Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon has explained how he ended up being appointed Rapid Bucharest manager.
The Irishman, who has regularly been seen on punditry duty during his time outside coaching, signed a 2-year deal with the Romanian outfit.
Lennon, 52, ended an 18 month hiatus on Monday having previously had a spell with Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus, and he's revealed what the deciding factor was in his decision to work overseas once again.
"It sort of materialised over the last month or so," he told talkSPORT.
"I got contacted by an agent, the CV went in and then I spoke to the club on a Zoom call.
"I was in Athens about 10 days ago and the owner flew out and the owner flew out to meet me from Bucharest and we had a long conversation about how he sees the club and what my role would be.
"And I was very impressed by him. He's got big plans for the club. He's only taken over the club in the last couple of years but already he's putting his stamp on the club.
"He's a very principled man, I liked him a lot and I liked the project he was trying to sell of the club.
"It's got a great history, it's sort of bereft of titles for quite a considerable time and the owner now wants to make inroads on the championship."
Lennon is inheriting a Rapid team who have won just once in their last 10 games to finish sixth in the Romanian top-flight but he knows that he has what it takes to turn their fortunes around next season.
He continued: "They split the league like they do up in Scotland and before the split, they were going very well. They were second.
"But when the split came, they just lost a lot of form and sort of fell away in the title race really.
"So, they were really disappointed with that obviously, they got rid of the previous coach, and they wanted to change the mentality and the intensity into the training and build a bit of discipline about the club.
"Obviously they wanted me to fit that criteria and I mean, I can just bring a different outlook and culture to the club.
"It's very exciting for me. Romanian football has sort of been in the doldrums the last couple of decades but it's on the up again.
"The national team are back in the Euros. You remember that great team in the 90s with (Gheorghe) Hagi and (Dan) Petrescu, a lot of these guys are coaching here.
"Petrescu is at Cluj and Hagi's at another club called Farul, so the interest in football here is huge."
