BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - MARCH 12: Robbie Keane, Head Coach of Ferencvarosi TC, inspects the pitch prior to the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 Round of 16 First Leg match between Ferencvarosi TC and SC Braga at Ferencvaros Stadion on March 12, 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by David Balogh - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Today there is talk that Robbie Keane’s chances of becoming the next Celtic manager have received a boost. I said I would revisit this subject in proper detail and I’m going to do it now.
Because the so called three man shortlist which appeared last week, and which seems to have come from God knows where, is not particularly inspiring.
In fact, it’s horrifying.
According to that list we are supposed to be choosing between Robbie Keane, Motherwell’s manager and Craig Bellamy. Bellamy, incidentally, has never managed a single minute of club football and is currently the manager of Wales, who are about to embark on a World Cup finals campaign.
How convenient that would be.
It is entirely possible that the whole thing is nonsense. It may well be nothing more than idle speculation dressed up as reporting. In fact, I sincerely hope that is the case. Because if that really is the shortlist then it represents one of the most underwhelming managerial searches imaginable.
Let’s start with Robbie Keane.
We are talking here about a candidate who large sections of the Celtic support would find unacceptable on sight. Some people might think that’s irrelevant, but it isn’t. Football clubs do not normally go out of their way to appoint a manager who will immediately alienate part of their own fanbase.
Yet that is exactly what this would do.
This club should be looking for a unifying appointment. Someone who brings people together after what has already been a turbulent period. Instead we appear to be flirting with the idea of bringing in someone who would divide the support before he had even taken charge of his first match.
Even if Robbie Keane turned out to be a good manager, the fact that such a large portion of the support would reject the appointment outright should be enough reason not to pursue it.
There is simply no logic in deliberately antagonising your own supporters.
Which brings us to the Motherwell option.
I hardly need to explain my feelings about that idea because I have written about it repeatedly over the last few days. The simple truth is that appointing Motherwell’s manager would represent one of the biggest gambles this club has taken in decades.
There is nothing in his record that screams Celtic manager.
Nothing.
If people want to argue that we should look at managers performing well in Scotland then there is an obvious question that immediately follows. Why not Derek McInnes?
His side are sitting at the top of the league. Motherwell’s manager is fourth.
Everyone knows the answer to that question.
The third name on the list tells you everything you need to know about how seriously this supposed process has been conducted.
Craig Bellamy.
A man who has never managed club football in his life.
Yes, he has done reasonably well with Wales over a short period of time. But the idea that Celtic would hand one of the biggest managerial jobs in British football to someone with absolutely no club management experience should set alarm bells ringing everywhere.
When you look at the three names together, a pattern becomes obvious.
Keane and Bellamy both have previous connections to the club. They understand Celtic. They would see the job as the culmination of a lifelong dream.
And the Motherwell manager is literally on our doorstep, constantly talked up by sections of the media who have been wrong about almost everything for years.
In other words, these are the easy options.
Local options. Comfortable options. Low ambition options.
This is what a managerial shortlist looks like when it has been thrown together in five minutes on the back of a cigarette packet.
It is lazy and uninspired. It is a complete failure of imagination.
These people have the entire global football market to choose from and this is the best they can come up with?
As I said yesterday, people keep telling us that Keane and Bellamy understand the Glasgow derby. Personally, I would rather have someone who doesn’t.
I would rather have someone who demystifies the whole thing. Someone who doesn’t treat it as the centre of the football universe. Someone who might even look at the hatred surrounding that fixture and call it out for what it is instead of accepting it as a normal part of the experience.
That is my problem with candidates who have lived inside that environment before.
They have normalised it.
The bigger problem, however, is that I simply do not trust this board to choose the next Celtic manager.
Because if they are in charge of the process then it will go exactly like this.
There will be no global search. There will be no serious attempt to identify the best possible candidate. Instead they will settle for someone they know will take the job and convince themselves that is good enough.
Part of the problem is that they look at the current state of Scottish football and conclude that the Celtic manager does not have to be particularly exceptional to succeed.
That mindset locks us into a cycle of mediocrity. One where the club is always just good enough domestically while falling further and further behind in Europe.
This summer was always going to be crucial.
With Brendan Rodgers’ contract expiring it was already shaping up to be the most important summer Celtic has faced in twenty years. But the way Rodgers has been treated, combined with the chaos surrounding the previous managerial appointment, has magnified the stakes enormously.
The job is now less attractive than it should be.
That does not mean we should respond by appointing the first convenient candidate who happens to be available.
What it should mean is that the club works harder than ever to find the right person.
If this shortlist is real, it suggests the opposite.
It suggests a club that cannot even be bothered to conduct a serious search. A club content to flick through its contacts book and grab the nearest familiar name.
And if that really is the limit of their ambition and imagination then the question becomes unavoidable.
How do people with that level of thinking justify drawing salaries at Celtic Football Club?
For now there is no proof that this story is anything more than speculation.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
Because if this is what Celtic has been reduced to, then we have far bigger problems than simply choosing the next manager.
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Food for thought James, though this article is from one of your most trusted newspapers:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/mar/12/celtic-set-sights-on-robbie-keane-to-succeed-martin-oneill-as-manager
So James, what would be your own shortlist, and let’s keep it realistic, for the truly special managers have already gotten good appointments, and who if any are going to jump from their present posts to the Scottish League, where is the attraction in that. The three you have mentioned above are reasonable options, but we cannot assume either that they would jump at the chance to join Celtic. As things stand, beggars cannot be choosers and we really need to consider a lot of things before appointing anyone, for I would not imagine either that we are all that tempting a prospect to anyone with bit of ability and a bit of ambition.
