SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - APRIL 28: Head Coach Kieran McKenna of Ipswich Town during the Sky Bet Championship match between Southampton and Ipswich Town at St Mary's Stadium on April 28, 2026 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images)
If Martin O’Neill goes, Celtic cannot fuck about. I mean that.
If O’Neill decides that enough is enough, if he looks at what has happened behind the scenes and concludes that he simply cannot work under these conditions anymore, then Celtic has to understand the size of the problem sitting in front of it.
And for me, if O’Neill goes, Celtic should go and get Kieran McKenna.
Not after three weeks of dithering. Not after another managerial search where names are thrown around, supporters are left guessing and the Celtic Board eventually settles for whoever is easiest to get.
Go and get the best man.
But if Celtic wants McKenna, then it has to sell him far more than the job of being Celtic manager. It has to sell him an entire football project, because there is one thing this club absolutely cannot do again.
It cannot ask another high-calibre manager to walk into the same fucking mess.
That would be madness.
If Celtic were serious enough to appoint Kieran McKenna, then getting him through the door should be about far more than convincing him to manage the team. For a start, he would be expensive, as expensive as any of our big money signings from the summer. We are already in danger of wasting them. What a waste it would be if he came in and was told he had to work with Celtic’s current football operation.
So that would have to change too. Dramatically.
Because what is the point of bringing in an ambitious, highly regarded manager and then giving him the same limitations?
What is the point of saying, “Here you are, Kieran, build us something special,” while people above him continue making decisions that affect the football department without properly supporting the man responsible for what happens on the pitch?
I don’t want another manager arriving at Paradise with a suitcase full of ideas only to discover that half of them will be ignored, delayed, questioned or rendered impossible because the structure around him simply isn’t good enough.
I want Celtic to change in this most fundamental way, and I recognise that we would need to be prepared to in order to entice a manager of this stature.
And that means understanding that appointing a manager is only one part of fixing this football club. The infrastructure has to be fixed too. Recruitment has to improve. Scouting has to improve. Analysis, sports science and player development have to improve. Communication and decision-making have to improve.
Most importantly, the manager has to be properly supported. If McKenna is the man Celtic wants, the first serious question in that meeting should be simple:
“What do you need from this football club to succeed?”
And then Celtic should listen. Actually listen.
If McKenna believes the recruitment structure needs changed, take that seriously. If he wants improvements in scouting, analysis, player development or pathways into the first team, give him the environment required to build them. If he identifies weaknesses in the football department, work with him to fix them.
Better yet, give him the power to change what he needs to and bring in who he needs to.
And if there are people within Celtic who cannot or will not work that way, then perhaps they are the people who should be moving on. Because Celtic cannot keep asking managers to carry the consequences of decisions made above them.
That isn’t leadership. It isn’t support. And it certainly isn’t how you build a football club capable of competing at the highest level.
I have watched enough managerial changes at Celtic to know that simply changing the man standing in the technical area does not magically change everything else.
The manager cannot be expected to recruit players, coach them, organise the team, develop young players, oversee scouting, compensate for structural weaknesses, carry the expectations of the supporters and somehow make every bad decision elsewhere in the club disappear.
That is not a sustainable football model.
So, if Martin O’Neill does leave and Celtic seriously considers McKenna, this should be the moment when the club finally says: enough. We are changing the structure too. That would make the appointment mean something.
It would show supporters that Celtic isn’t simply changing managers because the previous plan failed. It would show us that the people running the club have finally understood why things keep going wrong, and that they are prepared to make difficult decisions behind the scenes instead of throwing another manager into the mess and expecting him to clean everything up.
I don’t want a shiny appointment designed to make everyone feel better for five minutes.
I want substance. I want a proper football operation, with clearly defined responsibilities and qualified people making football decisions. I want proper recruitment, proper scouting and a manager whose football department is pulling in the same direction.
The manager is the most visible part of that operation, but he cannot be expected to become the entire operation.
This is where my English-teacher brain kicks in.
If I were responsible for grading this at the moment, I wouldn’t simply put a big red cross beside the manager’s name. I would write in the margin: “Look at the whole structure.”
Because changing one sentence doesn’t fix a paragraph when the whole paragraph is a mess of broken words. Changing one paragraph doesn’t fix an essay when the structure underneath it is wrong and the concept underpinning it is flaky.
And changing one manager doesn’t fix a football club when the football structure underneath him isn’t functioning properly.
That is why, if McKenna comes – that is why whoever comes – Celtic has to give him the tools to do the job. Actually give him them.
Otherwise, why are we doing this again?
If Celtic wants to demonstrate that it is serious about bringing in a high-calibre manager, then that seriousness has to be demonstrated before the contract is signed, because otherwise we’re not getting name on the deal memo.
Sell him Celtic. Sell him Paradise. Sell him the supporters, the history and the ambition. But don’t just sell him the badge. Sell him a football club prepared to change.
Because if you want to change anything at Celtic, you cannot ask another high-calibre manager simply to work within whatever Michael Nicholson or Dermot Desmond decides and expect everything suddenly to function.
It won’t. And if the Celtic Board isn’t prepared to give the next manager the backing, resources and authority required to succeed, then perhaps it is time for the people responsible for that football operation to get their arses out of Paradise.
