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The Men Who Shouldn’t Be In The Running For The Celtic Job

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So we’re effectively in the moment of  “Sede Vacante”.

The throne is empty. Who’s next to fill it?

With Deila’s departure now confirmed, albeit delayed, I can, at long last, take a look at some of the people whose names are going to be mentioned in relation to this job.

There are good candidates out there; I’ll go over them in another piece.

But there are bad candidates out there too, people who would take us down blind alleys instead of confidently forward.

Some of them have great names, but when you look beneath that what you find isn’t the requisite experience or skill to be Celtic boss.

We’ve been down that bad road too often.

Some will disagree with this, but Lawwell’s record in appointing managers is abysmal and in my view we got the last three colossally wrong.

Two of them I agreed with at the time, when others were telling me it was insanity.

One I disagreed with from the start, and did until the day he left.

That one will surprise you, but I’ll cover the reasons why on the next page, because he’s first to be featured.

As usual, I welcome all comments on this piece and if you like what you read or know someone who’ll find it interesting, please share it on social media.

It Shouldn’t Be Neil Lennon ….

There was no point, other than that night against Barcelona, when I believed Neil Lennon was the right man to be sitting in the Celtic dugout.

People sometimes accuse me of being a hypocrite over Lennon; actually, my view on him has always been pretty plain and clear. I’ve never hidden my opinion that he was the wrong guy, an appointment which revealed our board at their very worst. Not just a cheap option, but one completely lacking in any imagination or vision whatsoever.

It played to the gallery but it was an enormous, illogical, un-necessary risk. The irony, of course, is that in some ways it actually paid off. But for those who’re interested in stats, there’s a good one doing the rounds right now; in his first two seasons as manager his domestic form was little better than that of the guy we just said was leaving, and overall I always thought Lennon underachieved. On the day he left, I was delighted and I wished him well.

And that’s partly where people get confused about how I feel, because whatever my doubts about him as a manager, I hero-worshiped Lennon as a person and an individual. When I published my first book three years ago, I dedicated it in part to Neil Lennon, the Man. I always respected him and I always will; Hell, I even loved him.

What he gave to this club, the courage he showed over his time here, the enormous pressure and hatred he had to endure … no-one could have handled it with more grace, more class or more courage. How can you not love that?

But Neil made mistakes in his time in charge, and whilst I do not for a second blame him for everything – how can you, when he had to deal with a downsizing strategy of breath-taking proportions? – he could have fought his corner better against what was going on above, and there were performances and even entire stretches of his seasons where we were rank and awful to watch. He came very close to losing his job completely that day at Kilmarnock and not one Celtic fan would have had any complaints if he had.

His last couple of seasons were phenomenally consistent domestically, except for in the cups where he couldn’t seem to close it. But he knew he was never going to get the chance to mould the team he believed he could. What happened to him in his final season, as he watched the team that beat Barcelona dismantled, sold for millions, none of which he saw, was disgraceful and should have been the point where all Celtic fans lost patience with The Strategy.

Yet Lennon can’t escape blame for that. He allowed it. He didn’t fight hard enough for the things he wanted and needed to get the job done.

There were very good, not all public, reasons why both Neil and Celtic felt the time to leave had been arrived at. The circumstances at Celtic Park haven’t changed one bit since the day he departed; the downsizing goes on, in a manner I’m sure he’d find as unacceptable as he did before. If the Strategy is changing (and there’s no sign that it is) I think we’re capable of attracting a much better, higher calibre, individual.

There’s also his failure in England. Neil didn’t attract the attention of any high profile club when he left. That suggests to me that he’s not rated down south, and his time at Bolton will not have changed anybody’s minds. I’m sure the Celtic job looks very nice to him right now, as he’s another unemployed manager who’s best years might be behind him.

Celtic was founded as a charity, but we don’t run as one. We’re looking for something more. The return of Lennon, the favourite son, might sit right with other people … but I think it would be a scandalous appointment and certain to end in disaster.

Yet there’s another name who would trouble me even more …

Let The King Keep His Crown. Larsson Does Not Belong In The Parkhead Dugout … Yet.

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Henrik Larsson is the greatest footballer I’ve ever seen play at Celtic. Not for nothing was he named one of the greatest ever to play for the club. It was an honour and a privilege growing up watching him do his stuff in the Hoops.

My memories of Henrik are warm, happy ones, lots of them, enough that when I did my top ten goals against Rangers piece I included three from the King.

I would rather keep those happy memories as they are.

The King of Kings lacks the managerial pedigree for this job; it’s that simple.

His time as a boss has offered no evidence whatsoever that he has the skill-set to take us forward as a club once more. To appoint him would be to risk tarnishing one of the iconic figures in the history of Celtic, because he’s simply not up to it as things stand.

That might change. Henrik is a young guy, with a lot of time to learn his trade and earn his stripes. He’s not at a major club, but if he graduates to that level I suspect he’ll offer something to the game. Then, and only then, would the time be right to bring him home.

This one worries me, because it has a deadly attraction for some people.

I fear many of them would be quite willing to overlook the glaring problems with this scenario in order to have a guy we recognise and respect in the manager’s job. But these things never work out well. You only have to look across the city to see how McCoist fared to know that.

Imagine us having to show Henrik the door? Jesus.

Too horrible to contemplate sober.

Roy Keane Is Never A Manager In His Life.

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Charlie Nicholas is the first ill-informed halfwit to be banging this particular drum but I suspect he’ll not be the last.

