NEIL Lennon has said his first act as Hibernian manager will be to try to persuade John McGinn and Jason Cummings that their futures lie in Leith.

The Easter Road outfit have made a major show of intent by luring the former Celtic boss to the capital.

But Alan Stubbs’ replacement knows his job will be made a lot harder if he cannot keep hold of his highly rated youngsters.

Both midfielder McGinn and striker Cummings played key roles for Hibs as they helped end the club’s 114-year wait for Scottish Cup glory last month but the thought of another season in the Ladbrokes Championship following their failed promotion bid is unlikely to hold much appeal.

But Lennon, 44, hopes to sell them a vision that ultimately ends with Hibs returning to the upper echelons of the Scottish game.

He said: “John and Jason are excellent players who have just had terrific seasons. They are vital to what I want to do so I’d like to sit down and speak to the both of them. I’m hoping they will see things my way and want to stay for a while.”

But he admitted it is unlikely Anthony Stokes will be checking in for a second Easter Road stint, despite Celtic releasing the striker on Wednesday.

Lennon signed the Irishman – who spent the second half of last season on loan with Hibs, scoring two goals in their cup final triumph over Rangers – during his spell as Celtic boss back in 2010 but is doubtful he will be linking up with the 27-year-old again.

“If I could get him here it would be fantastic but I think that may be beyond us in terms of finances,” he said.

However, Lennon believes he will get the resources he needs to ensure it is third time lucky for Hibs’ promotion aims.

“I know that the budget is strong,” he said. “That was never an issue in coming here though. It’s the challenge that interests me more.

“I need to now sit down with the players I want to keep. There are players making waves to try and go but I don’t want that to happen.”

Lennon led Celtic to three straight Scottish titles after taking up the Parkhead reins from Tony Mowbray but the undoubted highlight was his side’s march to the last 16 of the Champions League in 2013, a run that included an unforgettable victory over Barcelona.

But things did not go so well at his next posting at Bolton.

He only learned of the club’s £170 million debts four weeks after moving to the Macron Stadium and eventually quit in March with the club bottom of the Championship.

The Northern Irishman admits he feared that troubled spell might have harmed his career prospects.

But now he hopes to repair the damage done by his Bolton tenure with Hibs.

“Of course [my record at Bolton worried me] because you get judged on results,” said Lennon.

“But there were a lot of mitigating circumstances, such as the assurances I got that were broken very, very early. That made the job incredibly hard.

“You always gauge a job when you leave and after I departed they lost their next eight games in a row, so you could see that even with a new manager coming in there was no bounce because there was just no financial support to take the club where I wanted to go.

“It’s a great club but it’s found itself in a really difficult position. But whether you see it as a bad experience or a good one, it will stand me in good stead for this job.

“Being out of work, you miss the buzz, so when this opportunity came up, I had to take it.

“This is one of the biggest clubs in Scotland, a big-city club with huge potential. There is a good core of players here and the remit for me is to get them up and back into the Premiership.

“There are no guarantees we can do it but we’ll do everything we can to make that a success.”

But Lennon is already looking further into the future, with his aim to replicate Derek McInnes’ success story at Aberdeen in Leith.

“Why can’t that be us?” he asked. “Look at what Aberdeen did last season. Hearts came third while St Johnstone have finished fourth.

“We are capable of being in that company. No question.”


Fan's View: Cup’s just the start, let’s win the league

After their amazing Scottish Cup final victory, the sun is still shining on Leith with Neil Lennon’s appointment as the club’s new manager. Here, superfan Jamie Millar, administrator at the fan forum HibeesBounce.com, explains what he and his fellow fans expect...

THE Scottish Cup party isn’t quite over, not yet. It was amazing, but it’s still party time down Leith. It’s got to be, especially after 114 years of waiting.

But now we look ahead beyond silverware, what we want is promotion.

At the moment it’s pretty exciting being a Hibs supporter. Alan Stubbs leaving was a bit of a disappointment, but not really a shock to most fans.

But getting someone like Neil Lennon in quickly, someone who has done his stuff with Celtic and in Europe and beyond, that’s going to be really positive.

Some fans are still sitting on the fence a little with regard to his history of being a bit of a hothead and stuff like that. They want to see proof.

At the same time, others argue he’s a proven manager and should get bums on seats at Easter Road and help with season ticket sales.

Reading between the lines over what has already happened since he came in, it looks like the club has sold around 1000 extra season tickets – and most of our users feel the same – it is positive.

It’s a chance for him to reinvent himself in Scotland too.

And because of his European experience, with Hibs in Europe from the cup victory, we may get a good run which would generate even more cash for the club.

But Europe’s not our priority – it’s promotion.

Getting back up into the Scottish Premier League where Hibs belong is our number one goal.

Playing abroad is a bonus, it’s another adventure.

But we need to win the league.

It might be easier for Lennon though now the Scottish Cup monkey is off Hibs’ back.

We’ve been getting it tight for decades from our rivals Hearts over the other side of the city about not winning the Scottish Cup.

Now that we have, it’s shut them up forever. It’s definitely taken the pressure off having got the Holy Grail like that.

When Stubbs left, the fans feared the team would break up, that we wouldn’t have that cup-winning side.

But we just failed to beat Falkirk in the league, and we were in the League Cup final too losing in the last minute – we could have been double cup winners.

Winning the league now outright is what the fans want. It’s what Lennon must do.

None of this going through the play-offs or scraping through.

Actually winning it is the thing – and Lennon could be the man to do it, to attract big players, to use all his experience.

The East and West are different environments. Although Lennon has had his moments in the past, that will help him settle.

But I think he’s the guy who will stick up for the club, he won’t be a soft touch, he will have things to say about referees, he will fire people up – and that’s what the Hibs fans want, he’s a bit of a hard man but a really good manager.

He won’t have the same kind of budget he had at Celtic but Hibs fans are putting the money in to ensure he can buy players, through the ongoing shares issue and season ticket sales.

Leeann Dempster, our chief executive, has already said she expects us to sell 10,000 season tickets which I think we will get – that all generates money.

I don’t think the chairman Rod Petrie or club saviour Sir Tom Farmer or anybody like that is actually going to pump a lot of money into Hibs – it will be the fans stepping up – which is why having a big name like Lennon is so important.

Lennon will be a lot more attacking than Stubbs. We have a better chance of getting promotion with him than anyone else.

Even then, a lot of fans are still going with the “Petrie out” campaign. A lot of supporters are saying they won’t come back until he’s gone.

But Leeann Dempster is doing an absolutely tremendous job and Petrie has rightly taken a back seat, and the fans just need to swallow the situation.

Just get back behind the team, buy shares, buy season tickets, so the more money we get the better-quality players we get, and the better our chance of promotion.

The Sunshine on Leith may be our anthem for now, but there will be some kind of song coming out for Lennon. Up Where We Belong, maybe?