Source: FOOTYMAD
Lennon not the type to cut and run
Neil Lennon is unlikely to turn his back on the club he loves Gary Hooper believes Celtic manager Neil Lennon would never walk out on the Parkhead club. The future of the management team at Parkhead has been subject to speculation since the manager was given 24-hour protection in the wake of the Scottish Cup replay win over Rangers on 2 March when a suspicious package addressed to him was intercepted. Bullets had been sent in the post to Lennon earlier in the season and Hoops first-team coach Alan Thompson suggested his former Celtic team-mate could quit in the summer. However, Hooper, one of Lennon's key signings in the summer, believes the club means too much to Lennon for him to resign just a year after replacing Tony Mowbray. The striker claims his gaffer is one of the strongest individuals he has met in the game. Asked whether Lennon could quit Celtic at the end of the current campaign, Hooper said: "No chance. He's such a strong character who just gets on with it. He doesn't let any of this stuff affect him. Everyone here hates hearing about possibly quitting, no-one wants to hear it but I don't think it will happen. This club means too much to him. He's as strong a person as anyone I've met and he's got to be as manager of Celtic. I'm surprised by the stuff he has to put up with but it doesn't get to him. The players don't talk about it either and that's the way it should be." The former Scunthorpe player insists Lennon's main quality is getting his players to give their all in the quest for the domestic treble. Ahead of tonight's rearranged Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Inverness at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Hooper said: "He just gets the best out of everyone here, he doesn't accept second best. He wants us to win in every game we play and he drums that into us. I think he's building something for this season, first and foremost. We've got to go for it, really, there is no point in us sitting back and worrying about next year. But we've got a young team, with a low average age, so he'll be thinking about the future. I'm sure the gaffer will want to win things every year."
