Wednesday 18 May 2016 13:12, UK
Former Celtic captain Paul Lambert thinks Brendan Rodgers would be a great choice to be the next manager of his old club.
Celtic are holding interviews as they seek to find a replacement for Ronny Deila, who departed Glasgow on Monday having won two Scottish Premiership titles in as many years as manager.
Sky Sports understands both Rodgers and former Watford and Cardiff boss Malky Mackay have already held talks with Celtic, while several others continue to be linked with the vacancy.
Rodgers has been out of work since last October when he was replaced by Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
But Lambert reckons Rodgers would have a similar impact to Neil Lennon and Martin O'Neill, who delivered three titles each during their spells in charge of the Hoops.
"I think so. It will be totally different from Liverpool if Brendan got it. I don't think, because Liverpool is a massive club, you can't go to Celtic and think, well it's an inferior club. It's not," Lambert told Sky Sports News HQ.
"Celtic's a huge football club. Even in my own time when Martin O'Neill came in, I said at the time we needed a manager like him because of the demands of the club.
"It needed a strong personality to take the job on, and Martin was absolutely fantastic to play under.
"And I think if you asked any of us at that time, it was a fantastic five years under him, but we needed a manager to pull the club up. He handled the whole size of it, handled the fanbase, and got really good players in to help.
"Could Brendan go in and do it? I think he could, but there will be a lot of hurdles he'll need to get over to meet the demands of it. He knows the club. I think Celtic is still a massive club to take on."
When asked what will be required from Rodgers should he be appointed, the 46-year-old insisted expectation will be high.
"I think what he'll need to do is grasp you are either first or last, there is no in-between, there is no second place, there's no nothing, you have to win the title," Lambert said.
"It doesn't matter who comes, the supporters will still expect you to win because the weight of the jersey carries a lot for the players on it, and you have to get that in your head that you are going to have to win more games than not."
Lambert, who won the league four times, the Scottish Cup on three occasions, and twice picked up the League Cup in eight glittering years with the Hoops, recently left his position as manager of Blackburn.
The ex-Norwich and Aston Villa manager decided to activate a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave Ewood Park six months into a two-and-a-half year deal.
While Lambert concedes he will be looking for a new position, he says there has been no approach from Celtic to offer an interview.
"First and foremost, you have got to be asked to go and do a job. Celtic, as I've said before is a brilliant club, a club really close to me. I had a great eight years there. It's a really fantastic place," Lambert said.
"But you have to be asked. You've got to be good enough to go and do it and that will be Celtic's prerogative to pick the right guy. Hopefully, whoever goes in there, gives the club success, because it's a brilliant club.
"I'm unemployed at the minute, so I actually need to look for something. That's probably my best answer."
