As a coach Gavin Strachan was a new name to the Celtic support but he had already networked with Neil Lennon and John Kennedy.
Being assistant manager at Doncaster Rovers and Peterborough is a world away from Celtic but behind the scenes coaches and managers are constantly in touch.
Chris Davies and Damien Duff have both worked closely with the current Celtic squad with a need for some freshness on the training ground while the style of management remains constant.
Strachan has joined Celtic at a highly significant time but has quickly got upto speed with training methods and ideas thanks to his past connections.
He told the Daily Record:
We [him and Lennon] dealt with each other quite a bit when he was at Bolton. I was at Doncaster at the time, so we were at similar levels and we’d come across each other quite a bit.
I knew John more as we did our A-licence and Pro-Licence together up here. I have definitely spent more time with him than the gaffer before coming here.
When you’re doing those courses, a lot of them as residential, so you end up spending quite a lot of time together and you see how people’s minds work. And I was always impressed with John.
Even back then you could see his football brain and his organisational skills. He’s a very good coach. When the job came up I felt it was right.
I loved what I was doing at Peterborough, it’s a really good club with a really good manager and staff, but as soon as this became a possibility it was something I wanted to do.
There weren’t many clubs I would have left for because I really enjoyed it where I was. Had it even been top Championship clubs, I don’t think I would have gone but Celtic is different with the scale of the club and everything that goes with it with the fan base.
Knowing a bit about the club anyway, for a coach and a career opportunity, it was just something I couldn’t turn down.
Next week Celtic step up their pre-season preparations when they head to Loughborough University before flying to France to get in some matches for the first time since March 7.
On Monday the SPFL will publish the Premiership fixtures with the domestic action getting underway on August 1 with Celtic expected to have a home match.