ON his day, the skill and ability Lubomir Moravcik possessed on the pitch made him unplayable. He played in a team of winners, and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and the Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

As a combative midfielder, the latter played a very different role to Lubo in Martin O’Neill’s side, but the Slovakian reckons it was the Irishman’s style of play that helped him transition into management so smoothly.

“Whenever any player reaches a certain age, when they’re on the cusp of retirement, everyone starts thinking about them moving into coaching,” said Moravcik in an exclusive interview with the official Celtic website. “Not every player wants to make that jump, but a lot of them do and don’t succeed.

“Out of that team we played in, there were so many good players, and yet only Lenny and Paul Lambert have gone on to become top-level managers. It’s not always the case that the best players go on to become the best managers.

“While both Lenny and Paul were fantastic players, the fact that they did so much organising on the pitch might be why they’ve moved into management so seamlessly. As a player, Neil Lennon was brilliant at organising the game, and, of course, he’s brilliant at doing that now as a manager.

“As a player, he had a vast understanding of how to organise the game, and now as a coach, he carries that with him into the role.”

Like Scott Brown with Neil Lennon today, Moravcik believes the current Hoops boss and his one-time manager Martin O’Neill shared a similar bond and respect for one another.

Moravcik said he himself learned so much under Martin O’Neill, and while he expects the same applies to Neil Lennon, the Irishman has put his own spin on management at Celtic in his two spells in charge over the last decade.

He added: “Learning from Martin O’Neill was a fantastic learning experience for anybody that worked under him, and Neil and him had a bond and an understanding both on and off the pitch.

“Martin was such an inspiration for that team as a whole – for me, for Henrik, for Neil, for every player. He had so many qualities as a human, as a person, as a manager. He was also confident, and had his idea of how things should be done, and everyone should follow it in order to achieve success.”

Lubo hails trait which helped Neil Lennon move from player to boss