GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 25: General view inside the stadium prior to the William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park Stadium on April 25, 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Zak Mauger/Getty Images)
And so it seems Celtic’s global managerial hunt is over.
It turns out Dermot Desmond scoured the earth for the very best Irishman he was willing to let us pay for.
I know Paulina discussed the subject of our Irish identity earlier, and she made a fabulous argument about how we’re at our best when we simply aim high, but there is precious little of that in sight as we go for identity over ability.
The choice appears to be between Martin O’Neill and Robbie Keane.
Neither would have been on my list of first choices. Neither would have been anywhere near that list. With Martin, I can at least see the merits of it. This club is cowardly. This club lacks ambition. This club will always take a safe option if it can get away with it.
These people are so afraid they might have to make real decisions that they simply do not make decisions at all.
There is a possible managerial case for Keane, but there is no moral case for him whatsoever.
His appointment would divide the supporters and give us another long season of conflict. It is probable that will happen anyway, but Keane’s appointment guarantees it and a far more aggressive version of it. It locks in that conflict from the start of the campaign and assures that it will not end until his tenure is finished.
And the tenure of a good few others at Celtic Park may be finished with it.
The most troubling element of this, the part that is impossible to shake, is the feeling that this is a club going nowhere. It has no long-term plan. It has no fully thought-out strategy.
We dip into the same well over and over again.
We could be sitting here in ten years’ time marvelling at Robbie Keane returning to the club after he has already been and gone, because that is the level of their imagination.
These two options are uninspiring. In fact, they are downright insulting.
The entire organising principle of The Collective over the summer was that we wanted a club that was modern, progressive, forward-thinking and ambitious. Neither of these appointments is even remotely near that standard.
This is the shortlist many people predicted. The fact so many ordinary supporters could see this coming a mile down the road tells you how little imagination there is in the idea. When punters in the stands and folk online can predict the endpoint of your supposed global search, why did we ever think it would be any different?
This is as predictable as Glasgow rain.
I look at Keane’s proposed backroom team and despair even more. Scott Brown and Johnny Hayes? Whatever happened to going out and finding the best people?
This is just a boys’ club. A group of people hiring their mates. It does not seem to matter whether that leads to a successful Celtic, whether they have the skill set, whether they are the best we can get or whether they are qualified for the job.
It secures people in employment. That appears to be the key thing.
This is just a tiny group of people running Celtic for themselves and for the people they know. It is not a serious endeavour any longer.
There are plenty of Celtic supporters who will lap this up like Pavlov’s slavering dogs. That is what it is meant to do. It is meant to inspire that kind of reaction.
It is not meant to be looked at with any critical eye. It is not supposed to be given any serious examination. Because if it was given serious examination, it would not stand up to it.
This club needs to build a continental structure. It needs to start thinking five steps down the line, as clubs do all over Europe. Our biggest problem is not the geographical boundary we live in. It is the geographical, psychological and operational boundary we have boxed ourselves inside.
I keep saying this, so let me say it again.
We are here by choice. We are stuck in the mud by choice. We are restricted to a tiny group of possible candidates and a tiny group of possible hires for their backroom teams by choice.
We have made a collective and conscious decision to build those walls around ourselves.
As long as we continue to operate like this, and as long as people in and around Celtic continue to think like this, we will keep bumping our heads not on a glass ceiling, but a concrete one.
A glass ceiling is meant to be broken through. A concrete one is not. A concrete ceiling says: “this is our level. This is as high as we go.” And that is how people inside our club think. Parochial. Small scale. Provincial.
We should be going out and hiring a continental manager to build a continental-style juggernaut. Instead, we are choosing between Martin O’Neill and his in-house staff, or Robbie Keane and a backroom team of SPFL-grade coaches whose careers have been spent almost entirely inside the same narrow football culture.
I have mocked the Ibrox club for going down the road of hiring all the “real Ranjurs men” it can find. We have mocked them for trying to build teams and backroom staffs whose one qualification seems to be that they know the club. In the meantime, we are watching as our own club does exactly the same thing.
I used to love manager-hiring time.
When a manager left Celtic, I used to be excited, even if I liked him and even if he had been genuinely good. I wondered who we would go and get. What kind of man would next sit in that dugout? What kind of adventure would he take us on? What new ideas would he bring? What new style would he play? What kind of signings would follow?
I don’t get excited about this stuff anymore. I don’t get excited about change, because there won’t be any. I don’t get excited about new adventures, because this board does not like adventure. Its contempt would be one step ahead of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.
What style is the next coach of Celtic going to play?
