As the Rumour Mill continues to work overtime – and The Rumour Guy is back today with a big piece for us – there are some stories which are more interesting than others.
There are some that paint a picture of our club which actually resembles “joined up thinking.”
But is it the sort of “joined up thinking” we actually need?
Recently, on the blog, I wrote a couple of articles about “dream teams”, and this weekend threw up another two potential double acts; Fergal Harkin and Domènec Torrent, or, alternatively, the pairing of Harkin and Enzo Maresca.
The connection between them all? The club which employs them; Manchester City.
The thing is, neither Torrent not Maresca has a managerial pedigree the likes of which we’re looking for here. Either would be a gamble. Those who are trying to convince Celtic fans that having the right “system” in place is better than having the right manager (and there are some who are) ought to go and have a lie down in a dark room.
Yes, getting the structure of the club right is a must, of course it is, but at the top of the house there needs to be a figurehead that Celtic fans can believe in and some Manchester City youth coach isn’t going to cut it at all. We’d be as well to take a gamble on Lampard; at least we’d get the benefits of a bling name out of that nonsense.
There’s another concern here, obviously, and that’s that any structure ported over from City is going to make us look like an appendage to that club and not one that is capable of standing on its own two feet.
It also reeks of The Last Act Of Peter Lawwell.
That’s not a minor concern; he has always fancied himself, as we know, to be that much smarter than anyone else at Celtic, and I believe he’d be tempted to use this opportunity to shape the whole club in his image before he left.
He was one of the architects of the “Manchester City link-up” which, it has to be said, brought us some modest (but only modest) benefits … his son works there as well, which is where you suspect the push in this direction is partly coming from.
If we hire two senior members of their staff, and make one manager, I can see us being a dumping ground for a lot of their second tier reserves; sure as Hell nobody is sending the next Phil Foden up here on loan.
This is the wrong road for us to go down.
This can’t be a continuation of the Lawwell legacy; that has to firmly come to an end with his departure and the club put on a fresh footing. We are Celtic, by God, not some Manchester City off-shoot or proving ground for their reserves.
Anything that stinks of Lawwell’s sweat is not going to be welcomed here, not at all.
He will play a role in appointing the new boss, that’s obvious anyway, but a Manchester City hook-up won’t even be particularly disguised as being something other than his creation … and for that reason, as much as any, it is something to be avoided at all costs.
[snack-countdown title=”Celtic’s Countdown To Champions League Disaster” date=”06/20/2021″ time=”00:00:00″ colour=”#000″ textColour=”#FFF”]