Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon has opened up on his decision to leave the Hoops during his first spell in charge.

The 51-year-old was manager of the Parkhead side between 2010-2014 before returning for a second stint in 2019.

During his first four seasons in charge he won three league titles and two Scottish Cups before opting to leave the club at the end of the 2013-14 campaign. 

Spells at Bolton and Hibernian followed before he rejoined Celtic after the departure of Brendan Rodgers.

And now Lennon has explained his feelings after moving on in 2014 and he also recalled something ex-boss Martin O'Neill said to him.

He told The Sky Sports' Essential Football podcast: "It's hard to take because you put so much into the job, and you have a huge amount of professional pride.

"You think 'oh god, this is the end of the world' and it's not. Martin O'Neill always said to me the one thing you are guaranteed in this job is the sack.

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"In my first spell at Celtic I made the decision to leave after four years, and it's very, very rare you get that."

"Even with that, you sometimes look back on it and wonder if it was the right thing to do. At the time it was the right thing to do for me.

"But yeah, sometimes you get a bit bitter. You look back on what went right, but you are always going to face the same problems.

"If the players are good enough, if things are going well behind the scenes, if you have an interfering sort of person up the stairs like a director of football when you go back in, but you love it.

"It's what gets you up and out of bed in the morning. I miss it. I miss the chaos sometimes and the feeling, but initially when you are first out for a couple of months it's good and it's quite relaxed.

"Then you start watching games and you think 'I could do that'. You start getting the itch again."

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