GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 01: Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Rangers at Celtic Park, on September 01, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
On Tuesday morning John Kennedy had no workplace to go to. No drive to Lennoxtown on Celtic duty.
From the day that he left school to Sunday’s match at Tynecastle he has been on duty for Celtic.
But not on Tuesday. The events of Monday sickened him.
Things happened on Monday that we will never fully know about.
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
Some might like to believe the cosy yarn from Martin O’Neill that he got a phone call out of the blue and 10 minutes later he was living the dream as Celtic’s interim manager.
Others think a bit and ask questions.
At Celtic you rarely get answers. Requests to buy merchandise, patronised and taken for granted are the order of the day.
MANIC MONDAY
Kennedy started Monday as assistant manager to Brendan Rodgers. By midnight he was no longer Celtic’s assistant manager.
Shamefully the club hasn’t published a word about someone who was employed for 27 years and no longer there.
On Monday night the club did see fit to publish an outrageous statement from an elderly Non Executive Director venting his fury over Sunday’s first team manager.
That could turn out to be one of the costliest exercises the club has ever done.
Up there with Mark Lawwell and the 2023 recruitment that brought in seven misfits from Marco Tilio to Maik Nawrocki and all sorts inbetween.
Dermot Desmond’s words trashed the bizarre notion that Celtic are a brilliantly run club. Apparently admired and respected across Europe.
The club couldn’t muster up a single paragraph to explain Kennedy’s departure.
People can say what they want about the way the club treated Rodgers but for them not to utter even one sentence to wish John Kennedy well after nearly 30 years of service is an absolute disgrace. pic.twitter.com/vYkun0geYK
— 4 Tims and a Podcast (@PodTims) October 28, 2025
As a 16-year-old Kennedy made his reserve team debut, soon he was selected for the first team by Kenny Dalglish. In 2003 he starred in Barcelona- the last time that Celtic won a knock-out tie in a UEFA competition.
A week after that his career was virtually over. The victim of a Romanian thug on his international debut.
RETIREMENT
He fought back, he did everything to overcome that horrific injury but another knee injury in a Champions League tie against Shakhtar Donetsk.
After retirement he worked in the youth set up that produced Callum McGregor, he marked Ronny Deila’s card on Kieran Tierney.
He worked with Rodgers, he worked with Ange Postecoglou. Both wanted to take him with them to the EPL. Kennedy opted to stay with Celtic.
And then either his face didn’t fit or the conditions inside the club passed a certain threshold.
If he had any doubts about quitting Celtic Desmond’s statement on Monday night would have reassured him.
THE CELTIC FAMILY?
At Celtic you are a great lad, part of the family until your face doesn’t fit. Maybe you’ve challenged for ambition, for success.
And then you are gone. Not even worth a mention by the club.
His name was put to Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill who both replied in cliches. That’s life, this is football.
The Celtic CEO should have been at the media conference, taking random questions for the second time in his well salaried career.
Not Michael Nicholson. He was hiding in his office, preying that a competent manager will appear just as Rodgers and Postecoglou did previously.
Either that or Dermo will pluck someone from his EPL/Irish contact book.
CEO AT WORK!
Otherwise Nicholson will have to do some work!
Select a football manager then negotiate terms for them to come in to a shambles of a club.
What else do you get when you have a CEO afraid to speak to his in-house media team.
After his feeble negotiating of the summer to sign players it is unlikely that Nicholson will be introducing a permanent manager any time soon.
Or that the club will explain Kennedy’s situation and do the decent thing for a 42-year-old employed in the front line for 27 years.
Loyal Gavin Strachan remains on the Celtic payroll, just like his brother Craig. Celtic’s Head of European and UK Scouting.
The strategy must remain. Do not finance them. To not believe their gaslighting. For 20 years they have followed the same strategy; buy loads of cheap players and hope they find a gold nugget amongst them.
When O’Neil managed to get them to Seville, Celtic realised that success may impact the bottom line. They’ve resolutely rectified that situation. No more European adventures.
