Celtic 3 Motherwell 0: IF NEIL Lennon gets the long-term contract that Celtic's majority shareholder, Dermot Desmond, has said he is due, he will have to change his mind-set. Whereas Tony Mowbray denounced short-termism and spoke of grand visions during his ill-fated time in charge of the club, Lennon has refused to look far ahead since succeeding him as Celtic's manager.

“I don’t do long term,” Lennon said after winning his first trophy as manager, the Scottish Cup, on Saturday. “I’m hoping to be manager next year and I’ll sit down with maybe (the chief executive) Peter Lawwell, Dermot and the chairman and see what they have to offer. Hopefully we can reach an agreement. I don’t really think long term in football. We have made a lot of progress this year and I think we’ll come back better next year but there’s no guarantee we will. There’s no point me saying we’ll do this or that and not be able to back it up.”

There is little doubt Lennon will remain in office for the new campaign. Desmond made the contract pledge – and claimed the deal would be “for a very long time” – immediately before this 3-0 win against Motherwell.

“We’ll trim the squad a little bit and hopefully add three or four and hopefully they will be quality players,” Lennon said.

Claiming the cup proved blissfully straightforward for Celtic. Ki Sung-yueng sent them in front with a superb, long-range drive before half-time. Stephen Craigan’s own-goal and a Charlie Mulgrew free-kick endorsed Celtic’s dominance.

“Hopefully it will give them a lot of confidence,” said Lennon of the significance of success to his squad. “It will give them the feeling of knowing what it is actually like to achieve something in the game. A lot of players go through their careers and don’t get that. These boys have done it and a lot of them are in the young stage of their career. I think they have grown up a lot this season. Like I said, it augurs well for next season but there are no guarantees that we will achieve what we have achieved this year.”