Brendan Rodgers has already been shown the never-go-back theory is a myth. Billy McNeill was the first to prove that, bringing magic and glory on returning to the Celtic hotseat.
And Neil Lennon maintained the thread of success when he walked back in the door to cover Rodgers’ defection to Leicester City. Rodgers has a tough job to replicate what he did before with his magnificent haul of seven trophies out of seven before heading south. But he will take heart from Big Billy and Lenny.
McNeill, just as he was a pioneer as a player by becoming the first British captain to lift the European Cup, also had a hard act to follow when he became the first man to return to the top job at Parkhead. The title win of 1978/79 when his 10 men beat Rangers in the final game of the season to win the league, was the first of three titles. There were a Scottish Cup and a League Cup, too.
But on returning from spells at Manchester City and Aston Villa, McNeill had a momentous task. Big-spending Rangers were ruling the roost under Graeme Souness and Celtic had to reshape a squad with the likes of Mo Johnston, Brian McClair and Murdo MacLeod leaving.
If that wasn’t hard enough, the fact it was the club’s centenary season added to the pressure. McNeill’s response was to build a new and vibrant side as he masterminded an astonishing Premier League and Scottish Cup double to spark the Hoops’ 100th birthday party.
McNeill would add a Scottish Cup the following season, when Joe Miller’s goal denied Rangers a treble. Lennon had a far-differing challenge when he went back following Rodgers’ shock move to the King Power Stadium.
Unlike McNeill having to start from scratch, Lennon’s task was to make sure the Brendan bandwagon stayed on the rails. Rodgers left with Celtic top of the table, a third League Cup already in the bag and in position in the quarter-finals to retain the Scottish Cup.
It was lose-lose for Lennon. A failure to deliver would have seen fingers pointed that he couldn’t get it over the line. He did more than that.
Not only did he get Celtic over the line to secure a Treble Treble, he went on to make it a Quadruple Treble with his clean sweep started before and ended after the Covid shutdown. In addition, Lennon was able to make something of a mark on the continental stage with a splendid group-stage run in the Europa League of 2019/20, when his side topped a section which included Lazio and featured a famous win in Rome.
Joe Ledley played for him during the first period and said: “Lenny took over and there was obviously a lot of pressure on him. He had to try and achieve what Brendan achieved and the expectations are always going to be high, but he did it and won five trophies in succession.”
It is not just at Celtic where managers going back has been shown to be highly effective and successful. Across the city, Jock Wallace managed a couple of League Cups in his second spell at Rangers, but it was Walter Smith who raised the bar with his phenomenal return to Ibrox. Having gone back from the Scotland job, Smith swept all before him and also led Gers to a UEFA Cup Final.
Former Celtic defender David Moyes has just lifted a European trophy having returned to West Ham for a second spell in charge. McNeill and Lennon brought an immediate spark to Celtic and Rodgers has a wide open door to repeat the immediate success and take it on.
His job will be more in the Lennon mould than in McNeill’s. Unlike 1987, there is no need to revitalise and rebuild a squad as the club’s greatest-ever skipper had to do. It’s more like the job which he left behind for Lennon to deal with in 2019, by making sure the machine which ticked and purred for two years under Ange Postecoglou stays well-oiled and is maintained to a pristine standard.
Of course, the domestic scene is going to be the bread and butter and Rodgers, with his 100 per cent record in trophies contested and won while at Parkhead, has no rival on that front. Europe will be the biggest factor.
Postecoglou was just building when exits were made from the Champions League and Europa League and he was debatably given something of a free pass for the 5-1 aggregate Conference League hammering by Bodo/Glimt because the eyes of fans were firmly on winning back the title at that stage of the season.
Postecoglou won some plaudits for last season’s Champions League displays, but the stark truth is Celtic didn’t win a game and would have lost five out of six in the section had Shakhtar Donetsk sub Danylo Sikan not produced one of the greatest misses in Euro history with the penultimate game poised at 1-1.
Rodgers will be given every chance to provide Euro progress by the Celtic hierarchy, who will back him. And the Parkhead past suggests there is no reason to think he can’t replicate his brilliance of before.
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