Neil Lennon believes Liam Scales would reap the benefits of returning to Aberdeen this season.
The Irish defender, who enjoyed a highly productive loan spell at Pittodrie last season, has two years remaining on his contract with Celtic.
The Dons are believed to be keen to bring Scales back to the club on a permanent deal but former Celtic boss Lennon reckons another loan spell at Pittodrie could also be beneficial for all parties.
With game time likely to be limited at Celtic Park, Lennon says getting regular first team football is essential for the 24-year-old who has been called up to recent Republic of Ireland squads on the back of his fine form for the Dons.
Lennon said: “I’m sure Barry Robson would love to have Liam back at Pittodrie.
“He offers balance at the back and versatility because he can play left centre-half in a four, left centre-back in a three or left back.
“He’s still a young player and the experience he had with Aberdeen last season will have been invaluable – bad times and good times.
“At his age it’s really important to get valuable game time and he got that with Aberdeen and delivered with his performances.
“It’s really about what Celtic want to do – does he go back out on loan to Aberdeen or somewhere else or does he fight for his place at Celtic?
“There’s massive competition at Celtic with Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt the first choice pairing and there is every chance Brendan Rodgers will make signings in the defensive area.
“So as a young player you want to be playing. I think it’s important he gets regular football.
“It makes sense to me for Liam to go back to Aberdeen. He knows the set-up and he played well under Barry Robson.”
Robson has hit the ground running
Lennon, meanwhile, has been impressed by the job done by Barry Robson since he replaced Jim Goodwin at Pittodrie.
Robson inherited a Dons team that was worryingly low on confidence after being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by sixth tier Darvel and had suffered heavy defeats by Hearts and Hibernian.
But the former Scotland international quickly turned things around and guided the Dons to a third-placed finish and European group stage football in the new season.
Lennon says Robson will know an even tougher test lies ahead as he gears up for his first full season in charge.
He said: “Barry has done really well and getting Steve Agnew in was a masterstroke.
“Steve worked in England with Steve Bruce for a long time and had a lot of success.
“The thing is the honeymoon period is over now.
“He finished the season very strongly as interim and now he will want a really good pre-season to find that consistency that was lacking until he took over.
“He has good experience and he has been around Aberdeen for a good time now and worked under good managers.
“I’m sure he’ll have a good idea of what he wants to do but he’ll have a common-sense prism – he’s not going to try to re-invent the game.
“Aberdeen finished third last season which was terrific but they need to get closer to Celtic and Rangers. Not just that – they need to take more points off the two of them.
“They lost all four league games to Celtic last season and I think it’s five years since they beat them.
“They managed to beat Rangers once but lost the other three and I think you have to go back another six years to find the last win before that.
“They’ll also want to try to go deep in the cup competitions like a good Aberdeen team should.
“But I think he’s a very solid appointment. They could have looked a more experienced candidate but he has that great knowledge of the Scottish game in general as well as Aberdeen specifically.”
Lennon was part of the Celtic coaching staff when Robson joined the Hoops in 2008.
He always felt Robson had the potential to go into management.
He said: “He had leadership qualities and he was always a good personality in the dressing room so I always felt he would go into coaching.
“He’s had a good apprenticeship under different managers and he will have picked up a lot of things but knowing Barry he will want to put his own stamp on things.”
- Neil Lennon was speaking on behalf of www.bettingsites.co.uk
