Celtic’s capitulation at Ibrox on Sunday has brought added focus to the current management team.
And rightly so.
Serious questions have to be asked about the starting line up, the team’s shape and the lack of reaction to how the game was unfolding.
Bare in mind that Martin O’Neill’s appointment for this season is merely a stop-gap, in addition to his stop-gap appointment last season. Twice.
Some fans have even gone so far as to suggest replacing O’Neill now in the wake of two capitulations in our biggest games of the season so far- at Ibrox and in the Champions League.
Even if replacing O’Neill was warranted, there is absolutely zero chance of that happening.
The 74-year-old is the emergency mid season replacement, there is nobody to replace him.
The current Celtic board will use O’Neill to provide cover for their incompetence and lack of ambition and care not a jot for any damage inflicted on his legacy.
Unfortunately it would appear that 74 year old Martin needs the gig, needs the payday.
And under the current leadership at Celtic, that’s the only type of manager they are capable of attracting, now or next summer.
A cursory look back at our recent managerial appointments reveals that all of them were grateful for the job, happy to work at a club run by a retired golfer.
HOW DO CELTIC RECRUIT MANAGERS?
Neil Lennon was appointed twice.
First time round he was grateful for his first crack at management. A big Celtic fan happy to take his first big opportunity and accept working under Dermot Desmond’s remote control of the club.
Second time round Lennon was grateful again having just left Hibs, happy for the step up. Both times he started as caretaker/interim before getting the permanent gig.
Ronny Deilla was offered a huge step up from managing Stromsgodset in Norway – grateful for the opportunity to manage a huge club. Initially viewed as an assistant he became a cut price solution to succeeding Lennon.
Brendan Rodgers first time round was convinced to manage Celtic whilst in limbo following his departure from Liverpool.
Another big Celtic fan, grateful for a route back into football.
Rodgers second time round was here to repair his reputation with the fans following his previous exit.
He was branded a rat first time round and to his credit he bit his lip and never went public with the shambolic recruitment set up that had forced his hand.
Predictably, Rodgers second spell under Desmond’s remote control went the same way watching his team being sold off and replaced with inferior players. Or not even replaced in the cases of Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn.
GRATEFUL FOR THE CELTIC JOB
The same applies to Ange Postecoglu, the Aussie had been building a solid reputation in Australia and Japan but was unknown in Europe.
He was grateful for the opportunity to come to a big club that would get him known around Europe. At last the opportunity that he thought might never come.
Tellingly, Ange’s success at Celtic was entirely based on him completely by-passing the club’s antiquated, out dated recruitment set up. His agent Frank Trimboli masterminded two outstanding transfer windows before Mark Lawwell was parachuted in.
Grateful, grateful, and grateful.
The one word that sums up all of our recent managerial appointments.
WHO IS NEXT- WHO SUCCEEDS MARTIN O’NEILL TO WORK IN HANDCUFFS?
Prepared to overlook the farcical set up of a puppet CEO having his strings pulled by a retired golfer jetting around the world’s best courses.
Or in Ange’s case capable of bypassing that laughable set up and get his agent in to recruit the players he needed.
After Sunday a friend of mine suggested Keiran McKenna should be the man to come in.
I couldn’t agree more.
But why on earth would McKenna possibly come to Celtic?
He is a young up and coming manager who has steadily built up a solid reputation down south.
Is he prepared to risk that reputation by coming to Celtic and having to build a team out of our consistently horrific transfer windows?
Will he want to sit down and plan his strategy with a CEO who had to leave the room to get permission to spend another £100,000 to recruit Luke McCowan?
A CEO that won’t sit with his appointment to take questions at a media conference?
What manager wants to come to the club where the highly regarded Brendan Rodgers was laughably attacked online by the retired golfer who tried to trash his reputation.
Not to mention the leaked attacks on his character that were sent into a newspaper by the hierarchy of the club. All while Rodgers was still in the dugout.
O’Neill is going to need replaced next summer, or possibly sooner.
But under the current regime, the only candidates that will be considered are those that are grateful for the opportunity and prepared to work under the ridiculous Desmond-Nicholson set up.
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