Product Description

Captain of Celtic and midfield enforcer for Northern Ireland, Neil Lennon is one of the most controversial figures in British football. His story, fully updated for the Celtic 2006/7 season in this paperback edition, is an extraordinary tale of religious bigotry, life-threatening career injury and tumultuous football success at club level. The first Northern Irish Roman Catholic to play for Celtic and to be chosen to captain his country, Lennon was sensationally forced to quit the captaincy even before he took the field following death threats by Loyalist paramilitaries. In Northern Ireland, the words 'Neil Lennon RIP' were painted on a wall near his family home, while in Scotland, he has been the target of vicious verbal and physical assault by fans of Old Firm rivals Rangers -- including being mugged on the street and hung in effigy. Now he will give his side of these stories, revealing in full the terrible consequences of the religious hatred that has tainted his career. Lennon will write of his Leicester years under Martin O'Neill, and how the Midlands club defied bigger rivals by maintaining their Premiership League status and winning two League Cups. He will also tell the inside story of Celtic under O'Neill; how his GBP5 million transfer to Parkhead nearly didn't happen; his wrongful arrest on a club night out; lifting the domestic treble in a glorious first season with Celtic, and the continued revival of the club to the point where they reached the UEFA Cup Final (narrowly losing out to a Jose Mourinho-inspired Porto); and his relationship with current boss Gordon Strachan. As he approaches the twilight of his playing career, Lennon has decided the time is right to reveal all about his life on the field -- including his horrific spinal injury and his less than happy apprenticeships at Motherwell and Manchester City -- as well as his hitherto closely guarded private life, including his battle with depression. It's a book that will shock football to its core.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93222 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Neil Lennon was born in June 1971 in Lurgan, County Armagh. He signed professional forms in 1989 and played for Manchester City, Motherwell, Crewe and Leicester before joining Celtic in 2000. He has since made over 250 appearances for the club, and has 40 international caps for Northern Ireland. Martin Hannan is a sports journalist for Scotland on Sunday. An award-winning writer, his book Rock of Gibraltar, published by Mainstream, was widely acclaimed as one of the best racing books of 2004.

Customer Reviews

Football Autobiography at its best!
This book really does deserve the 5 stars rating.

Starting with a frank account of the death threats prior to the infamous Northern Ireland international that Neil received, the reader is quickly hooked and sets up the rest of the chapters well.

Neil is startingly honest in this autobiography and where ambigouity is apparent he tries to give both sides of the perspective and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions over certain incidents. eg. 'The Alan Shearer incident', 'The Daily Record ambush in Newcastle' etc

I was humbled to learn of the pain and injury Neil had to overcome early in his career whilst at Crewe, being out of the game due to an 'all or bust' operation on his spine, where the surgeon In Musgrave Park hospital had to fuse bone fragments from Neil's hip onto his spine to support a damaged vertebrae. No wonder! When Neil was a young teenager he played footy twice for seperate teams on a Saturday, then Gaelic football on a Sunday. The toll this schedule demanded obviously caused stress to a growing lads skeletal health. But sure to Neil's determination and doggedness within a few years of this setback he was picking up major honours in the English League Cup.

His refusal to bow out to the bigots and secterianism that he faces at every away game in Scotland is testimony to a gem of a character. As he mentions Jinky's passing in a chapter of this work, so he will be recognised in later years as a 'Mr Celtic'.

I thoroughly recommend this book to Celtic, Leicester and Crewe fans as well as the general readership.

Eye opening and a thoroughly good read.

The Honest Man
This is the 1st Autobiography I have ever read and if this is what the standard is like I could be buying others.

He pours his heart into the book, and reveals everything from the good and bad about him. Tells the stories about him having to give up the International career to all his heart stopping injuries etc, which I never knew about. This is not just a book for celtic fans but fans of autobiographys.

The Bhoy Deserves Respect
HAIL HAIL,

I am a BIG Celtic Fan and a Fellow Bhoy recommended that I got Lenny's book because it gave a real insight into His life. I got this book last november and I have to say what a brilliant read it was it really does open Your eyes. I recommend this not only to Celtic Fans but anyone who supports a different team or I think it would be great for a school/university portfolio. I'll let You find out Yourself but it is such a good and indepth read and after reading this My respect for Lenny grew even more,I've always respected Him but after reading about His struggles and His fight with depression I have nothing but admiration for the Bhoy.

HAIL HAIL KING NEIL LENNON YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE