Stan Petrov has delivered a very convincing case for change at Celtic- even though it would cost his old team-mate Neil Lennon a job.
The Bulgarian spent six years enjoying mainly good times at Celtic before making the transition to English football where he impressed at Aston Villa before being forced into early retirement.
Under Martin O’Neill, Petrov and Lennon were in the engine room alongside Paul Lambert as Celtic boldly made their way to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final, beating teams from England, Germany and Spain along the way.
Those days seem light years away from the present fare with Livingston and Hibs disappointed with only taking a point from Celtic Park, a few months earlier Ross County ended the unbeaten domestic cup run with a 2-0 victory in the Betfred Cup.
Petrov’s analysis as a pundit has impressed Celtic fans, joining The Huddle podcast he mixed the passion and demands of the support with a cold analysis of what has gone wrong and the change that is needed.
There was no pleasure in delivering his verdict on a former team-mate or desire for headlines and attention which could make him an interesting and beneficial part of any future manager’s backroom team.
18 minutes 30 seconds
Do you agree with that? (JohnHartson saying that it is time for Neil to go)
Yeah, I think so. I think that it has got to the point where Celtic do have to make a change. I think that it needs a different approach. I think that a new manager has to come in with his staff.
A leader, somebody who can lead the team in a different direction, somebody who can motivate and change the style of play because, what we’ve seen, and it’s just me and my opinion, what Celtic are trying to do is still to try and play the football that we seen under Brendan Rodgers.
Nice slick football with a lot of possessions but now we’ve seen Ruthless Rangers, they will go and stop you playing, they will go and have better characters, they will have better winners. They’ll have people who are willing to stop you winning again. And we have to change the approach.
I was in the dressing room when that happened. In 2000 when Martin O’Neill came in for John Barnes, the change was needed. We needed someone who can lead the team, the mental approach, in a different direction and we managed to do that.
If you look at it at the moment, you want constructive criticism, I think that the best situation for Celtic at the moment is not having fans.
I remember that night, when they made that decision, we were locked in the Dressing Room for nearly six hours, we couldn’t come out. The fans were outside, they were demanding change, they were pushing for it and when that happens there is no way back.
At the moment there is no fans in the stadium, there is no pressure, no fans outside the stadium. Everything is protected, everything is through Social Media. The club can actually sit back ‘lets analyse it, when are we going to make the change, who is the right person for that’ so they are actually quite relaxed.
If the fans are inside the stadium, if the fans are outside the stadium that change would have been made way earlier.
As a manager what we’ve seen on Saturday, what we’ve seen through the season is about when the manager starts asking about reaction, about desire, about determination, about commitment- then you have an issue. You have a huge issue in the dressing room.
It is something that they have to deal with. Is that change going to be made, are they going to make it now, are they going to make it in a month’s time? They have to decide that. I think that they have to make a change now and then have a bigger push for next season.
Petrov then spoke very enthusiastically about the prospect of Roy Keane becoming manager.
