It’s Ange Postecoglou over Andriy Shevchenko every day of the week, Mr Desmond

Ange over Andriy very day of the week…

It has been reported the Andriy Shevchenko is in the running to be the next Celtic manager and I am sure I read somewhere that Dermot Desmond played a round of golf with him recently.

I don’t think there is any chance that the Board will replace Ange Postecoglou with Andriy Shevchenko or anyone else at the moment. They just don’t make such decisions on the hoof. Remember how long Neil Lennon remained in post even after that infamous review did or did not take place? Following his eventual departure, it took another 3 moths to identify a successor. That is their modus operandi; never do today what you can put off until next month.

I accept Dominic McKay’s departure was sudden as was Peter Lawwell’s as CEO. However, the latter has never left the building which may explain Mr McKay’s abrupt departure anyway! I think all that shows is that the Board will act relatively quickly when if comes to appointing/removing senior Executives but they are reticent to make changes to the coaching staff. I cite John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan as examples.

I think all Dermot Desmond was doing was lining up his ducks in a row. I guess he speaks to a lot of footballing men and hopefully gleams information from them. He is just doing his job as self appointed Director of Football, and hopefully enjoying a game of golf.

Although I don’t think the Board will replace the manager at the moment, they have a decision to make. There is no doubt that we need to strengthen the squad in January. Hence, they need to decide if they are going to stick with Ange beyond Christmas and back him in the transfer market or bring in someone new. If the latter, the new manager needs to be appointed sometime before the start of the transfer window to allow him time to assess the squad and strengthen accordingly. Let’s not make the same mistake twice; we don’t want another “frantic” transfer window.

So, in other words, I feel another review coming on in the next 4 to 6 weeks. At that time, the Board, calling on all their footballing knowledge and with the help of Gordon Strachan, will decide how we go forward. What can go wrong?

Personally, I hope we stick with Ange. The results haven’t been great but in mitigation he had little time to prepare for this season and we have lost a good few players through injuries and departures. In the words of Chris Sutton “he’s taken over a brown stuff show” and is still wading through it.

Football is all about results, Ange badly needed the win at the weekend up at Pittodrie, following on from that 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night. Heads dropped after that but the win against Aberdeen has raised the spirits.

And the next batch of fixtures, including in the Europa League, look reasonably favourable in terms of Celtic going on a winning run. Add the players returning from injury and things could really start to look much more promising over the course of the next month. Thereafter there will be no such chat as that Andriy Shevchenko story.

Chris Wotherspoon

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