NEIL LENNON has backed John Kennedy to take over from him as Celtic manager one day, and says he is already capable of being a successful manager in his own right.

The Celtic assistant manager was heavily linked with the Hibernian job before Jack Ross was appointed earlier this week, and Lennon was relieved to have retained Kennedy as part of his backroom staff.

He told his number two though that his chance will arrive soon enough when he came looking for advice on whether or not his boss’s old stomping ground at Easter Road should be the place to cut his managerial teeth.

“I gave him short shrift!” Lennon joked. “I said look, I am not surprised, but you are just too important to what we are doing here. You know your time will come.

“He is ambitious, he has his own ambitions, but the club means a lot to him. He has made a huge contribution to the club and he still has a big contribution to make before he either steps in here, in the hot seat eventually, or he goes on and does his own thing.

“He could do it now [be a manager]. He has been first team coach under a few managers but this time he is number two or number one and a half as I call him because he is that close to me.

“That has maybe really captured people’s attention and he is still young enough not to take plunge just yet but if you ask me if he is ready to go into management, I would say yeah, he is ready to go into management or the head coach role now.

“He has been doing it now for four or five years. He is 36. People say you never know when you are ready and that would be the case, but I think he is ready.

“Some people say they are not ready but if an opportunity comes along and it is the right one then I think he would make a fine job wherever he went really.”

That being said, Lennon is relieved that Kennedy will stay at Celtic Park for the time being at least.

“I am delighted because we have worked very hard in the last nine months and John has been pivotal to that, as has Damien (Duff), so we certainly didn’t want to break up the backroom team.

“I am not surprised he is sought after because he is excellent. He has been in the system, if you want to call it that, for a long time now.

“He has worked under Ronnie (Deila), he has worked under Brendan (Rodgers) for the last four or five years, so he has wealth of coaching expertise now.

“You can see the way he works with the players that he has a great relationship with them and he was really important to me coming in.

“I needed that stability and I am so glad that he has decided to stay. I am not surprised Hibs eyed him because he has got a very good reputation now.”