Thankfully the recent pain of watching Celtic throwing away the title to a woefully inept Rangers side has been eased by the departure of Gordon Strachan.
What happens next is the big guessing game, and guessing game it surely is with internet message boards as likely to come up with the answer as any old fashioned traditional media.
Without doubt only Dermot Desmond decides on who manages Celtic, Peter Lawwell gets on with the legwork and John Reid delivers soundbites for reassurance.
On past evidence Desmond prefers to recruit from England which makes Davie Moyes, Tony Mowbray and Owen Coyle the obvious contenders with Roy Keane a very interesting dark horse.
The sounding out process will have been underway for a while, no one ruling themselves in or out and knowing that being linked with Celtic won’t do them any harm in future contract negotiations.
Personally I think that Mowbray is the favourite but there are similar cases to be put up for most candidates with three of those four being former Celtic players and Coyle a very obvious Celtic fan if not quite in the Chic Charnley mould!
A new direction is urgently required at Celtic but curiously I think that just three first-team signings are required to create a team capable of winning next season’s SPL with some ease.
Those signings start at left-back, the position Celtic have been screaming out for for two years or four transfer windows in real money.
A competent, steady-eddie type would do nicely, shouldn’t burst the bank and provide some welcome stability to the defence with enough central defenders to pick a solid combination from to complement Andreas Hinkel on the right.
Two strikers to compete with Scott McDonald and a fully fit, and confident, Shaun Maloney would make a world of difference while Scott Brown and Aiden McGeady can form the basis of a strong midfield backed up by others such as Marc Crossas, Barry Robson and Paul Hartley with hopefully Mark Millar and Simon Ferry making first team inroads.
The new manager will also inherit Scott Cuthbert, Paul Caddis, Cillian Sheridan and Paul McGowan who have been spared the last five months at Celtic whilst enjoying regular first-team football in the SPL.
It’s unrealistic to expect all five to make a first team impact next season but when Strachan arrived he couldn’t have anticipated the contributions of McGeady, Maloney and Stephen McManus in his first season.
We have a more than capable squad for winning in Scotland for the new manager to inherit. Adding some variety to the style of play, some belief and new faces to that squad will work wonders.
Realistically the Champions League is unlikely next season, our main pleasure is likely to be watching a woeful Rangers side recreate the campaigns of the mid 90s when giants like Auxerre and Grasshoppers were assured of easy points with Christian Gross once famously describing Rangers as a team of holidaymakers.
Our concern however is Celtic and after the straightjacket approach of Strachan the support is crying out for some entertainment mixed with success, elements that can be achieved together.
The new appointment is eagerly anticipated with a new direction required, one that is successful and pleasing on the eye without having to be Brazil 1970ish.
Reaching out and communicating with supporters is a key element, there are enough channels available to the new manager through the club website, Celtic TV and the Celtic View for the manager to get his message across without digging a hole for himself with childish run-ins with the traditional forms of media.
All sorts of names have been guessed at in newspapers with some happy to cover five or six names in the one piece illustrating that outwith a very small circle, possibly consisting of only three men, no-one else really has any idea of how Celtic are going about the recruitment process.
Without any genuine leads some have turned to criticise the Celtic support with the old chestnut of ‘Celtic-minded’ coined by Jock Brown I believe, the favoured way to put in some sly digs at the support.
Celtic fans like people who understand the club, Henrik Larsson, Jock Stein, Wim Jansen and Danny McGrain weren’t born and raised as Celtic supporters but quickly realised the unique importance of the club to thousands of supporters near and far and knew that being at Celtic was more than just a nice line on their cv.
Almost all of Martin O’Neill’s players quickly realised that Celtic was a bit different and special, Alan Thompson is often seen at Celtic matches, I doubt if he holds Aston Villa or Bolton in the same regard.
Does Chris Sutton follow Chelsea and Blackburn as closely as Celtic? Does John Hartson keep tabs on Luton and Arsenal the way that he watches Celtic?
Celtic are different from others in a way that’s hard to describe, impossible for the sceptical outsider to realise.
Some crucial decisions are coming soon at the club, a new leader and direction to emerge which will hopefully point the club back in the right direction giving the supporters the same feeling as the Larsson inspired O’Neill years or the highs of Champions League qualifications under Strachan.
