Celtic will play their first match of the 2019/20 season against SC Pinkafeld on June 26- just 31 days after the final whistle blows in the Scottish Cup Final against Hearts.
The non-internationalists in the first team squad are likely to report to Lennoxtown a week ahead of the first pre-season match in Austria.
With those dates in mind there is a very short time-frame to appoint a manager with the draw for the first qualifying round of the Champions League taking place on June 18 with the first legs being played on July 9 and 10.
By the time of the Scottish Cup Final the Celtic board will have had three months to assess candidates to replace Brendan Rodgers with Neil Lennon in pole position.
Whoever is going to manage Celtic into the Champions League qualifiers needs as much time as possible to prepare for matches in August that can add £40m to turnover and send the value of players soaring.
Last summer’s misadventures in the transfer market cost the club dearly with key players missing in defence and attack when the hoops lost out to AEK Athens in the third qualifying round.
From May 26 an announcement will be expected, by June 26 the new man should be firmly in place putting together his squad and ideas to take the club back into the group phase of the Champions League and to retain their domination of domestic football.
Who thought that was a great idea?https://t.co/2iiwUndRQR
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) April 17, 2019