With the domestic football season being over, I fully expected to be reading masses of reports of players who will be coming and going to Celtic over the transfer window.
I didn’t expect to be reading about who the next manager would be.
After four years, Neil Lennon has decided to move on so the first thing I’d say is that the club is in far better shape now than it was when he took over so well done to Neil for all the work that he has done.
I think it’s safe to say that his time in charge has been largely successful. I’m also sure that the majority of Celtic fans will wish him all the best in whatever he does next.
And I already know that a high number of non Celtic supporting people are so glad to see him leaving. I’ve already wrote about why I think Lennon was so hated in Scotland – racism.
Moving on to his replacement, I’ve read a large number of names who have already been linked to our great club. Like all Celtic fans, I have my thoughts on who we should consider and who we should not touch with a barge pole (if you happen to have a barge pole that is).
One of the more well known names is of course the King of Kings, Henrik Larsson. For me, I’m not convinced that he is the right man for the job, partly because he hasn’t done anything spectacular in the two teams that he has worked for in management so far.
Part of my thought process would be that if Henrik did come in and never done as well as he expected, could you imagine his reputation being tarnished? As Henrik the player goes, I doubt I’ll see a better player at our club.
Could he live up to the expectation and would he be able to get our team to compete in Europe as well as win leagues and domestic trophies?
I have no ideas whether or not he could but my gut instinct is not yet for Henrik. I do get that Neil Lennon came in with not a great deal of managerial experience and it wasn’t a bad thing but I just don’t feel that Celtic is the club that should be used to trial out a mans coaching or managerial abilities.
A few more that I have read about are Paolo Di Canio. I’m going to steal a line from Billy Connolly and say that I wouldn’t give him the controls for the telly. I know i’m not the only one who feels like this about him but he, or his agent, have supposedly expressed an interest. I wouldn’t want that guy back at our club at all.
For a start, I really don’t think that he would ever spend any time in the dugout. With the amount of “honest” mistakes that go against Celtic, I’m pretty sure he would lose it. I’m guilty of losing the place with officials on a regular basis but there again, I don’t get paid to represent the club.
Owen Coyle is yet another who has been linked with the club. When I say linked to us, I don’t actually know where the link has come from, keep in mind that I’m just a fan who doesn’t have any inside knowledge of the club.
I just read internet forums and twitter etc the same as most other people do so whether or not he’s a likely candidate, I really don’t know.
I know that Owen was linked with the job in the past. He did a decent enough job at Burnley but after that, he hasn’t done very much.
I’m not convinced that he is the type of guy who would give us a team capable of producing fast attacking football. At the end of the day, as fans, we want to see football being played the Glasgow Celtic way, not the way of some counter attacking, ‘bus parking’ team.
One of my choices would be Malky Mackay. Why him some will ask ? So far, he seems to have worked under some unpleasant bosses such as his previous chairman at his last club.
Considering all of the grief that Mackay put up with, he still went up in front of the media and spoke well. He was the type of manager that seemed to be able to get the players pushing for him.
He was also the type of manager who was able to keep a dignified silence when things behind the scene weren’t going so well.
I guess there’s so many other possible options for us, some have suggested Jackie McNamara up at Dundee Utd, would it be too early for him ? And would he leave his current job so soon after taking it on?
Does the same apply to Paul Hartley? Would it be too early for him ? One point to keep in mind is that he’s won promotion three years in a row.
I’ve already said that one of my preferred choices would be Malky Mackay but my second choice is one that I haven’t heard anyone talking about yet so please do let me know what you think.
I’ve had a quick look over Michael Laudrup’s managerial record and it’s not too bad at all. He has won leagues and cups in Denmark as manager of Brondby. He took Getafe to the Copa del Rey final as well as to the quarter finals of the UEFA cup (now the Europa league).
Again, I’ve got no ideas whether or not our club would want him or whether or not he’d want to manage us but I would certainly be happy if either he or big Malky are in the men in our dugout in the next few months.