We told you several weeks ago that the word was that Ange Postecoglou would be working with John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan as his first team coaches and that Gordon Strachan was being lined up for the Director of Football role. The papers have picked up on this DoF story today.
Whether the Australian, who arrives at Lennoxtown this week, will fancy bringing in a few additional hand-picked members of his backroom staff remains to be seen – a fitness coach is surely going to be a priority after the way the team faded continually in the second half of matches last season – remains to be seen.
Kennedy will surely accept nothing less than remaining as Assistant Manager, a position he’s held since February 2019 when he decided to reject a chance to join the mass exodus of Celtic backroom staff heading to Leicester City with Brendan Rodgers to instead become Neil Lennon’s assistant, both initially appointed on a temporary basis.
It all became permanent in the showers at Hampden after Celtic’s Scottish Cup win against Hearts a few months later and when Lennon left in March this year, Kennedy stepped up to become the Interim Manager but did not instigate an improvement in results or performances in a season that had already been written off by everyone, including of course a large number of Want Away players who had effectively downed tools.
Postecoglou has a decent reputation of working with meagre resources and still creating a winning side. Improving the fitness will be his priority and he’ll want to look carefully at the reasons why that was allowed to slip last season. It could be that the in situ Celtic coaches will be given their chance to work under Postecoglou very different style of management and if he’s not impressed with what he sees then he’ll instigate changes down the line. That seems fair enough.
Sunday morning gossip: WGS linked as technical director. Likely bid for goal keeper Mat Ryan this week. Oxford United’s central defender Rob Atkinson mentioned. Aaron Mooy speculation again. Charlie Wyke story won’t go away. Aston Villa GK Viljami Sinisalo one for the future. HH pic.twitter.com/GPfuvAdirX
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) June 20, 2021
On Gordon Strachan coming in as the Director of Football, or Technical Director, that too has some merit. Strachan arrived as Celtic manager after the extravagance of the Martin O’Neill years as Celtic realised before it was too late (unlike others, Rangers FC, RIP) that we’d have to rein in the over-spending and live with our means.
Strachan despite an awful start in a European qualifier, had a very decent record, winning 3 titles in 4 seasons and punching well above our weight in the Champions League. His appearances on Celtic TV last season shows that he really ‘gets’ Celtic and many supporters were impressed with the genuine affection he has for the club. As an ambassador for Celtic, Strachan senior is excellent and given the career he’s had, he clearly knows the game inside out. Here’s his Celtic side in action…
Celtic defeating Rangers in the spring of 2008. Those two derby wins set up a tense finish to the season before the hoops finally clinched the title. pic.twitter.com/8QdLNCAetr
— Lisbon Lion (@tirnaog_09) June 20, 2021
Gordon Strachan has also been doing a similar type of job in the background up at Dens Park for the last few seasons, so he’ll have a decent understanding of the difficulties in trying to pull the various departments in a football ball club together, while keeping those in the boardroom well away from the football operation, a costly error Celtic allowed to creep in over the past number of years.
Dominic McKay called various members of the Celtic fan media last week to introduce himself and to have a brief chat about his plans and the way he sees things going forward. He also wanted to listen and I had a twenty minute conversation with him in which he said that he plans to “surprise and delight” the Celtic support. The new CEO understands that the relationship between the fans and the club is nowhere near where it should be and he plans to rectify that as a priority.
Already the Celtic fan media have been given similar access to Celtic press conferences and media releases as the mainstream media – and we discussed the rapid decrease in circulation levels of the printed press, accelerated by the Covid crisis – and how they essentially were morphing into online sites, like much of the Celtic fan media, including The Celtic Star.
We discussed our Want Aways (my advice was clear out them all) and the problems caused by a blurring of responsibilities when it comes to dealings in the transfer market. We also discussed the need for investment in the Women’s game, noting that we have an outstanding talent in Fran Alonso and I made sure that the new CEO know that the club’s most outstanding employee, certainly over the last year has been John Paul Taylor, the Celtic SLO.
Dominic McKay will no doubt have heard very similar thoughts from other Celtic fan media sites who I know also received calls from the new Celtic CEO.
That brings us back to Gordon Strachan. Having him involved in the football operations as a bridge between the boardroom and the manager with his staff is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. There’s nothing to suggest Gordon Strachan couldn’t do this job and it would make sense if Ange Postecoglou also sees the merit in it. This may well have been discussed and decided when McKay and Postecoglou met in London on Friday, ahead of their evening together at Wembley., where incidentally Callum McGregor was outstanding (despite the 6/10 rating dished out by (a blue-nose reporter?) on Sky Sports.
Here’s your Captain, Ange…
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So jobs for the boys is well under way at celtic, 3 Strachans, is this the new way forward, 6 months to appoint an old manager as technical director DOF? Great ambition.
The board are clueless, time for a change.
At this point, we need stability. Often, the people in roles don’t have to be perfect, no offence to Eddy Reader! But if the message from the top is organisation, stability, planning and that continues down to the manager, great. My only caveat is say Gavin Strachan isn’t the man long term that Ange wants. Is that going to be awkward if his dad has to let him go? Or Strachan jr isnt part of the new coaching set up, therefore it’s not an issue
Strachan, Kennedy, Strachan?
The cronyism and nepotism at CFC is palpable.
Where is the due diligence and best practice?
Ange Postecoglou is being hung out to dry and this will end in tears.
I agree Ange is being hung out to dry. Suppose to be his own man yet they are surrounding him with an inner circle of failure in Kennedy and Strachan junior. As for forward thinking Strachan senior…Really. I was born into the Celtic family and as a boy seen the champions of Europe going around Parkhead in a roofless builders truck.Have we not progressed to the point Ange can be trusted with his own staff. So 5/6 months in and he realises big changes have to be made.Who can he trust?
I agree with David G. Smith, Celtic need a clean sweep at all levels – Executive, managerial and team. Gavin Strachan and John Kennedy have brought nothing to Celtic and are closely associated, especially Kennedy, with Celtic’s dramatic failure last season. Appointing Gordon Strachan as Director of Football or Technical Director would be a big mistake. Strachan is a decent enough guy but a bit of a know-all who is guaranteed to interfere in the important work Postecoglu has ahead of him. I see him telling the new manager who he should hire and how he should play the game – it’s just Gordon Strachan being Gordon Strachan. No, we need different backroom staff and different (qualified) executives in the high places. Enough with the Cronyism!
What sort of lunicy is the incompetent board thinking, what happens when Ange decides the two Strachan juniors are not in his plans, we have a major conflict between the board and manager which can only be resolved by one or others resignations.
Bring in Gordon Strachan but John Kennedy and the other Strachan has to go we must start a fresh with a new backroom staff.
Tommythecommy
A bit of ar/e licking going on in this article. Dom getting you pre-warn us of all the impending crap we can expect in the coming season?