Neil Lennon makes unexpected Steven Gerrard admission

Celtic manager Neil Lennon has just made a surprising and unexpected admission about rival manager Steven Gerrard.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon is looking forward to this upcoming season. He will have the opportunity to lead his squad to one of the biggest achievements on club history: 10-in-a-row. This is the biggest achievement for the club since 1967.

Lennon knows exactly what is at stake and on the line. That is why he want’s to revamp the club heading into the season. He also admits in an interview with Chris Sutton of the Daily Record that he would love to see what would be possible if he was able to keep all of his stars.

Lennon claims they would be European contenders is players like Kieran Tierney, Virgil van Dijk, Moussa Dembele and and Victor Wanyama all were still with the club. It is hard to disagree with that sentiment. But the gaffer also gave credit to to the development side of the house that his club is so well known for:

"“It would be nice to be able to compete with them. I wouldn’t say ‘envious’. I like finding players under the radar. Van Dijk is the standout example. He goes for £12m to Southampton, then £75m to Liverpool, and now he’s probably the best centre-half in the world.“We take pride in that. We take pride in Kieran Tierney going to Arsenal for £25m. There is a lot of untapped natural talent here. Ideally, you’d love to hold on to these players because then we’d have a strong chance of achieving something in Europe.”"

Perhaps his most surprising comments came about Rangers manager Steven Gerrard. He was prompted when Sutton had asked Lennon about not being connected to any English Premier League clubs. Lennon, in typical fashion, kept it all Green and White and said he had no interest in that kind of move.

Then Sutton asked if it was bothersome that Gerrard, with no hardware to his name, was always seemingly attached to a rumour regarding a big money move. Lennon kept his response classy:

"“It doesn’t bother me. Steven’s done a very good job at Rangers and he’s got a great profile. I just go about getting on with things here. Sometimes, speculation can be very unsettling.“It can make you take your eye off the ball. I’m really happy with what I’m doing at Celtic. If there’s speculation surrounding me, it’s not welcome at the moment.”"

The Hoops manager could have taken an opportunity to pass along an off-handed comment, or a sly remark. But that just isn’t his style. What if the roles were flipped? Do you think Gerrard would have had as much class? Based off of recent events it would be hard to see. Let’s just be thankful we have a world class manager leading the Hoops.