Neil Lennon and bashful. Three words that appear together in print about as often as Big Brother and entertaining. And yet here was the Northern Irishman modestly waving away credit for his role in Celtic's unlikely success in snatching the Clydesdale Bank Premier League title from Rangers.

Lennon arrived back at Parkhead in April with Gordon Strachan's side in turmoil. They trailed their rivals by six points and their confidence appeared shot. Few gave them a chance of a third successive title. Gradually, Lennon's influence was felt. His input was perhaps no more than barking and bawling in the dressing room, cajoling players to greater effort. It may have been primitive but it was undoubtedly effective. As Rangers faded, Celtic won seven consecutive games to land the league trophy.

But Lennon insisted: "It's about the players at the end of the day - and the foundations were already in place before I came in. Garry Pendrey, Celtic assistant manager and the gaffer did most of the donkey work anyway. I was just there as an extra voice, just passing on my experiences, especially to the two midfield boys as I knew that role. I just tried to keep all the players motivated and tried to make sure no complacency set in. I took a wee bit of coaching which was great and which I really enjoyed. But let's get it right: he Strachan is the boss and they are his players. All I did was give him a hand."

Lennon won five titles in seven years during his playing days at Parkhead but rated this season's last-day triumph as "the most special one that I've been involved in", after the death of Tommy Burns towards the end of the campaign. "The ones I won as a player were won with four or five games to go. To take it to the wire this time was fantastic. This one was more special because of the circumstances and where we came from.

"I've never seen him Strachan as happy as he was after clinching the title. I think that meant more to him than maybe anything he's done in his career. That gave him a lot of satisfaction and he was very emotional too, given the circumstances. It was emotional for all of us."

Lennon was helping to promote Tony Roper's new play "The Celts In Seville". Five years have passed since Martin O'Neill's side made it to the UEFA Cup final in the Spanish city. "I can't believe it's so long," Lennon said. "I was down in Norwich last week as Chris Sutton had a reunion for us. About 10 of the boys turned up and came from all over the place. It was almost as if we had never been away, even though I hadn't seen a couple of them for a few years.

"There were a lot of winners in that squad and it wouldn't surprise me if some of them went on to become successful managers like the Aberdeen team containing Alex McLeish, Gordon Strachan, Eric Black, Mark McGhee and Willie Miller."

Artur Boruc, the Polish goalkeeper, and Georgios Samaras, the on-loan Greek striker, will be in action at the European Championships that begin today and Lennon admits he hopes they don't impress too much.

"If Artur has a good tournament we might get an offer that means he's impossible to keep. We want to hold on to our better players but if you get a ridiculous transfer fee offered, it might be too much for the club to refuse. If Georgios has a good tournament, his price tag might go up a couple of million as well. I hope he plays well - but not that well."