Championship crisis club Bolton Wanderers have appointed Neil Lennon as their new manager, just over a week after dismissing Dougie Freedman.
The Scotsman was handed his marching papers with the club bottom of the Championship with just one win this season, ending Freedman's two-year stay at the Macron Stadium. While a number of coaches had been linked with the vacant position with Bolton, chairman Phil Gartside and owner Eddie Davies decided to hire the former Celtic manager and hand Lennon his first managerial job in England.
After a quiet few months since leaving Celtic, Lennon had become hot property in recent weeks. As well as Bolton's interest, the former Northern Ireland international had been linked with fellow Championship club Fulham as well as a lucrative coaching position in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ittihad. Fulham have been looking for a new manager since Felix Magath's dismal year-long reign came to an unceremonious conclusion with the Londoners battling it out with Bolton to avoid the bottom of the table. But Bolton were the best choice for Lennon, who had to beat off competition from Steve Clarke and Chris Hughton to get the job.
Lennon brought an end to his time at Celtic in May after guiding the Scottish giants to their third successive league title success. As well as the three titles, Lennon's time at Celtic Park also yielded two Scottish Cup victories as well as that famous Champions League run in 2012/13 that included a win over Barcelona. While Celtic had been keen to tie the former Hoops midfielder down to a new contract, Lennon made the decision to step down as the manager in order to try and earn a chance south of the border. As well as feeling he had done as much as he could do in the role, Lennon made it clear on a number of occasions that he felt disillusioned with Scottish football, with the lack of any real rivals making the job often mundane.
Arriving with Lennon will be Johan Mjallby and Gary Parker, who were both part of his backroom team at Celtic and will assist the new head coach in Lancashire. The management group will have their work cut out trying to lift morale in a squad that find itself bottom of the Championship with just a single victory to their name. While many visitors to http://www.bet365.com.au/news/en/betting/ have already backed Bolton to be in real danger of relegation this season, the club are also battling with some fairly significant financial worries. Relegation from the Premier League in 2011/12 hit Bolton extremely hard, so much so that the club are now believed to be over £100million in debt.
Bolton have lost their past five matches, four in the league and one to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup, and are facing the prospect of being cut adrift at the bottom of the table. A squad packed with experienced, talented and expensive players is clearly capable of getting out of their current predicament, and the question is now whether or not the former Celtic boss is the man to do get the best out of this bunch.
While Lennon may have found certain aspects of his time in Scotland too easy, the new Bolton manager faces as tough a task as there is in the Championship if he is going to turn things around this season.
