Chris Sutton fears that Celtic are rapidly losing time on their massive summer rebuild.
Around a dozen of this season’s squad could be gone during the close season with every area in need of reinforcements.
In any circumstances it is a tall order but with a manager and Director of Football also required everything appears to be on hold. Since before Neil Lennon resigned Eddie Howe has been available but there has been no suggestion of any contact from Celtic.
Since Lennon quit there hasn’t been a word seep out of Celtic about what direction they are moving in with a predictable diet of names thrown up for speculation.
Fifty thousand Season Ticket holders will be asked soon to renew for next season but without knowing who will be in charge of the team it will be a very tough task to get close to that number again.
Assessing the current stalemate in the Daily Record, Sutton asks:
What happens if John Kennedy wins tomorrow, follows it up with a victory at Ibrox and he manages to claim the Scottish Cup?
Let’s face it, there’s not much evidence to suggest that is going to happen, but what if it does? Would the board then think Kennedy is the man for the job in the long term?
I don’t think that’s the way to go but the longer things go on the less clear they look about the long-term plan. There’s no way they can appoint a manager now who has been out of a job for a while.
If Eddie Howe walked in next week, the question would be why wasn’t he in the door getting to work a month ago?
The fact he’s not suggests it isn’t going to happen but there needs to be some leadership and groundwork laid for the coming campaign.
In case Celtic haven’t noticed, thanks to Rangers producing the goods in Europe, Scotland will have an automatic place in the Champions League the season beyond next.
That makes the coming season absolutely huge. Celtic have already surrendered their huge advantage over Rangers this season but the way they are going they might have to give up next year as well, which would leave them even further behind.
The only confirmed appointment is Dom McKay as CEO on July 1, waiting until then to begin recruiting would virtually write off next season.