He says Keane would “sort people out” and that he would bring a “different energy” to the club.

Yeah? And then what?

We could have that with Lennon, plus an actual record of achievement with it, and with him we get a relatively stable setup where one guy isn’t rocking the boat all the time.

With Keane you get a lot of unknowns except in one area; he’s never actually done anything of note as a boss.

“He’s maybe not a great tactician …” Nicholas goes on, thereby invalidating every single other word he says in the piece.

Because isn’t that what we’ve just got rid of Ronny for?

I think Nicholas’ intervention says so much about how ludicrous this idea is that there’s no need for me to look back on Keane’s record; there are no accomplishments of note in there at all. It’s not for nothing he’s a number two to Martin O’Neill, a vastly superior boss who knows Keane brings some additional gravitas to the coaching team but without real responsibility.

As a number two to a real decision maker … perfect.

The best Bad Cop we could ever hope for, and next to a motivator like O’Neill, a match made in heaven.

If we could get them both I’d take it in a minute.

But Keane on his own? As boss?

Not a chance in Hell.

No Tweedledum Or Tweedledee. Keep Coyle And MacKay Away From Celtic Park.

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I find it hard to separate these two in my mind. Am I the only one?

Linked with the Celtic job at every juncture, every time it comes up, these guys have had years to convince those of us who are sceptical that they have what it takes to take the Celtic post.

Neither has come close to it.

Neither has a clue.

To appoint either Coyle or MacKay would be a triumph of mediocrity.

Thankfully, neither of these guys is likely to be on the radar. The Celtic board took a punt on Deila because, on paper at least, he looked to have enough about him to make it a worthwhile risk. Indeed, I’ve never disagreed with the decision itself.

It’s proved to be wrong, and we should have acted much sooner than we did, but the risk never bothered me.

These guys don’t represent a risk. You’d be buying failure knowing that’s what you were getting. Strict second raters, the pair of them, who were briefly media darlings in England and a lot of chairman’s favourites … but I never saw it myself.

Coyle now manages in America with his time on the EPL gravy train at an end.

He has a single honour to his name, which he shared with John Hughes; a Scottish First Division title.

He also got Burnley to the playoffs.

That aside … nada.

And what of MacKay, whose career was almost destroyed completely by the dossier Vincent Tan sent to the English FA which accused him of, amongst other things, racism?

Wigan gave him a chance after that amidst an explosion of ill-feeling from Kick It Out and other organisations, and over the strong objections of most of their fans.

It ended in the predictable disaster, and he was sacked after 139 days in the job, where he proved to be utterly incapable of putting together any kind of run of form.

He has a single English Championship to his name, won with Cardiff, heavily bankrolled by Tan himself, who later came to despise him so much he wilfully detonated the racism bomb prior to MacKay going for an interview with Crystal Palace.

That says it all, doesn’t it?

Alan Stubbs: You Blew It Buddy. And You Were So Close …

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Stubbs had a shot. He really did.

If he’d managed to present more of a challenge to Sevco in the league, then two cup final places would have seemed like the icing on the cake.

Had he won the League Cup then maybe an argument could be made.

Yet Hibs could still finish third in the Championship and without anything to show for their season.

Their collapse in form after Christmas was dramatic and horrific in equal measure.

They allowed Warburton’s team to stroll when they should have made them sweat every match.

Who knows why they went so much off the boil of late, but it stopped talk of Stubbs as a future Celtic boss in its tracks … and those stories had a lot of traction in our media until very recently, partly to destabilise Ronny and partly to mess with Stubbs himself.

That it worked tells you how capable of dealing with pressure he currently is.

In truth, all such talk was premature to begin with.

Stubbs had a good early part of the season, and getting to two domestic finals is more than Deila managed with 20 times his resources. But too often this season his team has blown it when the chips were down, and that’s got to count against him, as it’s ultimately counted against Ronny. He, too, lacks the experience necessary to be considered a prime candidate for a job that’s capable of swallowing up the wrong man.

John Collins: Please God … No!

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One of the only compelling reasons for leaving Ronny Deila in post until the season ends is the fear – the very genuine fear – amongst Celtic supporters that John Collins might well wind up interim boss until it was over. Nothing would scare me more.

This one goes without saying, right?

I surely don’t need to roll out a list of reasons why this would be divisive, stupid, dangerous and doomed.

His appointment as Deila’s assistant was disgraceful and has contributed to this calamitous position.

If he doesn’t leave with Deila fans should be marching on Celtic Park.

In Conclusion ….

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Ronny Deila’s appointment didn’t work out, but it was a case of thinking outside the box.

Every single one of these candidates is an example of thinking inside the box, the one marked Do Not Open, and which will lead us nowhere.

So too would a strategy of appointing someone because of some vague “Celtic connection.”

Which isn’t to say everyone who has one would be wrong; at least one candidate does have such a connection and would be an outstanding appointment.

But simply appointing someone for that reason without his ticking other boxes would make it a decision without merit.

We need someone strong, but with experience of getting the best out of teams.

Someone who plays the right style of football … no more “one man up front.”

Someone who’s personality is such that he can tell those above him to back off and let him make the decisions, because that’s the only kind of management structure that’ll work … with one guy running the football side of it, the man whose job it is.

Fortunately, we are still a massive club.

With the right strategic approach (everything comes back to that, over and over again) there are top candidates who still see this as a top job.

Enticing one will not be easy, but it can be done …. and we’ll look at who some of them are in a later piece.

Come on Desmond. Make it happen.

Give us a reason to believe again.

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