My guess would be the same style of play we have been playing for most of the past twenty years, one which depends on moments of magic and moments of luck to break through packed defences that can read us like a book.
That was why I supported the Nancy appointment before I really knew the first thing about him. Before I had heard him speak. Before we had been exposed to his stubbornness, arrogance and complete lack of comprehension as to what Celtic is supposed to be.
At least he offered change. At least he offered a new direction. I don’t even think we are moving in any direction now. I think we are a club at a complete standstill. There is no forward progress. There is no forward motion.
We are run by an arrogant old bastard who does not even attend most of our games and by board lackeys who are too cowardly to question him, but who still think they can sneer at us as though they were hardened leaders, as though they were tough, as though they were masters of the universe and not useful nodding donkeys for an overseas billionaire.
We are a club going exactly nowhere.
When Shaun Maloney gets hired as sporting director, quite possibly with Martin O’Neill in some capacity as well, the happy-clapper wing of our support will be thrilled.
Then, in three to five years, they will be scratching their heads wondering why the club across the city is in front of us and why the club at Tynecastle is running rings around us.
Because those clubs are at least attempting forward motion.
I could not tell you this morning what Celtic are attempting.
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James, you could have predicted this when MON came back for the second time. No names have been mentioned in 6 months.
I think Nancy would have been a break thro but completely at the wrong time. Today yes, preseason own players etc then we may have seen a different Celtic. A bit like Ange at Forest. Everything wrong.
The two offer different things. MON, too old, game moved on but may give us one year stability. RK could give us longer term future. He has European experience and may change the direction of the club.
However I get the jist of your article. Poor global searching again and looking for things on the cheap.
Desmond is the problem.
We will never aspire to anything beyond mediocrity with him at the helm.
Couldn’t agree more. I said this last summer when the issues with Brendan Rodgers started to appear. Despot Desmond has control and change can only come when that isno longer is the case. Martin O’Neill helped to rescue the season, but it hasn’t changed the outlook or direction of Desmond and co.
It is lazy and uninspired to be only considering these two
I love MON but can he improved the team these days
Keane isnt experienced enough- neve mind all the shite with the genocidal country
As long as DD continues to run the rule over Celtic, the more stagnant we will become. He alone is holding us back because he is too stuck in his ways and not ambitious enough to take us forward. He is also too old for the modern game and, for the good of Celtic, he should seriously consider calling time on his tenure.
Desmond get to fuckout of our club and take all the parasite s with you
The club is doomed to mediocrity with Dermot Trump.
He isn’t a Celtic fan.
Sooner he and his lackeys are gone the better for the club.
Fans had their chance to not renew season tickets and send a clear massive message. If you bought into it how can you complain, you knew what the board was
Dan, i’ve been to every one of the Collectives demonstrations and have disdain for those who run the club, yet I’ve renewed two season tickets, and have bought my child the new home top. Why should I not have the great joy supporting Celtic brings despite the boards incompetence? They won’t always be there, but myself and thousands of others will be long after they’re gone. For myself and many others its a way of life. Hopefully things change in the future.
I understand your position RG but if Desmonds son takes over, which he will, it will be a long long time of mediocrity. Sometimes you need to take a stand for the long term good. It is the faithful through and through attitude that allows the board to do as it pleases
I really don’t know where all these bombastic thoughts and conclusions come from. Why does anyone think that there is an available managerial candidate tree out there with a whole lot of managers pining for Celtic to come and pick them so that they can pit their wits against the best that the SPL has to offer.
James, you have rightly scoffed at the hierarchy in charge of our club and persistently told us all that Celtic has lost all credibility in the European market place, and yet you are now telling us there are potentially good managers out there hanging by their phones waiting for us to call them.
Unfortunately, our choices are very limited, and we do therefore have to set our sights a bit lower, for beggars cannot be choosers. I personally would also love us to manage to capture an up and coming young managerial prospect, but their own personal choices, if they have any ambition, will not feature us very high on their list, if at all.
There may not be a host of talented managers forming an orderly queue to take over the reins at Celtic but do you honestly think Desmond, for I’m sure it’s him alone who makes the decision, even tried looking at who else was available ?
His selection process is
A. Is he Irish ?
B. Does he have any links to Celtic ?
C. Is he cheap, and preferably out of work so that no compensation needs paid to his club ?.
D.Will he be a compliant Yes man ?
Those are the only things that seem to matter to Desmond.
What Johnny said.
We as a club have it all, the fans, the atmosphere, the passion, the history, the trophies, amongst others. The problem in my opinion is we are ran by people that aren’t football minded, and play in a league that although supported well by the fans of the different clubs, lacks in other departments. Especially the SPFL/SFA who are operating poorly leaving the league looking like a footballing backwater. Guys in ties who inhabit secret societies are a huge problem.
