Neil Lennon understands one day you can be deemed a "king" and the next you are a "villain" as he addressed life as Rapid Bucharest manager.

The ex-Celtic and Hibernian boss took up the reins at the Romanian top-flight outfit in May, making it clear that he was sold on the vision of the club. 

Despite declaring that it was a long-term project, Lennon has endured heavy criticism from the local press after Rapid Bucharest failed to win any of their first five SuperLiga matches.

Asked if he sees himself coaching in the United Kingdom again should things not work out across the continent, the Northern Irishman said: “It's not something that I've really sort of thought of. I mean I'm just so engrossed in what I’m doing here.

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“You just never know where the game takes you. I've already been in Cyprus for a year and now I'm in Romania. I know a lot of coaches who go from country to country and really enjoy what they're doing.

“Scotland's my home and I love it and I was there for 18 months but you get the edge to get back into it and I love what I do.

“So yes, I just want to be a success here now and then you never know where that takes you elsewhere, but it's such a fickle business and you're sort of judged from week to week. One day you're the king and then the next day you're the villain. So you just got to find a balance in between somewhere and enjoy the ride.”

Rapid Bucharest currently sit 13th in the league table after a defeat and four draws but the former Celtic and Leicester City midfielder isn’t getting too worried about his teams early season form just yet and is enjoying life managing a side in a country where football is a religion.

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“Romania had a really good Euros so off the back of that there's a lot of interest in the game," the 53-year-old told fairbettingsites.co.uk.

"Our first home game there was 25,000 sell-out with Cluj, we drew 2-2. It was great atmosphere. It’s a very competitive league but the city itself, it's great.

“There's a lot of travelling to be done as well. Our opening game of the season, we had to get a flight to the city the night before to play a team called UTA.

“So when you're playing the likes of Cluj and other teams near the Hungarian border or Moldovan border, you have to take a flight, which is again something pretty new.

“The club is good, we haven’t got off to the best of starts but it's just a work in progress at the minute, a couple of draws and a defeat, which in a game that we should have won.

“But overall, yes absolutely loving it. Like I said, the club's good, we've got a new stadium, new training ground and it's all sort of laid out for taking the club forward.

“I don't speak the language obviously but most of the guys speak English and the staff here have worked actually in England as well, some of them, the director of football and the CEO. So in terms of the staff behind the scenes, they're in the first class as well.

“So yes, I'm really enjoying what we're doing at the minute.

“They've not won the title for 20 odd years. I think we’re in with a shout and we will be hopefully in and around it towards the end of the season, but it's really about making progress in the right way.

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“They finished sixth last year. So obviously we want to improve drastically on that and try and if we can make the top three that will be signs of real improvement.

“There’s been a bit of money spent, we brought in four of five players and we do a lot of business in Eastern Europe and Slovakia and Serbia and countries like that.

“The crux of the squad is Romanian and you have to play a under 21 Romanian player in your team at all times.

“So even if you start with one and you take them off, you have to bring another one on. So there's a few little rules like that that are a little bit different to what we are used to but then you'll get used to it. Yes, most of the business is done sort of the side of Europe.”

Lennon is still mourning the recent loss of his mother, Ursula, and admitted that him and his coaching team have taken up paddle tennis to keep them entertained when they aren't on the training ground - although they are still adapting to dealing with the soaring temperatures in the Romanian capital city.

“The city's beautiful," he said of living in Bucharest. 

"We train in the evenings at the minute because the weather is so hot during the day. You're talking sort of mid-thirties to 40 degrees so it's just impossible to train anytime around lunchtime. So the factor 50 is on.

“The city is like a metropolis, it's very, very busy. There's a lot of parks and lakes, the people are good, there's no real serious crime here and football is the number one sport so it's 24/7 here on the TV channels and the news.“We play paddle tennis which is something I've never played before until I come here. So me and the staff will have a game every Friday. So that's a lot of fun.”