Dan Petrescu Is Claiming That Neil Lennon Warned Him Off The Celtic Job

During an interview with Romanian television on Monday, former Chelsea defender Dan Petrescu claimed that a chat with Neil Lennon aided his decision not to take the manager's job at Parkhead. Petrescu was speaking to Dolce Sport when he said that he had a concrete job offer from Celtic but came away from his discussion with Lennon under the impression that the Scottish champions "have problems".

Super Dan Petrescu: "Celtic contacted me, they wanted me. I spoke to their previous manager, they have problems"

— Emanuel Ro?u (@Emishor) August 11, 2014

Petrescu, who had been manager of Dynamo Moscow up until April, has since taken up a job in Qatar with Al Arabi. After seemingly being rebuffed by Petrescu, Celtic appointed Norwegian Ronny Deila as manager and he has since guided them to the final Champions League qualifying round in rather unusual circumstances. 

Petrescu also revealed that he had offers from England but didn't want to get involved in a relegation battle. Which is undoubtedly a ringing endorsement of his own abilities as a manager. Probably best that he opted for the more sedentary surroundings of the Qatar Stars League.

Petrescu: "Celtic is a very big club, but I chose to join Al Arabi. Some teams from England were also interested, but I didn't want to.." — Emanuel Ro?u (@Emishor) August 11, 2014

"..fight against relegation. That was not an option, I didn't want to be doomed after one season".

— Emanuel Ro?u (@Emishor) August 11, 2014

Dan Petrescu: "The offer from Celtic was concrete, I had it on the table. No regrets, now I'm with Al Arabi, what can I say more?" — Emanuel Ro?u (@Emishor) August 11, 2014