John Collins has highlighted one of the dilemmas facing Celtic as they attempt to recruit a manager and install a new structure to take the club forward.
With the exception of 18-24 months under Brendan Rodgers almost every aspect of the club has been directly controlled by Peter Lawwell.
At the end of June the long serving CEO will retire leaving behind a huge gap that will require to be filled.
Dom McKay will take over as CEO but his remit will be more limited with a Director of Football expected to be appointed to liaise between the CEO and the football manager.
Eddie Howe has been strongly linked to come in as manager but it seems that he is looking to bring Richard Hughes with him from Portsmouth while the current regime at Celtic have a preference for Fergal Harkin at Manchester City.
It looks like a classic stand-off that can’t be resolved. Picking up on a discussion about Harkin on Radio Scotland, The Sun reports Collins saying:
Fergal’s role at City when Ronny and I were dealing with him was to look after the loan players. He did a good job for Celtic when I was there. He was responsible for Jason Denayer, John Guidetti, Patrick Roberts and Dedryck Boyata all coming to the club. And all were successful at Celtic.
He has a good relationship with Peter Lawwell and the Celtic board so he’s a possibility for his role but he’s never been a director of football before.
It is now seven weeks since Neil Lennon resigned with Celtic seeming to be no closer to appointing a successor.