Steven Naismith will be called ‘technical director’ at Hearts to get around his lack of qualifications and satisfy UEFA’s criteria for managers involved in European matches.
The next Celtic manager will also have a different title. Human sacrifice. This is to comply with the supporters’ criteria that new managerial appointments have to be demonstrably better than the one before, even if there is an obvious problem. The main difficulty facing Ange Postecoglou’s successor is clear. He’s not Ange Postecoglou.
The Revered One has gone to Spurs and left behind a distinct style of football that was so unique, no-one else could live with it on a domestic level. It was copyright Postecoglou and if Ange’s replacement tinkers with it – and fails – he runs the risk of breaking a spell and creating reputational difficulties for himself. That’s why I believe Celtic should be making a greater effort to hold on to John Kennedy and make him their new manager.
Kennedy represents continuity of the kind that would help the cast of players brought to the club by Postecoglou, and who came here to play for the Aussie. The extent to which the Asian contingent at Celtic are unsettled by Ange’s exit has yet to be quantified. But it won’t take long to translate the body language of Kyogo & Co. when the new season starts.
Celtic’s principal shareholder Dermot Desmond wouldn’t want the media’s sympathy over the onerous task of having to replace his world record-breaking Treble winner manager. Mainly because Dermot has Prince Harry’s regard for journalists. He adheres to the legendary Tommy Docherty’s assertion that: “There’s a place for the press. They just haven’t dug it yet.”
But the void Postecoglou leaves behind might be the most daunting challenge yet for the Irishman. To be fair to the man, he’s earned the right to take his time and formulate a succession strategy on the basis that he’s yet to come up with a failure at times like this. Eleven league titles in 12 seasons is the definition of sound business acumen.
The story of the man who contributed two of those sums up Desmond’s approach. Ronny Deila won two leagues in a row even though Celtic were forced to close half of their ground on occasion due to the Norwegian’s distinct failure to fire the public’s imagination. But when Dermot had seen enough, and been annoyed by the boardroom celebrations when Deila’s Celtic lost a Scottish Cup semi-final to Rangers on penalties, he made sure that was the last time the manager embarrassed him in public and had drawn up the terms of his dismissal.
Dermot’s influence can’t be under-estimated in the days, or weeks, ahead. When he’s golfing with the like of Pep Guardiola, Dermot would always like to be thought of as an equal. If not in terms of league status and money in the bank, at least by having the status of top dog where he comes from.
Being second to Rangers is no use to the man coming up for the 13th anniversary of the first time he put money into Celtic, and he has, without question, been a positive force behind the scenes in that time. The verdict of the amateur body language experts who saw him at Hampden for the cup final last weekend was that Dermot’s face was tripping him. And no wonder.
The Wizard of Oz was off down the yellow brick road to London and the fall-out from something like that
happening at Celtic is always volatile. We are in that period of grace where the impact of Postecoglou’s departure is still being absorbed. But this divorce could yet become more messy than it first appears.
An amicable split to end a relationship is one thing. But it’s a different proposition when the one who’s gone comes back to ransack the house and takes away precious pieces of furniture.
Precious pieces of Furuhashi. There surely comes a point when Celtic must hold on to the player whose goals are so plentiful as to be the difference between success and two years’ momentum being derailed. Selling Kyogo would be to invite mutiny in the supporters’ ranks – and when that happens, Celtic Park takes on a different dimension.
Last week’s podium at Hampden would become next week’s pandemonium if the fans get irritated. In the meantime, good luck Dermot in trying to assess the popular vote among the fans over the identity of the next manager. I would say that, based on almost 40 years worth of experience, Celtic fans make for the best radio when a major controversy engulfs their club.
They have a deeper sense of grievance. A stronger sense of suspicion. An immovable belief their club succeeds in the face of institutionalised bias. And an acute sense of betrayal. On the night before the Scottish Cup final win over Inverness Caley Thistle, a caller was adamant that Brendan Rodgers was a “rat”.
On the first phone-in after Postecoglou had left Celtic Park on a wave of statements concerning his future, found to be suspect with the benefit of hindsight, another caller said Ange was a “greedy badge kisser”. Human nature at work, but not fertile ground for gathering a unanimous verdict on the next choice of manager.
Desmond will, as always, be oblivious to all external noises and will only concentrate on following his natural instincts. He’s criticised by some of his club’s support for being aloof and an absentee landlord. But the forensic evidence is the building he owns is in tip-top condition and so is Dermot’s record of finding reliable people to look after the gaff.
I went to Spain to interview Gus Hiddink for this newspaper more than 20 years ago and he clearly believed he had the Celtic job, until Desmond brought in his preference Martin O’Neill at the 11th hour. Gordon Strachan came out of left-field to be O’Neill’s replacement on Dermot’s instruction.
He also brought in and bankrolled Rodgers then kept his nerve when Eddie Howe rejected him and Postecoglou became his choice. “In Ange we trust,” said the Celtic supporters. And then he left. History shows the fans can trust in Dermot. He stayed and their club prospered.
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