The end of the 2025/26 Scottish Premiership campaign is now upon Celtic and despite a few hiccups along the way, legendary and serial winning manager Martin O’Neill has turned his two caretaker spells this year into periods to remember. There will be those in the Parkhead faithful who can be forgiven for wondering what could have happened had he had even one game more this season, but what will be will be and fans should also be turning their attentions to the summer.
And it is set to be a busy off season for the slightly re-adjusted Celtic board who will no doubt be hoping that fans are required to buy Liverpool match tickets on Hellotickets when it comes to European involvement next term, but for now we not only require quite a significant first team rebuild to counter many of the attitude and performance level problems that we have experienced this year, but quite obviously, we also require a new permanent manager. Ideally the manager will be in place first at Celtic Park as that would also counter some of the concerns that the fans have when it comes to our recent historical transfer business, and who is actually in charge and identifying new players.
On that front, despite the many numerous favourites that have been peddled in the media, it seems Robbie Keane will not be that man. The 45 year old former Republic of Ireland international is well known at Celtic following his playing spell back in 2010, and he has just lifted silverware with current Hungarian club Ferencvaros. They go into the league curtain closer just a point off top spot and Keane could potentially successfully defend the title that they won under him last season.
Back to back league titles and a first domestic Cup in four years is by any measure a fantastic success and all things considered, it is obvious as to why he would be one of the top picks for Celtic given the career curve he is on. Unfortunately for those Hoops fans hoping to see him quickly installed, on the back of his recent cup success he was obviously in front of the eager media and he commented that he was relishing the experience of leading the club back into the Europa League next season, as he was hoping to have another good run in the competition so that they could take further steps of improvement in Europe to build on their domestic success.
Now, nobody expected him to say he was off at the end of the campaign, but his statement seemed to be one of a more personal, and driven design, arguably meant to carry an implication that he was definitely staying and that he was hopeful of putting the rumour mill speculation to bed once and for all.
It will not do that for very understandable reasons given the state of the modern media, so it will be interesting to watch on and see whether or not there is a short contract extension agreed to ram the message home.
For now though, if we were Keane on Robbie and wanted to bring him home, it would now be very wise to move him further down our shortlist as we simply cannot be caught short once again as the next appointments needs to both want the job, but also be able to do the job.
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