Lennon collected two League Cups for Leicester City and won ten Scottish Premier League titles, eight Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups cumulatively as a player and boss at Celtic.
But before that, he came through the ranks at Platt Lane after arriving in Manchester in 1987 from Lurgan in County Armagh.
After starring in the final of the Milk Cup for Glenavon Select, City scout Peter Neill was impressed with what he saw and invited Lennon over for a trial alongside fellow Irish hopefuls Gerry Taggart, Steve Lomas and Michael Hughes.
Lennon settled well into life at City and owes a debt of gratitude to Book – as well as fellow coach and fellow legend Glyn Pardoe – who coached him in those formative years before he left for pastures new in 1990.
“I did my YTS, a youth scheme which was a two-year apprenticeship and my coaches were Glyn Pardoe and Tony Book,” Lennon said.
“I couldn’t have had a better football education than the one I had with those two. They were unreal. What a partnership they were!
“Him and Glyn were a brilliant double act as a coaching team. Tony had won the League, FA Cup, European Cup Winners Cup, League Cup and he had managed the club so we were really under the tutelage of a legend.
“We had a gem with Tony. I couldn’t have had a better education working with him.
“The two of them were Manchester City through and through, icons of the club, and Tony obviously being a right-back during his playing days and me being in that position back then, he had an interest in me in doing well. He worked with me really well.
“He was tough, no question about that. He always tested your character. But he taught me the game inside-out. The fundamentals I had throughout my career were basically learnt at Maine Road and Platt Lane.
“We had a really good team, too. We had the likes of Paul Warhurst, Jason Beckford, Ashley Ward, Mike Sheron.
“We got to the final of the FA Youth Cup in 1989. Paul Lake’s group had won it a couple of years before and then we got to the final and, unfortunately, we lost to Watford in extra time.
“But we had a great group of players – and importantly we had an unbelievable football education behind us.”
Lennon remembers his time on the training pitch with Book and Pardoe as he looked to hone his craft for a career in the game he loved.
But it was sessions in the gym at Maine Road that stand out most because of the attention paid to him by Book, who turns 90 today.
“He used to take me under the stand, in a head-tennis gym and then he would play all kinds of different passes to me and all I had to do was control it and pass it back on the floor to him,” Lennon added
“It was about how to pass properly, when to pass it, important game decisions and it’s stood the test of time.
“He’d batter balls at me all afternoon to work on my touch and passing. It was hours on end.
“He didn’t have to do it, but he saw something in me that maybe some other people didn’t.
“That stood me in great stead for the next 30 years of my career.
“I owe a lot to Tony. The platform and education he gave me from 16 to 19 was priceless.
“Even though the game has evolved, the fundamentals he drilled into me are still as relevant today as they were back then. He had a huge impact.
“I had a brilliant time with him, an absolutely brilliant time.”
