Neil Lennon makes huge claim about Rodgers’ Celtic departure

Neil Lennon has made a huge claim about Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic departure, who left the club for Leicester City in controversial fashion in the middle of last season.

It is safe to say that Brendan Rodgers burned a lot of bridges when he left Celtic in the middle of last season to return to the Premier League by joining Leicester City. The move did not go down well with the Hoops supporters, who saw Rodgers’ move after having claimed that Celtic was his “dream job” as betrayal.

Things could have ended very badly for the Glasgow side who were still challenging for the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup at the time and a change in management might very well have derailed their season. Fortunately, Neil Lennon returned for a second stint at the club and led them to both trophies, completing a Treble Treble in the process.

Despite the fact, there have always been question marks surrounding the credibility of Lennon for the Celtic job. But back-to-back wins over Lazio in the Europa League means that the manager is riding high at the moment and he has taken this oppurtunity to make a huge claim about Rodgers’ departure and its effect on the club.

The Celtic boss believes that a disconnection had been formed between the club and the supporters after Rodgers left. Lennon who had previously managed the Glasgow side for four years earlier in the decade but never felt the same connection during his second stint as manager. That was until Thursday night when Celtic came back from a goal down to beat Lazio 2-1 away in Italy.

Speaking to Sky Sports following the win, Lennon said:

"“It felt for the first time in my second stint as manager like real Celtic again; that love, that pride, that connection. They helped the team enormously.“When I came back in February there was a disconnection with Brendan (Rodgers) leaving. We lost a great manager and there was a disconnection between certain supporters and the club.“But it was all connected again last night. There was real pride and it felt like the old days for me. Sending them home happy was as pleasing to me as winning the game with the players.”"

There had been widespread protests by the fans against the board earlier this season after the club had crashed out of the Champions League qualification phase at the hands of CFR Cluj. But the ship has been steadied since then with the Hoops now at the top of the Premiership and already in the knockout stages of the Europa League.