Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Motherwell - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 14, 2022 Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou celebrate winning the Scottish Premiership with the trophy and his staff Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington
Ange Postecoglou has reacted to speculation that John Kennedy is a candidate for the vacant managerial job at Hearts.
At the age of 39 Kennedy has completed nine seasons as part of four Celtic management teams, working under Ronny Deila, Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon and Postecoglou alongside a short stint as caretaker during the 20/21 season.
The former Celtic defender seems to be the perfect fit as an assistant, thorough and dedicated in the job and able to play the middle man between players and manager without being compromised.
At some stage it looks like Kennedy will go into management but with half of the SPFL Premiership clubs changing manager in mid-season he is well aware of the casualty rate.
Discussing his assistant at 20.48 last night the Daily Record reported Postecoglou saying:
John [Kennedy] plays a vital role. I give him a lot of responsibility. He’s got a lot of experience at this football club, part of a lot of success. That isn’t by accident. It’s not surprising that people are looking at him. When the time is right he’ll make an outstanding manager.
Robbie Neilson was sacked by Hearts on April 9 with Steven Naismith stepping in as caretaker. With the Jambos having to get a draw against Hibs on Saturday it is likely that the Hearts board will be looking elsewhere for their next manager.
Don’t see JK leaving Celtic any time soon. Why would he?