Shaun Maloney is not remotely qualified to be Celtic’s Sporting Director.

The news today that Shaun Maloney is being considered as sporting director at Celtic is exactly the kind of story I feared hearing.

It is exactly what I was talking about earlier when I said we have to keep these people under very close watch, because they have not got a clue what they are doing. This would be another ridiculous idea from people who have had far too many ridiculous ideas already.

Shaun Maloney has exactly zero experience in a role of this magnitude. Zero. Right? That’s the only consideration we should have here; does he have the skill-set for the role? And the answer is that we have no idea as he’s never done one remotely comparable to it.

Already there are sites hailing this idea as a common sense. When these people finally pull their heads out of their backsides they might comprehend, at last, that this is exactly how we got to a place with tens of millions in the bank and winning the league by a hair. This is how we ended up with the Nicholson’s, the McKay’s, the Mark Lawwell’s and the rest of it.

The club may have been impressed by the way he helped coach the team this season. Fine. But there is a major category difference between someone’s ability to coach and someone’s ability to build and run an entire football department.

That is what he would be expected to do. Not just contribute. Not just advise. Build it. Run it. Shape it. Modernise it.

Let me say it again: he has no experience in that role. None. Zero. He has no obvious qualifications for that role. If he is appointed, it will be an appointment of grotesque laziness, grotesque arrogance and grotesque amateurism from people who have made this kind of mistake before.

This club needs to get real. It needs to get serious at some point.

It needs people who actually know this stuff. People who have experience in these roles. People who have done the work elsewhere and can demonstrate a track record of success. People who understand recruitment structures, scouting networks, data integration, contract cycles, squad succession, academy pathways and the day-to-day management of a modern football operation. That is the job.

It is not a sentimental reward for being a respected ex-player.

We gave the CEO role to a glorified paralegal, and he has been an absolute disaster in the job. We gave the head of recruitment role to the former CEO’s son, with no obvious qualifications for doing that job at all, and he was an absolute disaster in it. We have already had a head of football operations with no qualifications for the job, and that was an absolute disaster too. No surprises there.

Football is full of people better qualified than Shaun Maloney to do this job. If you ask me who they are, I’ll tell you exactly who they are: anyone, anywhere in football, currently doing that job at whatever club and at whatever level is better qualified to take that role at Celtic than Maloney is. That is not an insult. That is reality.

A person already working successfully in football operations has more relevant experience than someone who has not done the role at all. There is no reason, other than cheap sentimentality and internal convenience, to give Maloney a position this important. In any properly run business giving him an interview would be a sacking offence.

According to reports, he has impressed people inside the club. Of course he has. He is articulate. He is intelligent. He knows football. He will sound thoughtful in a room.

But here is the problem: these people don’t have any more idea of what this job really involves than he does. The people making this decision are themselves grossly unqualified to make it.

This is a job that should have been handled by professional head-hunters who understand football operations, who know the key responsibilities and who can identify candidates with real experience.

Instead, we appear to be blundering towards another category-one disaster.

It is the same disaster you can see at every level of this club. We have the academy system run in a way that has produced the results we see. We have a CEO not remotely qualified for the scale of the job, making an absolute mess of it. We have already had football-operations roles handed out without the seriousness required.

Now we might be about to do it again.

This club is still run like a third-rate bowling club. People hiring their mates. Promoting from within. Moving people up the ladder for no obvious reason except loyalty, familiarity or the fact they will not ask too many questions.

Perhaps that is the real attraction. People who will not demand too much. People who will not rock the boat. People who will not challenge the structures that badly need challenged.

That is not modern football. That is not elite football. That is not what Celtic should be. It is mediocrity dressed up as continuity.

This club is mediocre in almost every operational sense, and an appointment like this would confirm its basic lack of seriousness. It would be appalling. There is nothing to recommend it whatsoever, and I cannot say that clearly enough.

The size of this job requires a serious person. Someone who has been in that job for years. Someone who has worked at a major club, or at least built an outstanding football structure elsewhere. Someone with a track record of delivery in a role of this scale.

To give it to a rank amateur would be staggering at any other club of Celtic’s size. But here, it would simply sum up how we think.

It would sum up everything we do.

It would sum up the grotesque incompetence, the incomprehensible stupidity, the mind-bending egotism and arrogance of those who run our club.

They believe they are qualified to give this job to someone who is not qualified to do it. That is the whole problem in one sentence.

We are not a serious organisation. These are not serious people.

Fresh out of a season that came within cold inches of disaster, these people are already setting up the next one.

Nobody should pretend this is ambition. Nobody should pretend this is vision. Nobody should pretend this is modernisation.

This would be another shortcut. Another internal fix. Another sentimental appointment. Another case of Celtic choosing familiarity over expertise.

If Maloney is to have a role at the club, fine. Give him a development role. Give him a pathway role. Let him work with the academy and the first-team bridge. Let him use his intelligence where it might actually fit.

But sporting director? No. That job is too big. Too important. Too urgent.

Celtic need expertise, not another experiment.

I cannot say this enough.

The people making these decisions are done. They have no moral right to run this club any longer. Not a single one of them appears to know what they are doing. That they would even entertain this suggestion confirms that.

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