Imagine, if you will, that we can strike a quick deal for Yokohama for their manager, which there’s no sign that we’ve done yet.
Imagine, if you will, that we can get the Postecoglou deal done and announced by the end of the week, and really that’s leaving us two days.
Imagine UEFA speeds up the process of granting the manager the Recognition of Competence he needs, cutting the time from many weeks to a handful.
If all of the pieces fell into place and we were able to announce his appointment as boss, we would still not be able to parade him in front of the press until he’d done his 10-day quarantine.
If we announced his appointment on Friday and he flew over here on the same day – and we’re talking about a guy who has to uproot and leave his life on the other side of the world – the very earliest that we could parade him in front of the media would be a week on Monday coming, 14 June, three days before pre-season training gets underway.
Now this is the optimal scenario.
But let’s take in the needs of Yokohama, and the time it takes UEFA to work through its processes.
Let’s give the man time to prepare himself and his family for a move to another country on another continent, which they have to know is a high-risk move.
If they’ve done their own due diligence it will be clear what a mess they are walking into.
It’s not just tight … it’s impossible.
If everything moves at lightning speed – now, finally, three months after Lennon was sacked – we could probably have Postecoglou taking charge of the first session.
If I was to assign a probability to him being there on that day I’d say it’s about 1%, and that, I think, is over-generous. I actually don’t believe there’s a hope in Hell that he’ll be at Lennoxtown for a while to come, perhaps a month or more, which really puts us in trouble.
How “fortunate” that we have a coaching team at Parkhead already, eah?
When Lennon was fired in February, how many of you thought that John Kennedy would be the club’s coaching figurehead come 17 June? There are, to be fair, people who said they fully expected him to be appointed boss anyway.
Certainly, his remaining at the club look certain.
He’s definitely going to be on the coaching pitch for the first pre-season run-around.
What in God’s name must our players think of that prospect?
What in God’s name must they think of the whole Celtic disaster right now?
A week ago I thought we might still have a shot at keeping Ajer; today I think we might lose McGregor and others, people so sickened by the amateurish manner in which we do things that they decide they want something better.
Which brings us to this; you can take it to the bank now that pre-season training will start with us short in a half dozen positions and without a single new player save for the Sheffield Wednesday kid whose deal is already done.
In the meantime, the season ticket renewal deadline looms in just over three weeks.
How do you reckon the sales have gone so far?