People’s conflicted emotions about all these dramatic events remain fluid – many fans are still livid today but if the O’Neill – Maloney dream ticket gets off to a flying start and BRodge and JK quickly wash up in lucrative gigs at the next EPL side to pull the plug on the manager (which I suspect may be Fulham), feelings could change pretty quickly….
Editor: Maybe for some ‘floating fans’ but the Collective and others won’t be fooled by gimmicks. Five successive defeats in UCL qualifiers says a lot, says it all.
They are banking on the majority of fans seeing “the fitba’” as their weekend entertainment rather than the central preoccupation of their lives, and that opposition will melt like spring snow if a few decent results are strung together…… I suspect they are probably right but time will tell. I’ve just received an email from them telling me the Christmas store is open. Haven’t opened it yet but I’m expecting Martin O’Neill in a Santa outfit.
I could never quite figure out why,but the Strachan clan thing inside Celtic has always just felt ‘wrong’ to me. Eyes and ears everywhere apparently. What is it they do precisely,and what value/impact/benefit does it,or has it,had on performance or recruitment?
As even Stephen McGowan has pointed out publicly, it serves no-one to undertake a personal attack on a departing manager, which looks like trying to ruin his reputation, and also makes a mockery of the bit that says we invest heavily, we always do what is best for the club. There was a catchphrase/saying in the WWE, where Vince McMahon and co would say that they would do what’s “Best for business” – meaning what was best for the top rank and file, not the majority. That’s what our exec team do.
DD has done what some owners do (I’m not implying he’s the owner but he does act like one!). He’s come over with fire and brimstone, bawled and shouted his fury and the exec team are cowering in awe and excitement, now that daddy is in town to deflect the flak from them. The Forest owner did it with his old manager nuno. And that could be why there’s no word on JK departing after nearly 30 years of loyal service; they’re too scared to irritate the boss more. O’neill has a different relationship with him, he’s not worked for DD for 20 years so it’s probably been more cordial, how’s the wife and kids chats etc. And I do wish Martin and Shaun well, for the good of the team.
But like any fork in the road, it’s not easy to muster the constant energy needed to affect change. Some people have that drive in them more than others. So for the ones who have that energy and are not backing down from holding the board to account and see the changes we need at exec level, keep going. This is the moment to take a breath, rest for a moment then, as cyclists say “Vamos!” (We go again). DD will stay, he’s too financially entrenched. PL is the one that needs to go first. He has almost as much power in the boardroom as DD; I think over time PL has become DD’s sort of consigliere, his go to man who will do whatever asked of him but at the same time wield enormous power himself. And that feeds down to MN. To take that man seriously at CEO level is utterly delusional. How can you run a vast, very fast moving sporting instituation with a big corporate side, infrastructure in total silence? So silent that you actively ignore your phone on deadline transfer day! That act alone should have seen him out the door. But he will only go if PL goes first. That’s why he needs to clear out the Ambre Solaire from his office drawers and go.
I do think that despite the radio rental statement from DD the other night, that we could thrive with him still there. Because he likes being an absentee landlord. The challenge would be a decent Exec who will put together a better team, run the club efficiently and DD will be happy receiving his remuneration cheques and happy news each year. Keeping him away from the club is better while it’s run efficiently. Otherwise it would take too much energy and money in the short term to shift him. Hopefully whoever comes in as manager next season is given room to grow and have deals done early but that requires PL to leave and hopefully his hand puppet with him
This gets curiouser and curiouser by the hour . According to a SMSM hack today during Brendan Rodgers’ 3-4 hour meeting with Dermot Desmond , the invisible man overall chief said that Brendan didn’t mention anything about the current affairs at the time of the team . No mention of lack of quality striker ..or a proper winger or severely needed cover at the back . Not a single syllable about the seriousness of the diminished quality of playing staff in a 3-4 hour sit down between 2 bosses . Now that for me is entering Blind Lemon Jefferson territory if true , yet Brendan was at pains to let fans know all Summer long that new recruits were essential . Can you see where this does not add up to a hill of beans as an alleged Mr Desmond explanation condemning Brendan Rodgers’ character ?
A good win tonight – See (to my surprise and subsequently erroneous prediction) that Lawwell and Lucan actually turned up as well !