on July 9/10 they will be back in the front-line of Champions League qualifiers- the most important and stressful time of the season.
The sooner that Lennon’s contract is agreed the quicker Celtic can start catching up on lost time, getting on the front foot and moving forward as a club of their resources should.
