Lennon has taken Celtic as far as he possibly can

Managing Celtic is a privilege and Neil Lennon knows it. But there comes a time when that simply isn’t enough any more.

Once all the trophies that can be won have been won, once all the records that can be broken are broken, and once the challenge of delivering victory after victory is no longer challenging, any manager worth his salt will start to think about moving on.

For Lenny, that time is now.

Having led the Hoops to three League titles and two Scottish Cups in his four years in charge, there is nothing of any real value left for him to accomplish on the domestic front.

Having also masterminded his side’s progress to the last-16 of the Champions League last season, there is nothing more he can realistically do in Europe.

To put it bluntly: Neil Lennon has taken Celtic as far as he can.

In Scotland and particularly around Parkhead the fact that Norwich City are seen as serious contenders to lure Lennon away from his spiritual home has left a few people puzzled.

And that puzzlement ALMOST starts to make sense when you consider the Canaries have been battling relegation from the Premiership for much of the season.

But the truth is and it’s a truth none of us can deny however much we want to even if Norwich go down, their budget will be far superior to Celtic’s.

With the money the manager will have at his disposal, whoever takes over will have a real chance of making himself an instant hero by winning promotion at the first attempt.

As far as worst case scenarios go, that’s a pretty good deal even for the Celtic manager.

I had Neil on my radio programme a few weeks back, the morning after Celtic clinched the League title against Partick Thistle.

He was in good form, as you’d imagine, but when I asked him if he thought there was any way, under any circumstances, he could see Celtic ever winning the Champions League, his answer spoke volumes.

He pursed his lips and let out a lip-rattling exhalation. No words were necessary. Raw exasperation told the story.

Making the leap from Celtic to Norwich won’t make the prospect of Lennon lifting Europe’s top club trophy a reality in short order but it would be a step in the right direction.

However much he has achieved at Celtic and however much he would achieve in the future there would always be doubts down south about his ability as a boss simply because of the lack of competition in Scotland.

Managing Norwich may be viewed as less of a privilege than leading Celtic, but, particularly in England, it will be seen as a tougher test.

I suspect Neil feels it’s a test he’s ready to take.