Lennon's Lancashire hot spot

He was almost sent on a detour from the TV studios through Saudi Arabia with high-paying Al-Ittihad.

But today, Neil Lennon will finally get back on the training field and pick up the reins of a managerial career which has been put on hold since May when he takes charge of Bolton Wanderers.

The challenge will not be the one he wanted, namely to show what he learned after four years as manager of Celtic by pitting his wits against the best in England's top flight.

Instead, the 43-year-old will have to contend not with battling against Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Manuel Pellegrini, Louis van Gaal and Brendan Rodgers, but against relegation to League One.

For all the trophies, titles and victories over the likes of Barcelona which Lennon has on his CV, the harsh reality is the job offer he believed would come his way when he terminated his employment at Celtic Park back in May never materialised.

Expectations and sights have had to be lowered just to ensure he was not allowed to melt into the background which is already the unwanted habitat of many more managers with longer records of service than the man from Lurgan.

Fortunately, the erudite TV appearances which began with the World Cup Finals and continued through the major football programmes broadcast on terrestrial and satellite stations, guranteed Lennon was not forgotten.

No matter how comfy though those sofas can be, they are no substitute for a manager's chair, and certainly not for a dugout seat.

Lennon has unfinished business. Indeed, after just one job in management, albeit a massive one, he is hungry to show what he can do.

He hoped his achievements with Celtic - domestically and especially in Europe - would be his calling card when owners and chairmen of Premier League clubs were on the lookout for a new boss.

Two last-16 appearances with a squad which was having its quality reduced season upon season due to the increasing financial restraints being placed on Celtic as a business surely more than cancelled out the negativity attached to winning a two-horse race which had lost one of its runners?

But no fewer than 19 managerial appointments have been made in the English leagues since Lennon unshackled himself from any need for compensation to be paid to release him from his one-year-rolling contract at Parkhead.

Five Premier League appointments have been among them. And, the bitter pill he had to swallow was that not one of these jobs was offered to him.

He did not expect to get a call to replace Davie Moyes at Old Trafford, though he did believe he had a very good chance of filling the position he made vacant at Goodison when he made the ill-fated journey along the M62.

But when he watched the likes of Alan Irvine replace Pepe Mel at West Brom, and Neil Warnock be taken out of retirement to return to Crystal Palace, while positions at clubs at the top end of the Championship also passed him by, Lennon could have been forgiven for wondering if his gamble to leave safe employment at Celtic - however frustrating the circumstances had become - was going to cost him dearly.

Having finally been given the opportunity to get back on track with Bolton, he has the long- awaited opportunity to show every potential employer who overlooked him what they have missed.

However, at a club which has lost its last five games, has taken just five from their first 33 points in the league, and languishes at the foot of the table, not to mention is burdened by a £168million debt which underlines that buying his way out of trouble is not an option, Lennon is going to need every bit of the knowledge he gathered in the Celtic hotseat to turn this ship around.

He can't afford to fail because his CV would be badly tainted. And, having already discovered just how tough it is to get a gig in England, that's the last thing he needs.

The priority has been to get his foot in the door, from which point he would be able to display his wares and undoubted talent. With Johan Mjallby and Garry Parker back alongside him, he does at least have lieutenants he can trust to have his back and help get his message across to a dispirited squad which laterally struggled badly under Dougie Freedman as he attempted to steer them back to the top flight from which they were relegated under Owen Coyle in 2012.

But the parachute payments are long gone, and there is a big black - or red -hole where once the pot of gold sat.

It's certainly a very different challenge from the one which Lennon faced when he replaced Tony Mowbray -ironically, one of the men he beat to the job at the Macron Stadium - not least because he does not have a winning history with the club to fall back on to help him through any difficult periods.

However, these are the cards which the game has dealt him, and Lennon has walked into Bolton with his eyes wide open.

If he can stop the rot and propel them back up the table, there is a good chance he can still realise his ambition of getting the chance to manage in the Premier League.

Whatever happens, it will be well worth watching.