Leave it to people prepared to build something properly. I don’t want another manager walking through the Celtic Park door only to discover that the promises made during the interview bear no resemblance to the reality once the work begins.
I want Celtic to mean what it says.
So if Martin O’Neill goes, Celtic, please: for once, don’t mess about. Go and get Kieran McKenna, the biggest name available. Show the same ambition we once did when we went out and got Brendan Rodgers the first time around.
Sell him on Celtic. Convince him that this is a club where he can build something extraordinary. Then make the changes behind the scenes which prove that you actually mean it. Because the appointment wouldn’t need selling to us.
If Celtic went and got someone of McKenna’s calibre and genuinely backed him, supporters would understand exactly what it meant. We would see ambition. We would see seriousness. We would know this wasn’t merely another managerial appointment designed to get everyone through the next few months.
It would be a statement about the future.
And that is the difference.
Not simply McKenna the manager. McKenna at the centre of a completely restructured Celtic football operation.
If Celtic genuinely wants to change, this is the moment to prove it. No more asking managers to perform miracles while the people above them carry on exactly as before.
Build the structure. Back the manager. Give him what he needs.
Then let the football do the talking. Because Celtic Park deserves nothing less.
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When will some of our support take their heads out of their own ar$es, Paulina included and understand that our next manager or head coach will not make one bit of difference to our most serious of problems? Any manager or head coach with half a brain should avoid Celtic at their peril. After the last couple of seasons and every single thing that has happened, any manager who cares about their credibility and reputation would do well to steer clear of our club until drastic change at the top has occurred. I’m of the opinion that Desmond and his sychophants in the boardroom will only be removed by a massive mobilisation of support unrest and protest. I think that will only happen after absorbing a couple of horrific seasons. I think we’ll need to absorb a lot of pain before a full mobilisation is realised and starts. Desmond and his cronies must be removed for the sake of Celtic FC.
Totally agree with you Paulina. The next guy has to up the coaching standards and tactics. I am just repeating myself but Maloney said they wouldn’t change Rodger’s style but just tweak it. WTF. We need a completely new approach.
The board are not going away any time soon so in the meantime…
I would be very surprised if McKenna would come to Celtic and Scottish Football, The lure of the EPL, and even some teams in the English Championship is strong, McKenna has no connection to Scottish Football. Being brought up in Enniskillen he may have some emotional tie with Celtic , but like a lot of Irish guys his loyalties could lie with any number of English clubs.
An offer he could not refuse would maybe swing it, but can you honestly see this Board sanctioning that kind of offer.
If Celtic change the mould from past appointments, I would think if Martin walks with his head held high, it will be a manager from some European League.
Steve Clarke will be the cheap option,,,
You assume that he’d come if we made the right offer. The SPL and the Celtic Manger’s job have become toxic by now. It’d be a big step down for him although the crowds at CP would be three times those at Ipswich.
1st thing, MON isn’t away yet. He, and the board, may yet decide he should stay and fight. He’s turned things around before.
Next, KM turned his back on the EPL specifically to spend more time with his family. That was 3 months ago, not 3 years. He’s not joining anyone right now, least of all Celtic.
Someone mentioned Steve Clarke. Thankfully, he’s already stated previously he would never manage either Celtic or the rangers, due to the nature of the rivalry and doesn’t want his family exposed to it, in much the same way that we don’t want exposed to his style of football.
IF Martin goes, and I highly doubt it, it’ll be Maloney et al till the end of the season, or till the next run of unacceptable results. Then who the fuck knows who we’ll get, or who’d actually take it with this board in charge.
Mckenna would be a great appointment, but even if he is ready to come back, I think he has his heart set on a higher level and might not be keen on all the bullshit that comes with managing Celtic and working in Scotland in general.
He is an Irishman but I believe he supported Man U. which says a lot on its own. Spurs or Man Utd might be his next job.
Also there is an £8m buy out clause with Ipswich. His wages would have to be similar or slightly higher than he was getting at Ipswich so probably around £75,000 a week minimum.
He wont be short of offers for sure and unbelievably Forest are paying their latest manager £200,000+ per week.
Of course Celtic would be free domestic trophies for most competent managers but I think Mckenna would want more than that and Celtic dont have the ambition or wherewithal to compete at the highest level.
Thats why our best player left to go to Ipswich!
Maloney until Christmas I reckon but if it’s still going tits up we might get someone in then.
Am utterly convinced thiz shit show is because DD didnt get his own man in.
As Mojorisin said in his reply Ipswich are entitled to £8 million pounds compensation if McKenna takes a job inside a year of him leaving their club, that stops any conversation about him coming in right away as Celtic would never pay that kind of money. Also Martin hasn’t said he’s leaving yet but even if he does leave the next manager would be walking into the same problems that already exist, so we’d just be kicking the can along the road. Until the correct structures are put in place absolutely nothing will change and it’s been like this for far too long now. You can’t change a reactive board to a proactive one overnight and their stubbornness to accept that change is not only necessary but essential will have them cacking in their pants all day long. They’re a bunch of fly by night shysters and I’m sick to death of the lot of them, we used to laugh at the Ibrox club for being a basket case but it seems to me the roles are reversing now which shows the depths the board have let our club plummet to now.