Yes I understand the issue with Keane,he took a job in Israel I understand that,but he made a football decision he wasn’t taking pics alongside Netanyahu,holding an AK47.
Is he the best option for the Celtic job,no but he has already gained a reputation with title wins in 2 countries.Who’s to say the Celtic job won’t be the ideal fit for him
Jesus, as an old guy who earns a living in I. T. it’s not really easy to comment legitimately. any more, James….. This shit used to be a piece of pish. As much as I’m like yer Granda fanboy who agrees Wi most of whit ye say, I occasionally have a ‘Fuck you, James’ moment
Hahaha, good post.
yip, still here ? De ye honestly believe that Robbie Keane and his attempt at a non-zionist defence of his behaviour was ever gonna wash with us, Glesga Celtic? Did ye think it was ever gonny wash Wi (Dublin, cork, Fermanagh, Galway, letter Kenny, Waterford, etc, etc, Celtic?…. F**ck No
I would take Robbie Keane in a heartbeat. He has been successful everywhere he has managed (I do not care the geographical locations of those positions).
Bellamy & Motherwell manager I agree are not appointments that would inspire me but I wouldn’t mind Bellamy. He is doing an excellent job with a Wales team who don’t have any superstars.
As Johnny asks you are happy to rebuff those on this list but offer no list of your own. You were one of the few who had themselves convinced that this club who have made only 2 good decisions within an ocean of terrible ones for the appointment of Nancy. You maybe don’t like the list but they are the likely candidates. Maybe the Ipswich manager but I suspect he will be too expensive for what they want to pay. Maybe they will contact Leeds about the availability of Farke….
if I was religious , I’m sure that I would devote a moment, or two to………what was I saying?
I’m not the smartest guy in any room, but I’d bet yer segs in yer shoes, tae the buttons on Robbie kean’s waistcoat that he will never manage Glasgow Celtic………Not even DD is that stoopid………..and he is stupid beyond reproach
Sophie @ 3.31pm…
To me it’s the best man for the job as well and if that’s Keane so be it from my point of view anyway (I simply don’t watch the news so don’t know enough about the conflict involving Israel) but it’s clear on reading Celtic forums that that country is hated) but like yourself I’m just wanting the best For Celtic…
As Johnny says we are tragically in the state that ‘beggars canny be choosers’ and that’s on these bastards Lucan, Sly and Wilson and Desmond…
Let’s just hope that it’s not these crackpots picking the next manager – Jeez that the picked that French tragedy Wilfried Nancy Boy says it all…
But it likely will be these fuckers that will make the decision…
Still even at that and with their reputation in the gutter they will likely be the ones making that massive decision !
Come on James, I love your passion for Celtic but “one of the biggest managerial jobs in British football” you must be having a laugh, the premiership and championship in England are far more competitive leagues with more quality than the SPFL. Competing in Europe won’t tempt candidates, not with our investment and European record. After how the club treated Rodgers twice, we’d be lucky to get any of the three you mention.
If we are casting our eyes in the direction of Motherwell, it should be to sign players like Elijah Just, Elliot Watt and Maswanhise, not the Manager.
There’s a bit of inconsistency at play here (hypocrisy may be a bit harsh) due to an Ill conceived woke approach to football management.
If JBA doesn’t meet the requirements to be Celtic Manager due to his managerial record, then Robbie Keane absolutely nails it down by the same metrics.
Robbie Keane it is then!
I must be one of those rare Celtic fans that watches Celtic purely because they’re my team and I love football. I honestly couldn’t care less that Robbie Keane managed a team in Israel.
Well said. Seems to be illegal to just support a football team without delving into every political agenda a certain group of fans push in everyone’s faces. What is it Ange said. We use football games to give everyone an escape from the world outside. They are set on not allowing that.
Pardon my ignorance, but is the antipathy to Keane down to his having managed an Israeli club? If so I think it’s unreasonable. Robbie has ever had only one loyalty: To himself. The Israeli job to him was a good career move and had nothing to do with that country’s genocidal regime. From what I know of him I’d say geopolitics isn’t exactly his strong-point.
The question that should concern us is whether he’d be the best manager. He’s done well in his two appointments but remember in both cases he took over the strongest clubs in their respective leagues, so hard to judge.
I don’t believe that the supposed shortlist is accurate but Nancy was meant to represent a change in direction, and we seen how that worked out. Keane might be good, Askou might be good, Bellamy might be good, it’s always a bit of a gamble (except O’Niell I, II & III, and to be fair, Rodgers I & II, those were guaranteed to be successful)
I don’t believe Celtic have put in the prep work that would lead to a 3-man shortlist at this stage, all those guys might be in the mix along with Steve Clarke, Kieran McKenna, Roberto Martinez and countless others that we’ll be linked to. In reality probably nothing will have been done and there’s no plan in place yet.
A non-local, non-predictable appointment from the wider football world with a good coaching record who will bring a fresh approach and fresh ideas to Scottish fitba’ and not be engaged with all the Glasgow derby crap?
But doesn’t that accurately describe Wilfried Nancy?!