Paul John Dykes has claimed that Celtic turned down coaches with Premier League experience to appoint Gavin Strachan as first team coach.
When Damien Duff left to take up a post with the Football Association of Ireland it created a vacancy in the coaching team alongside Neil Lennon and John Kennedy.
Strachan, son of Gordon, was assistant manager at Peterborough United when he was appointed, seemingly in front of others that had been involved at the top level of the English game.
Discussing Strachan’s appointment: 11 min 45 seconds
I know for a fact that coaches with Premier League experience were interested in that job and approaches were made via their representatives to Celtic Football Club to say that they would be interested in the role that Gavin Strachan now fills. No responses were forthcoming. That is a concern when you are not even considering people that have made their feelings known, their availability known. They would come up and be part of this coaching team.
Like almost everyone at Celtic, Strachan as come in for heavy criticism this season, images of him looking at a laptop on the bench during matches hasn’t gone down well.
Previous to being assistant at Peterborough he had been assistant manager at Doncaster Rovers having started his coaching career as manager of Ilkerston in 2015.
As a player Strachan was capped by Scotland at u-21 level with his longest spell at a club coming at Hartlepool United from 2003 to 2007.