My Admiration for John Kennedy’s Strength of Character

I was thinking last night what it must be like for the players in the current climate. Sympathy for the footballers is something that is generally in short supply especially if you are on £75k per week in the English Premiership.

Obviously Celtic players won’t be on that scale of remuneration but at least one thing they don’t have to stress about is financial insecurity. That all said, mentally this must be an extremely testing time for the team. It seems like an eternity ago on Friday 13 March when the players were preparing for the Glasgow Derby fixture that Sunday, before we all got the news we had been dreading. The season was on hold indefinitely.

Player welfare is something that clubs don’t take lightly nowadays. Gone are the days of Jock Stein being reliant on his intel to know if wee Jinky was out on the lash. This Celtic team will have all the support on hand 24/7 to get them through the next few months.

Having a management team who have been through their own fair share of trials and tribulations is something that not only can they draw strength from on a personal level but also a blessing for players who have two men that they can look up too.

In the diary of a tinned up Celt we looked at the archived interview with Lenny discussing his mental health and I think that is something that players can draw on. It is easy to forget the challenges that his number two John Kennedy has faced during his career.

I like many Celtic fans had extremely high hopes for John Kennedy, he could be our modern day Cesar. That dream was expunged when John after being on the receiving end of a late tackle by Lonel Ganea just 14 minutes into his international debut in a friend versus Romania on 31 March 2004 saw his career flash before his eyes.

At the age of just 20 John’s career was irreversibly changed. He would undergo multiple surgeries carried out by the acclaimed knee surgeon Dr Richard Steadman. Incredibly after 3 years of God knows how painstaking that rehab must have been. John returned to competitive action on the 22 April 2007 when Celtic clinched the league title versus Kilmarnock.

Kennedy was awarded a 3 year contract but on the 28 November 2007 he would suffer a further knee injury landing awkwardly twisting his knee. Sadly this would end up being John’s last game for Celtic.

It was following another injury when on loan at Norwich that would signal the end of Kennedy’s career. I’ll be honest I had forgotten half of what John had been through, the injury for Scotland I felt at the time was a career ending injury. Looking back now his strength of character to fight back from those multiple surgeries and again to go through the painstaking rehab after the Shaktar injury is a true testimony to the man’s strength of character.

Once a great advert for the Celtic youth system. John has now prove himself to be a great product of the Celtic coaching system. Kicking off his career as a globe trotting scout whilst earning his coaching badges. John was swiftly moved into the Development squad set up. In 2014 upon Ronny Deila’s arrival he was appointed first team coach. This was a role he would continue when Brendan Rogers arrived and when Neil Lennon need a cool head to help steer the ship towards a treble treble he didn’t have to look far for his first mate appointing him assistant manager.

As with any talented young coach offers are going to start coming his way and he has already been linked with moves to follow Rogers to Leicester and the managers job with Hibs. His loyalty has proven unshakable.

It is his strength of character that the Celtic team will be able to draw on during these uncertain times and I for one am truly grateful for that.

Paul Carroll

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