LISBON Lion Bobby Lennox is a big fan of current Celt James Forrest, owed to his tireless work-rate, exciting style of play and the fact that he also hails from Ayrshire.

Lennox, of course, played in a Celtic team who worked hard, entertained and were hugely successful, which are all traits the man once known as ‘Buzz Bomb’ admires in the modern day Hoops side.

And Forrest now joins the Hoops legend as a player to have won nine league titles in a row for Celtic, along with Billy McNeill, Jimmy Johnstone and current captain, Scott Brown.

“Players like James are putting in upwards of 60 games per season, and that’s a lot of football,” said Lennox. “In my day, if there wasn’t a game on the Wednesday, you’d get battered at training instead. Honestly, those were some of the hardest sessions you’d ever have, so you actually wanted a midweek game and then to be playing again a couple of days later. If any player today faced those, I bet they’d rather have midweek games as well.”

Forrest, having now concluded his 11th season at the club, is a modern great, reckons Lennox, a status he feels is underscored by his decision to continue plying his trade at Paradise. He recalls interest from other teams in himself during his playing days, but he had little interest in leaving the best team in the country, and, at that time, in Europe.

Could Forrest have played in the Lions’ side? Bobby Lennox thinks so, although that not might have gone down too well with the club’s greatest ever player.

The Lisbon Lion added: “James is a great player, and while it’s a different game altogether today, he’d have been good for a spot in our team. I’m not sure how wee Jinky would have felt about that, mind you, but wee Jamesy could have given him a run for his money!

“It is a different game today, but I reckon if you’re a good player, you’re a good player – it’s as simple as that.”

Bobby Lennox compares nine-in-a-row winners Jinky and Jamesy