Life at Bolton has unfolded in a way Lennon never imagined but he remains up for the fight at a club where he found a wage bill bigger than Celtic’s and sports scientists ‘coming out of my ears’

It did not take long for Neil Lennon to encounter the excesses of Bolton Wanderers’ past. On his first day as manager, Lennon was introduced to the club acupuncturist and raised an eyebrow. “I had physiotherapists and sports scientists coming out of my ears,” the Northern Irishman recalls.

This is not to say Lennon has any problem with modern medicine’s role in football. Rather, the scale of infrastructure at Bolton in October 2014 was not replicated by on-field output.

“It was far, far too much for a team at the bottom of the Championship,” Lennon says. “The wage bill was more than Celtic’s and we had been a Champions League team. I knew there and then that it wasn’t right; we needed to be challenging in the play-offs to justify what was being spent.” Lennon had of course appealed to Bolton after displaying in Scotland a proven ability to maximise resources.

Fast forward 12 months and Bolton’s predicament was laid bare. Phil Gartside, the chairman and in Lennon’s words an “innovative, real football man”, was seriously ill with the cancer that ended his life this month. Eddie Davies, the owner who decided within five minutes of meeting Lennon that the former midfielder was the best man to succeed Dougie Freedman, had withdrawn resources that were essential to the club’s health.

A talented manager who had hauled Celtic from the mess left by Tony Mowbray, to the point of beating Barcelona and qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League, was suddenly in an altogether different movie. Rumours regarding Bolton’s plight had proved to be true.

“We had been trying to sign Rajiv van La Parra from Wolves and João Carlos Teixeira from Liverpool and had been given the all-clear to do that on the Thursday,” Lennon says. “On the Monday we were simply told all bets were off; no more money to spend, nothing left. So we were getting these loan players in, Phil had okayed it and a couple of days later we were told the money situation and that Phil was gravely ill.”

Soon, Lennon was arranging whip-rounds for members of staff. “Some people couldn’t afford petrol money, couldn’t afford childcare,” he says. “We just gave that money to keep everyone together but it was very, very difficult.

“Some staff have been at the club for such a long time, they have dedicated lives to their job. Some of them had to walk away, which was a real shame.”

With Bolton finally on the verge of new ownership, Lennon would be perfectly entitled to bitterness about the comparatively optimistic basis on which he was sold the job. Instead, he is pragmatic.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Neil Lennon admits it has been a tough season. If he had known what he would face at Bolton, he says, he ‘would have had serious reservations about taking it on’. Photograph: ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock

“I certainly didn’t see the club being in this position,” Lennon says. “When I took the job on, it was a case of: ‘Keep us up and we will have a go at it next season.’ We kept them up comfortably but the rest didn’t materialise; I have had to cut, cut, cut the wage bill, sell players and not spend a penny. It does curb your enthusiasm because it wasn’t how I expected the job to go.

“I knew about the debt. I wish I had been told that the money coming in would stop. If I had known about the situation with the owner I would have had serious reservations about taking it on. I knew there was a big debt but I knew it was the owner’s debt and he was prepared to write it off. What I didn’t know was that I wasn’t going to be given the chance to invest in players and the squad, as I wanted to. And build, rather than have to demolish; that’s all I have done – 19 players went out the door last summer. We cleared about £10m from the wage bill as well as bringing in £2.5m in fees.”

Lennon has heard the cliche that Bolton’s woes will make him a better manager. “You know, people say you will be but I don’t know. There have been experiences that I don’t really like. I wouldn’t want other managers to experience a lot of those things.”

He also received no shortage of advice about exiting Bolton to preserve his reputation. His reply is typical of his character strength. “That’s the easy thing to do,” Lennon says. “I’d rather see it through. I’m enjoying the challenge – that in itself is a motivation. And if we keep the team in this league, what a great achievement.” Bolton, who are at home to Burnley on Saturday, are second bottom of the Championship, seven points from the last safe spot.

Lennon’s ties to Glasgow, never mind Celtic, mean his name will never be far from the Old Firm narrative. A successful time as manager concluded at the end of season 2013-14 with the former club captain in need of a fresh challenge. “It was the right time to leave,” he says. “There was always the opportunity that I could be back there some day. What I miss about it is the intensity and that opportunity of winning every week.

“We had dominated for three seasons and the club was sort of downsizing with the squad. I always felt the Champions League was the competition to be in and I wasn’t sure we would be able to do that again with the squad of players that we had. So it was time to go. Four years was a good stint at it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Neil Lennon celebrates Celtic’s win over Barcelona in 2012. ‘In some capacity, I would like to be around the club again at some stage in my career,’ he says. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images

“Do I regret it? No. Would I go back? Yes, eventually. I was there for 14 years, I have such a great affinity with the club. In some capacity, I would like to be around the club again at some stage in my career.”

But what of Scottish football itself? Lennon pauses when asked about its perception in England before offering a nod towards the respect he has for Celtic’s greatest rivals. “That’s a very good question,” he says. “I don’t think the Scottish game will be taken seriously again [on the outside] until the balance of power is an equilibrium again with Celtic and Rangers. That will really attract the attention and capture the imagination again. If that’s not the case then Celtic in Europe is very, very important. They are still a huge club with a huge reputation.”

Lennon concedes his own will be harmed if Bolton are relegated, regardless of the clearly extenuating circumstances. “If we stay up, people will appreciate all that a lot more than if we go down. That’s the black and white of football.”

He is also wise enough to understand new owners may have their own managerial plans. “Absolutely. That’s the reality of the job. I would be professional about it and accept it for what it is but we will cross that bridge if we come to it. I want the chance to rebuild because I haven’t had a chance to build anything.

“This job takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of time. Whether we get the time to do it, I don’t know. It’s not all about money but it is about the long-term future of the club.”

Still, Lennon “takes personally” his involvement in a relegation scrap. Disappointingly for one with such knowledge and ability, his ambition to manage in England’s top flight has been delayed. “That will always be the aim,” he says. “Whether I do it with Bolton, that might take a bit of time … I suppose I have had to re-evaluate the timing.”