Celtic find themselves in a solid position this season. They are leading the Premiership title race by six points with five more league games to go, have already won the Scottish League Cup and are in the Scottish Cup semi-finals, where they will take on the Rangers at Hampden Park. It is safe to say that Ange Postecoglou and the players, many of whom arrived only last summer, deserve tremendous credit for that.

Celtic had finished the previous campaign trophyless and 25 points behind the Rangers. But while the Hoops’ performances this season have come as a surprise, the club winning things has not been a rare instance in recent years.

In fact, Celtic dominated Scottish football for almost a decade, even winning a Quadruple Treble, before shockingly going off the tracks with 10IAR up for grabs.

Their run of domination had started in Neil Lennon’s first run as Celtic manager, when Johan Mjallby was his assistant. The Swede has now revealed how Rangers’ liquidation played a part in his exit from the club in 2014.

Mjallby reveals why he quit Celtic due to Rangers

As reported by The Celtic Way, Mjallby said about the situation:

“Everybody knows that happened to Rangers and my motivation in the job disappeared a wee bit when they imploded. It was a shame in that sense, as you always need a big rival.”

Mjallby was always very highly rated for his role as assistant manager to Lennon, during his first stint at Parkhead, and there were even calls for the Swede to be brought back, when the Northern Irishman returned for a second stint in the Celtic hot seat.

That never ended up happening though and many believe that if Mjallby was at the club, their quest for 10IAR would not have collapsed in the manner that it did last season.

Since departing Celtic, Mjallby served as assistant manager to Lennon at Bolton Wanderers and managed a few clubs himself, but his coaching career has not quite taken off like one would have expected after the early promise that he had shown.

This article was originally posted here