Celtic made a ‘firm proposal’ to hire Paolo Di Canio as manager back in 2014, according to his assistant at Sunderland and Swindon Town, Fabrizio Piccareta. Celtic were looking to replace Neil Lennon back in 2014 and Roy Keane, Di Canio and Steve Clarke were touted as contenders before Ronny Deila was announced.
Now, speaking to The Sun, Piccareta claims that Celtic made an offer to hire the controversial Italian but the reluctance of the Celtic board to allow Di Canio to hire his own staff resulted in the job being knocked back.
“Paolo is a man who simply does not compromise. Let me give you an example. After we left Sunderland, he received a firm proposal from Celtic and he was offered the manager’s job.
“But Celtic insisted they keep the staff that was there in place already in Glasgow. In order not to abandon me and the staff he worked with previously, Paolo refused the job offer.
“That speaks volumes about the man and it shows the human depth of the person.
“He now enjoys his work on TV as a pundit and I think he will continue along that path.”
It echoes what Roy Keane said about the job, he was told to accept an Assistant Manager being imposed on him.
Di Canio left under a cloud after a contract stand-off with Fergus McCann. The Italian, then 27, refused to travel to the Netherlands for pre-season in 1997. This sped up the process, especially with Tommy Burns leaving and Wim Jansen coming in.
In 37 appearances for Celtic, Di Canio scored 15 goals and whilst he did not win anything as Tommy Burns’ side came agonisingly close to knocking Rangers off their perch. Di Canio left for £4m in a deal that took the Italian to Sheffield Wednesday in August 1997. Although he was a top player, Celtic stopped ten in a row the season Di Canio left and replaced him with a £650k signing from Feyenoord, who didn’t turn out to be too bad.
