PRESTON boss Alex Neil has ruled himself out of the race to replace Brendan Rodgers as Celtic manager. Press reports earlier this week indicated that Neil was on the Celtic board’s radar as a candidate to replace the Irishman who left the club to join Leicester City ten days ago.
Neil who began his managerial career at Hamilton before moving to Norwich and then to his current club has confirmed that he no plans to leave Preston.
“When I was at Norwich I was linked with the Rangers job and now this,” Neil noted in a press interview.
“It is rare to be linked with Celtic and Rangers because people like to think you are one or the other.
“I have no thoughts about moving club or anything like that. I am the Preston manager and I am enjoying my time here and we have a lot of scope to improve. Being the boss here has my full focus.
“I don’t look at the speculation in the papers or social media. I get made aware of it but sometimes I find it funny more than anything else.
“I will just crack on with my job here. I think what it is, is that people naturally look to see what Scottish manager is doing well and then put it together.
“I have been told so many times when I was at Norwich I was the only Scottish manager in the Premiership and then I had a spell as the only one in the English Championship here.
“Out with Scotland I was operating at a higher level than any other Scottish manager and I think that’s why my name got chucked into the ring,” he said.
Neil would have been regarded as an underwhelming choice anyway among the Celtic support and the only reason he is linked with the job – that is Neil Lennon’s to lose – is because of the earlier media report, that suggested that Celtic were considering the Preston boss.
That in itself is not unreasonable – if Celtic are drawing up a list of potential candidates then Neil could possibly deserve a place on it but with 58,000 season tickets to sell, an underwhelming appointment like that would hardly help the renewals.
Meanwhile Marco Rose’s RB Salzburg got thrashed 3-0 in the Europa League last night at Napoli and he was angrily throwing stuff around in his technical area. Rose has of course also been mentioned for the Celtic job. However it has been confirmed that due to Salzburg’s excellent Europa League runs over the past two seasons, the Austrian Champions next season will gain an automatic place in the Champions League Group Stages for the first time. Salzburg are the runaway leaders so if Rose chooses to stay at the Red Bull Arena then he knows he has Champions League football to look forward to.
Rose will have other options too, including in Germany but would be leave Salzburg for the four rounds of qualifying in Scotland?
And did you watch any of the Rennes v Arsenal match? The French side, who Celtic played in this competition when Neil Lennon was manager, fought back from losing an early goal to win 3-1 and it was well deserved. Two Celtic related things that made me smile in this game. Our support clearly left its mark on the French fans who have adopted a version of the Glasgow’s Green and White chant and at the final whistle the stadium’s DJ played Just Can’t Get Enough…
