According to The Sunday Mail yesterday, Malky Mackay has thrown his hat into the ring for the Celtic job, with an actual appeal to the board. This doesn’t surprise me one bit.
First, as I’ve said already, Celtic is a big job – a huge job, one that’s enormously attractive to a lot of people.
There are a lot of managers who would view it as a dream role.
They cover the whole spectrum, from young thrusters to seasoned pros. We’ll have no shortage of interest in this job. The difficulty for the Celtic board – if we can call it that – is sifting through the list of available, and interested, parties to arrive at the one they actually want.
Why in God’s name would we want Malky MacKay?
He’s expressing an interest right now for the same reason as Neil Lennon, and the same reason as Steve Clarke. Sacked in England, a failure in the league he wants to manage in, Celtic looks like an easy payday and the SPL an easy gig.
What’s he trying to sell us on here?
Well, he claims he can come up with a “plan” to win us ten in a row.
So what? Big deal.
There was a time not long ago where we could have guaranteed that simply by making sure no-one nicked the stadium of a weekend. A slight exaggeration, okay, but you get my meaning. The strategy for achieving that goal isn’t about much more than keeping the quality of the squad better than any in the country.
Not rocket science. Even Ronny Deila didn’t mess it up too badly.
Because Ronny Deila was capable of coming up with such a plan. Tony Mowbray would be. Even Derek McInness could get this Celtic team over the line for that challenge, and I don’t regard him any better a coach than Ronny himself; this season has exploded the McInness myth completely and yet I would put money on even him being able to complete the record breaking run.
The idea itself is a wee bit parochial. Best team in Scotland? A Scottish record of league wins in a row? Where’s the ambition here? Where’s the plan to restore us on the European stage? It’s as if Mackay doesn’t believe he can do that, and is simply looking for a headline chasing “promise” to entice us with.
I ain’t biting. It’s a pretty weak offer.
Malky MacKay’s “plan” doesn’t convince me, and he doesn’t convince me either. This is the sort of thing we ought to expect from someone like him, frankly.
He’s shown nothing in his managerial career thus far.
Furthermore, to hand him the keys at Celtic Park would be a terrible decision which would have consequences far outside of what he did in the dugout. This appointment would erase our good relationship with various civic organisations at a stroke.
The Sunday Mail’s Gordon Waddell might be saying that it the racism scandal that blew up over Mackay isn’t important, but he’s kidding himself and trying to kid us.
If this guy was appointed Celtic boss the media would have a field day.
MacKay isn’t a credible choice. The fans would never accept it and the media would never let us hear the end of it. Yes, no matter who we pick the press will have something to say about it and it will probably be something negative … but this makes it easy for them.
Since when did we do that?
Malky MacKay should never be allowed near Celtic Park, far less the manager’s office.
How many more times do we have to go through self inflicted turmoil, for little return? I suspect even our board is not stupid enough to make a mistake like this one.