Only One Man For The Job

09 June 2010 18:59
Neil Lennon was the Celtic board's one and only candidate. Celtic chairman John Reid strenuously denied Giovanni Trapattoni or anyone else had been approached about the manager's job at Parkhead before insisting Neil Lennon was the only credible candidate. The Irishman was finally confirmed as manager at a press conference at Parkhead after an interim spell as manager following the departure of Tony Mowbray in March. However, last month Republic of Ireland boss Trapattoni was quoted as saying: "It was not the Celtic chairman, but someone close to him, close to the club, a former player, who approached me three to four months ago and asked would I be interested in a position." But Reid said today: "I'm not going to comment on any individuals other than to say this: no-one with any authority from this club has spoken to or offered the job of manager to anyone. Indeed, no-one has been spoken to about the job apart from Neil Lennon. I can give you that absolute assurance." Despite the time taken to confirm Celtic's former skipper as their new boss, Reid insists Lennon was the only man for the post. He said: "We have taken some to to confirm Neil as manager. That should be a source of strength and not of doubt. This is a great club and it faces great challenges and the truth is we are appointing Neil after the most careful thought, deliberation and scrutiny. The truth is also that if this was just a matter of the heart rather than our heart and head, Neil would have been appointed within an hour of the vacancy arising because in our hearts we really wanted Neil Lennon to be our manager. We don't have to rehearse why, he's been a great player, a great captain and a great coach and a great part of Celtic for so many years. But because it is such a big challenge we wanted to make sure that we did it with more than our heart. We asked Neil to undertake the end of season games, it was a challenge and he took the challenge and the record speaks for itself. He did his talking on the park. But even then we went through a process of scrutiny and he knew what we were doing but on every occasion our head brought us back to our heart. In the course of that we have spoken to no-one, nor offered anyone, this job." Editor Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba.net)Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba.net)This is Scottish-Fitba.Net

Source: FOOTYMAD