Ange Postecoglou has spoken about his hopes to bolster Celtic’s backroom and support staff.
It seems that the Australian inherited a skeleton staff when he took over as manager in June with mention made of being short of bodies in Sports Science, Medical, Scouting and Recruitment.
Postecoglou hasn’t brought any backroom staff in from either Japan or Australia and seems comfortable on his own with John Kennedy, Gavin Strachan and Stephen McManus in the background.
Anton McElhone has come in to head up Sports Science with Postecoglou looking to add to every department regardless of whether he has personally worked with the new recruits or not.
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I’ve never been one that is wedded with people that I’ve worked with in the past, I’ve kind of enjoyed going into different environments and working with different people.
It’s not about the football staff here or football department, not just the football staff. For me what was obvious as soon as I came in was that we needed to add people.
We’ve brought in Anton (McElhone) in terms of our Sports Science and he has been brilliant since he came in and not just with what he has been able to input but how he has helped the guys that are already existing in the department, whether that is Sports Science or Medical, we’ve been a man or two short in that area. And there are other areas that we are looking to bolster up, particularly around scouting and recruiting.
So its not about replacing people here, it’s certainly not about me recruiting people that I’ve worked with in the past. It’s about…. I’ve always tried to bring in the best people possible, irrespective of their backgrounds or whether I’ve worked with them or not, I reckon that when you go down that track I’m limiting myself.
We’ll cast the net far and wide, we’ll get the best people in and that’s what we need to do. We need to bring in more people to bolster up the existing structure here.
Nick Hammond left his job as Head of Football Operations in March with no replacement brought in or change in direction announced affecting that area of the club.
Summer recruitment didn’t seem to follow any particular pattern although there did seem to be a greater emphasis on players in the 24-26 age range rather than younger projects.
So far Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide have still to make their debuts with Liam Scales playing for just 30 minutes in a League Cup tie.
In their third seasons at Celtic Luca Connell, Jonathan Afolabi and Lee O’Connor are also waiting to make their competitive debuts.
John Kennedy needs to be punted out the door.
This charlatan has been around the club far too long whilst bringing nothing to the table, unless you believe that the inability of defenders to actual defend is a speciality that should be nurtured.
The only time any recent Celtic sides have not been shipping goals was when Brendán Rodgers was in charge.
When Rodgers was in charge Kennedy was on Water / Bibs and Cones duty and had nothing whatsoever to do with the defensive coaching of the players.
This man needs to go and stand on his own two feet and quit hanging around Celtic like a fart in a phonebox.