If ever there was a Celtic team ready to move into management it would be Martin O’Neill’s 2003 UEFA Cup finalists.
The three year journey under O’Neill provided more hands on experience than any coaching course could hope to offer- taking a club by the scruff of the neck to push their ‘superior’ city rivals into the background with every player operating at their very best.
It was a team full of captains, Paul Lambert wore the armband but Bobo Balde, Alan Thompson and Chris Sutton didn’t need to be told to raise their game.
Football management is a strange business, in the 1980s Roy Aitken, Willie Miller and Paul Hegarty dominated at their clubs yet none of that trio was able to get close to that level of success in management.
Similarly O’Neill’s Celtic side looked capable of creating a dynasty of managers but only Paul Lambert and Neil Lennon have enjoyed any sort of success but both are now trying to rebuild their managerial reputations.
There may be some late contenders to emerge from the Seville squad, this article looks at how those that moved into management have fared.