RAZGRAD, BULGARIA - FEBRUARY 26: Robbie Keane, Head Coach of Ferencvarosi TC, looks on prior to the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 Knockout Play-off Second Leg match between Ferencvarosi TC and PFC Ludogorets 1945 at Ludogorets Arena on February 26, 2026 in Razgrad, Bulgaria. (Photo by David Balogh - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Today, there was a development with the Celtic managerial situation and Robbie Keane. He’s been linked with the Crystal Palace job, although he’s not expected to get it. The one he looked more likely to land was Spurs, a club frantically searching for someone willing to walk into a mess, even with relegation staring them in the face.
If Spurs had come calling, he wouldn’t have turned it down. Very few managers would. For all its problems, it remains a huge job, even if it comes with conditions that make it something of a managerial electric chair.
It swallowed Ange Postecoglou, and it will swallow others.
The one thing Spurs can offer is money.
Anyone who takes that job will walk away with serious compensation, no matter how badly it goes. That always attracts managers. It’s a volatile career. You never know how long you’ll last, so you take the big opportunities when they come.
They now look set to move for Roberto De Zerbi, which says everything about how the Premier League views itself. Unless you’ve done it there, you’re treated as if you’re unproven. That media down south plays a big role in that mindset.
It’s the same environment that never gave Postecoglou a fair chance. His achievements elsewhere meant nothing to them.
I have ideological objections to his appointment, and I have practical ones too. This would be a divisive decision. There is no getting around that. A significant section of the support would oppose it from day one. The board knows that.
They don’t need to make that call.
If they do, it will be because they want to, not because they have to. And that matters. But there’s another issue here, one that goes beyond whether you rate him or not.
Keane’s name hasn’t appeared out of nowhere. He’s being linked to multiple jobs at once. Spurs. Palace. Celtic. That tells you something. There are people pushing his name. He is actively trying to make that next step in his career.
That should set alarm bells ringing.
Because if Celtic appoint him, they won’t be getting a long-term project.
They’ll be getting a guy who sees us as a stepping stone. From the moment he walks in the door, the speculation will begin. If he does well, the links to England will start almost immediately. If he struggles, the pressure will build just as quickly.
Either way, you don’t get stability, and stability is what this club needs.
Look at his career as a player. He moved constantly. Always looking for the next opportunity. Always looking to climb. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it tells you something about his mindset. He’s not someone who settles easily unless the circumstances are perfect.
Look at his managerial record. He’s worked as an assistant in multiple roles.
Then his senior managerial career began in 2023, and already he has moved through more than two jobs. As a result, nothing in that profile suggests a five-year plan. Likewise, nothing there says he will come in, build something, and see it through.
Celtic have operated like that for too long.
Quick fixes. Short-term decisions. A lack of joined-up thinking about where the club is going and what it’s trying to become. That’s how you end up here, needing a rebuild and not trusting the people in charge to deliver it.
What this club needs now is the opposite of that.
It needs someone who will come in and put down roots. Someone who will build a structure. A manager who will think beyond the next six months or the next transfer window. Someone who sees Celtic not as a platform, but as a place to build a legacy.
However, Keane doesn’t fit that profile.
And that’s before you even get into the other concerns, including choices he’s made in his career that will sit badly with a lot of supporters. Indeed, those things matter, because they shape perception and, as a result, they shape the reaction from day one.
The appointment of a new manager should unify the support. It should bring people together and create a shared sense of direction and purpose. However, this move would do the opposite, because it would split the fanbase before a ball is even kicked.
And for what? After all, you would bring in a manager who, by all available evidence, keeps one eye firmly fixed on England and the next step in his career.
Celtic cannot afford to act as someone else’s stepping stone. Not now. Not in this moment. Instead, the club needs stability, clarity and long-term thinking. In other words, it needs someone to lay foundations rather than take another short-term gamble. Furthermore, it needs someone who commits, rather than someone who constantly looks over the garden fence for the next opportunity.
