The lack of interest in Neil Lennon is mind-boggling

It’s one of the biggest mysteries in football.

Why on earth aren’t clubs beating a path to Neil Lennon’s door?

Since the Irishman left Celtic in the summer, the likes of Norwich City, Southampton, Huddersfield, Crystal Palace, Cardiff City and now Fulham have all ditched their manager.

Lennon has been linked with all those clubs and has expressed an interest in the other two but he’s still out of a job.

For me, that’s bonkers. This is a man who has masterminded a Celtic victory over Barcelona in the Champions League, and taken the Hoops to the last 16 of the same tournament.

He’s a man who has won three League titles and two Scottish Cups as a manager. He’s also a guy who, for my money, has one of the best football brains around. But still nobody seems particularly interested. It’s mind-boggling.

It would be easy to argue that the reason for English clubs’ reluctance to back Lenny is the lack of credibility Scottish football has south of the border.

It’s very sad, but it’s a fact that people in England look down their noses at the game in Scotland.

But if that is the main reason for Neil Lennon STILL being a passenger on the managerial merry-go-round four months after leaving Celtic, then why on earth was Paul Hartley coveted by Cardiff City?

No disrespect to Paul, who I think is a very good, up-and-coming manager. But his CV isn’t as impressive as Neil’s at this point in time.

Yet it was the Dundee manager’s name at the top of Vincent Tan’s list of potential replacements for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, not Neil Lennon’s.

After Hartley knocked back the Bluebirds, Lenny emerged amongst the front-runners, but I can’t believe he wasn’t leading the pack from the very beginning especially given his relatively high profile in the media these days.

There was a time where you probably could have said Neil had a bit of an image problem.

Touchline altercations, being sent to the stands, touchline bans. All of those things were fairly regular occurrences, particularly early in his managerial career.

But in his increasingly regular media appearances, I think Neil has gone a huge way towards proving he’s not THAT person.

He’s on TV on a near-weekly basis, and I’ve had him on my radio programme plenty of times. He has always represented himself brilliantly.

By managing his profile the way he has, he has positioned himself as a thoughtful, articulate student of the game, rather than a touchline-prowling firebrand.

That transformation, taken in tandem with his achievements as Celtic boss, ought to make him a prime candidate for plenty of Premier League clubs and EVERY Championship side.

It really shocks me that it hasn’t turned out that way yet. But I believe that eventually, the tide will turn in Neil’s favour.

All it will take is one club to take a chance and appoint him as manager and I think the folly of all the clubs who ignored him this summer will be exposed.

Whether we’ll be able to add Cardiff and Fulham to that list or not, we’ll find out soon enough.