A S a student and aficionado of Celtic's history it would only have deepened Neil Lennon's pleasure last night to reflect on exactly what he achieved by delivering the club's 36th Scottish Cup.
This was his players' cup final victory over Hibs, his players' double, but it was his too and on a personal basis it brought him an individual distinction he could welcome with pride and humility. Only Jock Stein and Billy McNeill had previously won the double with Celtic as both player and manager. Now Lennon is alongside them on the pedestal.
Perhaps during the long night of carousing Celtic earned for themselves, someone pointed out to Lennon that another, even more impressive distinction remains within his grasp. No manager, of Celtic or anyone else, has ever won Scotland's treble as both player and manager. Lennon the midfielder scooped all three trophies in 2000-01. Were he to do so from the dugout next season he would pull off something unique. As his season closed amid the tumult of celebration at Hampden, it would be only human nature if he had given some thought to going one step further over the coming 12 months and harvesting all three trophies.
In their first season without Rangers – the Ibrox club's squad being out of the SPL and far too weak to mount a challenge in the two domestic cups – Celtic took two of the three major honours and were semi-finalists in the other one, surprisingly beaten when they performed flatly against St Mirren. Celtic have made it to Hampden for at least a semi-final in all six cup campaigns since Lennon became permanent manager in 2010. They have become a team that is always there or thereabouts.
Trebles do not grow on trees and there have been only 10 of them accomplished since the League Cup was established in 1946 despite the efforts of some outstanding Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United sides over those decades. But it's clear that the circumstances in Scottish football right now mean a one-season monopoly of all the honours is more likely than ever for Celtic.
They may lose Gary Hooper and/or Victor Wanyama in the next couple of months but all things are relative. They would receive millions of pounds for either of them. The team which pushed them closest in the SPL, Motherwell, have just lost a key player because Rangers could pay more in Division Two (although happily Stuart McCall seems to want to stay rather than manage Sheffield United). Yesterday's opponents expect to lose Leigh Griffiths and, just as depressingly considering what it says about resources, Eoin Doyle is off to Chesterfield in League Two. Lennon's appeal for Celtic to be given due appreciation and respect for what they've achieved this season was entirely justified – they have had an excellent European campaign and won the SPL far more easily than the final table might suggest – but there always will be qualified appreciation from those who point out that domestic trophies are easier to come by when you have 10 times the resources of your rivals.
Lennon will meet Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell this week to discuss "the future". It will be a relief to Celtic supporters to hear that Everton seem to want Roberto Martinez for their next manager and Stoke fancy Mark Hughes. If there are no Barclays Premier League approaches for him over the summer there is no issue over whether he remains for what will be his fourth full season (he surely would not leave Celtic for a Championship club). Instead, the talks with Desmond and Lawwell will involve an enhanced contract for him and, of far broader significance, an exchange of views on the level of investment and transfer activity this summer.
Lennon will not be bracing himself for any great revelations. He has a clear idea of Celtic's financial position and of Desmond's disinclination to commit to spending beyond the club's means. The difference between reaching the last 16 and having the potential to push on to the last eight in the Champions League would be two or three of the sort of signings Celtic cannot financially justify, given the danger of not making it into (or out of) the group at all. Lennon knows the best he is likely to hear is "get us through to the group again and we'll give you bigger money in August".
The Celtic manager has a birthday next month, his 42nd. Only Brendan Rodgers, Andre Villas-Boas and Malky Mackay are younger than him among England's top-flight bosses. There is a shelf life for managers at Celtic – Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan both said as much – and it seems to be around four or five years. Lennon has had three. Yesterday closed by far the most rewarding and impressive season he's had as a manager, one in which his reputation grew and spread. Having to scale all those heights again next season, simply to preserve the name he's making for himself, might not seem enormously appealing to him this morning. But Celtic gives him regular, incredible highs.
He has a hankering to challenge himself in England, and the day will come, but there was nothing about the cup final which felt like the end of his story here.
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