The atmosphere and passion will be even worse than the majority of last season if RK is appointed.
It will be a clear statement of deliberate self harm by Desmond as a way to say GIRFUY to the supporters.
The board know the divisions that appointment will have, it will incur protest and give them the excuse to ban the entire standing section which is why I believe they have allowed the Bhoys to move there, easier to ban them all if they are all in one section.
We seen how terrible the atmosphere was without them so I refuse to listen to anyone that spouts the garbage about there being 50000 other fans who can provide an atmosphere because we know that is simply not true.
That the board are even considering this is clear provocation, if they go ahead with it they will be ripping the soul out the club because we will endure nothing but turmoil.
I pray to God they do not do this
Who the fuck would want to come to a League with three stand stadiums and plastic pitches (Falkirk)…
League 2 in England has overtaken The SPFL Premier League these days !
Then, in three to five years, they will be scratching their heads wondering why the club across the city is in front of us and why the club at Tynecastle is running rings around us.
I honestly think if we continue as we have done your statement will happen a lot sooner.
MON did a fantastic job on getting us over the line but when you look closely at Hearts results they gave us the opportunity,which thankfully MON took.
This is going to be a painful summer as our top stars leave and CalMac gets older.
I have no faith in the board to go out and replace what we have when they give new contracts to,Yang,McGowan and Scales(who to be fair did ok).
If that’s the ambition we have then we are facing the unthinkable.
The collective and the fans need to be making a lot of noise now.Not when it’s too late.
I don’t think they will have discussed this yet and if people start moaning they will say they are waiting until after the World cup.
The media speculate to keep us from realising the board are doing bugger all.
Im sick of the whole fucking debacle. The manager should have be sorted out and in position already. 2 weeks has been wasted by the arsehole board cunting about and leaving all us fans tearing our fucking hair out and raging again.
When will this shower of fuckers running the club ever wise up???
They have their greed motivated buisness plans at the forefront. It’ll become apparent soon again, when the team needs strengthened. Of course, you get clowns on here, tryin to tell us all, that keane is the best option we couldv’e gone for. In the whole footballing world and in the time we’ve had tae look, he’s the only one worth goin for right ?! And the fact he’s Irish, is just pure coincidence eh ?! Fk off.
Keane is Irish, so you got that right, and as far as I am concerned that is definitely in his favour. What you haven’t told us is who your choice is, Keane is not my choice, I don’t have one, but under the circumstances DD will decide, and we will be forced to accept his choice. I said if it hadn’t been for his Israeli episode, he let himself down there, that he would be a perfect fit and a popular choice. I stand by that.
Your the last person on this blog, i would normally be arsed answering. Anyway, my own choices obviously don’t meet the boards ‘ambition’. Personally, i think they wouldve done far better at least, makin a strong effort for Knutzen or Askow. Far as the Irish connection goes, do you think being Irish makes a better Celtic manager ? Or holds him in a ‘better’ stead somehow. Fk off. What absolute rubbish. Or maybe i’m makin my opinion up as i go along, like you said in a previous post ? The particular comment i referred to, was made by another supporter, but you eagerly endorsed it at the time. And you know exactly what i was on about.
I also was in favour of Askou, but how does he measure up against your wider umbrella ambitions and Knutsen is wanted by all and sundry and has already hinted at his his own preferences, and we are not on his radar. As I said, beggars can’t be choosers.
My point bein, these managers are bein hand picked by desmond. Did they even TRY to go for anyone else ? Not that me, or anyone ah know have heard. How dae you know what mightv’e developed ? They have money. They’ve had time. The fact is, these managers would want tae assert their own requirements, tae build a stronger team for Europe and that means spendin more. Which doesn’t suit desmonds buisness plan. For somebody who claims to oppose the board, ye don’t half blow smoke up desmonds arse.
James, the campaign against Keane is hyped up nonsense, as a guy who has criticised the Zionist State of Israel for all of my adult life I don’t see what Keane has done wrong. He went to work in Israel months before Oct 7th 2023. We played a couple of Israeli players who were cheered to the rafters during their careers at Celtic. The murky World of Politics and Sport is hard to navigate and we shouldn’t be taking it to extremes.
Incidentally you and some on here are beginning to sound racist against the Irish in Football.
Like other clubs who need a manager a lot of people will be applying for the Celtic job through their agent.
Surely their must be more than two managers under consideration.
Massive problems if Keane gets the job.