Because if you bring in a manager with one eye on the exit door, then you shouldn’t be surprised when he eventually walks through it, and consequently, you end up right back where you started.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
According to yourself James, Celtic have no credibility on the European scene and yes, we will be considered as a stepping stone for anyone with a bit of ambition. That goes for players as well as managers, for let’s face it, the SPFL is nobody’s first choice. We are nearer the EPL geographically and that is our only appeal, the chance for someone to put themselves in the shop window. A stepping stone was all we were for Angie baby, and he didn’t really hesitate to make the jump despite falling in love with the club and its fans. Right now, and I’ve said it before, beggars can’t be choosers and we will take whatever we can get, we don’t get to pick, we get picked…. if we are lucky when all other options have gone.
Sad but true.
Sad but true Johnny. Despite endless proclamations of undying love for whichever new club he signs for Robbie has always been a total Number One Merchant. But that applies to all players and managers to a greater or lesser degree. The situation we find ourselves in is that we’ll get loyalty only from a lower quality appointment, in so far as he won’t be looking around for a step upwards the minute he gets his feet under the desk. RK is not that guy.
Robbie Keane has his heights set higher than Celtic for sure but so do any ambitious managers. Rodgers only came here because he failed in England and he couldn’t wait to get back.
Same for the players, any top player with ambition will leave. Tierney was Celtic through and through but still left to see if he could make it at the top level.
Keane would take a job in the championship with Spurs instead of the Celtic job if he had a choice.
Hard to attract a manager of any note with the current off field chaos.
The support would be split about his appointment from a political point of view…
Personally speaking as someone who hasn’t watched the international news since April 2020 I don’t know enough about the conflict over there but it’s clear that Celtic supporters don’t like Israel where he managed…
That said our greatest ever manager Jock Stein came from a religious background that brutalised Celtic supporters in the six occupied countries of The Island of Ireland and seemed to get acceptance at Parkhead as did half The Lisbon Lions so goodness knows how Robbie would fair…
For me he could have be like Micheal Fagen and shagged the fuckin queen and if he did and brought treble after treble to Parkhead I wouldn’t give a Continental Fuck !
So James, who’d be your preference for next Celtic Manager? You’ve now discounted Keane, Martinez, Jens Bertel Askew and Craig Bellamy, who are all front runners with the bookies.
Is it Ange or Shaun you’re hoping for?
Sorry James – I want an ambitious guy to be our manager as he will be working day and night to bring success to raise his own profile. Keane’s decision to manage in Israel is for him and his conscience. You are going down a very dark road if you want to start vetting people against your own political/ethical views. What about those who represent Trump’s USA? Or have taken oil money as part of sportswashing?
A success track record in management and an ability to communicate his vision for Celtic are what matters – let’s leave it to other clubs to discriminate on political, religious and racist grounds.
I can’t say I entirely agree with you here James. So far he seems like the best of the options out there right now that are willing to come to Celtic. I laugh when I hear Roberto Martinez (who people fail to note still has a job) and even if it were a possibility, which I doubt he is, I’d still rather an ambitious young manager with a growing history of winning than a washed up big name looking to collect a paycheck with little respect for the team or league. Until the SPFL starts taking itself seriously and competing with the even the second tier big leagues like Portugal or France the days of “laying down roots or building a legacy” here are reserved for the David Martindales or Derek McInnis’ of the world – and that type isn’t good enough for Celtic. If we’re looking for someone at this stage to establish a legacy in the SPFL we may as well just sing Shaun Maloney or Scott Brown now, or bring back a much humbled Ange although I suspect even he would bolt to the Bundesliga given the chance. I doubt even if backed Brendan Rodgers had any intention of staying past year 3 despite his unclear committals either way. For the immediate sad to say the board and the SFA have made Celtic the final test before the EPL. It doesn’t have to be that way and competent leadership could change it but for now it seems that Robbie Keane is the best floating around out there. I know for a fact that a good number of Tottenham fans would have preferred him to De Zerbi which at least shows he’s seriously considered on the world stage as opposed to a Bellamy who warrants a “who?” among all but the most seasoned of football fans.
I do agree his ideological tendencies or lack thereof is troubling. His willingness to dive all in to one of Israel’s most racist clubs (and a club proud to say so) and then his non-committal waffling thereafter doesn’t bode well with an ideological fan base such as Celtics but I’m not hearing any other name that I can see that is up to the task. That being said, I suspect Eddie Howe may be out of a job after this season, that went so well last time…