If Peter Lawwell is in Turkey on a jolly, then I have to wonder why in God’s name he’s travelling to the other side of the world to network and hob-nob and glow with pride at being in the proximity of the sheiks of a repressive petro-state when we need a manager. If he’s over there to make someone an offer then as far as I’m concerned he should stay there.
The idea that we might be about to offer the keys to our club to a guy with virtually no managerial experience at all should be reverberating through our fan-base like the shockwave of a powerful explosion. Maresca’s 14 game reign of error at Parma does not remotely qualify him for the position at Celtic Park and that we would be replacing an outstanding, elite level coach with such a man is almost beyond comprehension.
It’s as if all the progress of the last two years has been set aside so that we can again flirt with mediocrity. No wonder there are people in our support who are quite ready to believe that Lawwell is in some way responsible for the departure of Ange Postecoglou; it is ideas like this which don’t so much spark distrust as they do outright loathing for the man.
Every manager that we have appointed to this club in his tenure – bar one, and that one is still the one that scares us most – had more experience, by far, than this guy. Tony Mowbray had won the English Championship; not an easy thing to do by any means. Ronny was a title winner in his native Norway, and had taken his side from obscurity to that lofty perch.
Rodgers, Strachan and Howe – the one who got away – were outstanding coaches, with long careers behind them and which made them exceptional candidates. The reason so many fans were enthused by Postecoglou is that he had a whole series of accomplishments in the sport behind him; titles, managing his national team, competing on two continents.
Not one of these men was underqualified for the job in anything like the manner that this guy is. 14 games in management is not that many more than The Mooch across the street at Ibrox, and he was actually in a management job when they went and got him.
There is nothing in Maresca’s history which suggests that he will be able to do this, that he will be able to handle it, there is no tactical philosophy that we can discuss to assess his credentials for it. He has no history to speak of, no way to properly draw the least conclusions about whether or not he can command a dressing room. There is zero prospect of him uniting the fan-base, most of whom will look at the big picture here and recognise exactly what this is.
I said that history gives these guys some benefit of the doubt. But of course that history also includes at least one retrograde appointment which took this club backwards and yet it was not the second coming of Lennon that I was referring to earlier when I said there’s one part of the history that scares me. I’m talking, of course, about Lennon’s first hiring, when he had less experience than Maresca does right now, a decision which still shocks me to this day.
Lennon is probably the luckiest manager in the history of this club. He should never have been near the job even once and he’s had it twice. Outside of Celtic Park he has three sackings and the most significant club of that three was Hibs, right here in the SPFL. Football chairman of every shade and stripe refuse to touch this guy. Our board “saw” something no-one else does.
And that suggests that they are perfectly capable of making this appalling decision and bringing this guy to Celtic. They are perfectly capable of playing into every negative stereotype about them that we hold. I’ve long said that the way we do things inside the club is shit; it reeks of cronyism and nepotism that even the White’s and Kelly’s would never have dared.
And now we have this City Group “link” and all the bullshit that surrounds that. If he’s over there to play at being a jet-setter and try to look good in their showy circle then he’s got no business pretending that Celtic is his first priority. If he’s over there on business then it’s a sign that we continue to be governed by people who have been there too long and are now incapable of seeing the limits of their own thinking. This is the moment this drama risks becoming a crisis.
i thought the role of “chairman” was merely a non functional position…
but then this arrogant bastard’s son has a key position….i am certain lawwell senior’s return to the club had nothing to do with postecoglou’s leaving – but then, what do i know…?
i don’t trust this guy at the club….for some of the reasons you outline above james…his double appointments of lennon was atrocious…
he and his cohorts stumbled into the postecoglou appointment….it was not careful head hunting – no way. they are arrogant enough to think they can do it again with the help of “the city gtoup”….
i said it before and say it again….pity he wasn’t sitting in his car that night……
Liewell should stay in Istanbul anyway,he should never have been given a position back at the club in the first place.
Lawell will do his best to make the rangers competitive.He has previous for it. Believes in the “old firm”£££
James, this reads much like your comments when Ange was appointed. Let’s face it, Howe as first choice with Ange as a back-up was hardly poor decision making. The board got it right with Ange, and we should trust them to get it right this time too.
I disagree. If he’s over there to hobnob and lord it up with his rich pal’s I’m happy. The less influence he has in our manager search the better in my view.
I think you are way off base here.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, Lawwell is only interested in Lawwell and his pockets. He lied to the requisitioners, he has lied to the broader fan base, he was and is, implicit in the survival myth. During his time as CEO he was Celtic’s highest paid employee, his bonus dwarfing the salary of the players. He reneges on promises and managers and players alike leave. He returns, Ange leaves? He genuinely thinks he is bigger than the club
I thought Nicholson was the main man in recruitment, it appears that Lawwell has put him in his place. There is always a bad smell in the air, when Lawwell is around. Are we going back to the old ways, next couple of months will tell. I had a bad feeling, when they pushed the season ticket sales so Quickly, perhaps a damage limitation on the sales, if the fans found out at the time, that the manager was leaving
Not potter
I just totally agree with this assessment. Really hoped we would continue to move forward, dominate Scotland, but start to make some inroads in Europe. I struggle to understand how this guy will take us there, hope I’m wrong if he gets the job, but what a risk this is and at this time. Surely Lawwell cannot act without DD’s approval, is this guy his choice also?
James, why don’t you just shut up. Go back to your comments about Ange before we took him on and then see how they changed. Typical attention seeker but in your case typical click seeker looking for cash.
Maresca would be a great fit for celtic apart from being a great player he has experience at man City so stop bumping yer gums and let’s get on with it
I said this on my last comment,the problem we have is , ourselves we buy into all this pish ,I think at times we are on more deludomal than our cohorts across the city.Why don’t Celtic ST holders not just boycott a game or two our team will still manage without fans for a game or two,but the only way to get through to liewell and the board is vote with our feet,ie stay away,but I like James fear that we are going to go backwards again,but it’s in our own hands and at times I feel we deserve all the shafting we get from our Tory board, actually at times it’s embarrassing being a gullible Celtic fan, sorry rant over but I just fear for us now that liewell is back.
No-one has been charged with the fire-bombing of Mr. Lawwell’s property but, of course, had this resulted in a fatality we would’ve expected more.
Terrible that we aren’t offering the job to Rodger’s
Shocking appointment of maresca if it happens
What a great article! Thank God others in the Celtic support are seeing right through this Maresca rubbish! Absolutely terrifying the thought of him being appointed manager. I would even take the snake Rodgers before him – and that’s saying something!
Shortlist surely has to be Knutsen, Muscat and Potter. I know Muscat has The Rangers connection but he wouldn’t give a damn and would be pulling out all the stops to deliver success and continuity to what Ange left behind. His record is almost a carbon copy of Postecoglou and he plays similar high press attacking football. He is a shortlist no brainer for me.
Personally can’t knock the guy at all 2out 3 ain’t bad 5 out of 6 we always want success at the highest level I don’t most folk don’t know either are they at the bicuit tin again ?oh give you a rolling contract? If true he got A4 year deal in the blink of a eye something ain’t right there .
Ajax might not go for bodo manager
Not potter