The latest Celtic Podcast hosted by former Celtic full-back Mark Wilson today features two former Celts, show regular Simon Donnelly and special guest Stan Petrov. The three talk through the events of the past few days including that explosive Media Conference given by Neil Lennon yesterday which has never seen the light of day on the club’s You Tube channel.
The positions of those in control at Celtic are considered and there’s no real support for Neil Lennon continuing as Celtic manager, nor Nick Hammond remaining in post as Head of Recruitment. Somewhat surprisingly Petrov sticks up for Peter Lawwell remaining in place as CEO despite the fiasco of the last few weeks surrounding Dubai and the awful season that the club have had right from the very start.
Petrov though reckons that John Hartson is spot on in saying that their old teammate Neil Lennon’s time is up, although he reckons that Roy Keane, so often linked with the Celtic job, might be the man who can come in change the way the team plays and can take the fight to Steven Gerrard across the city. Petrov reckons that the support would welcome that appointment – not so sure about that Stan!
Wilson asked his former teammate Petrov if he agreed with what John Hartson was saying over the weekend about Neil Lennon’s time as Celtic manager being up. “Yeah I think so. Now it comes to the point where Celtic have to make the change in approach and I think a new manager has to come in with his staff,” Petrov admitted.
“A leader, somebody who can lead the team in a different direction and who can motivate and change the style of play. What we have seen, and it’s just in my opinion, is that Celtic are still trying to play the football we have seen under Brendan Rodgers.
“Nice, slick football with a lot of possession, but now we have seen ruthless (the)Rangers. They will go and they will stop you playing. They will have better players and better characters who will stop you winning a game. We have to change the approach.
“It’s something they have to deal with. Do they make the change now or in a month’s time? I think they make the change now and have a big push for the end of the season.”
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On Keane as a candidate, Petrov was clearly up for this happening. “What a name to come up for the job. I think Roy’s name has been mentioned a couple of years ago. To be honest it’s something that is needed.
“Does Roy go head to head with Steven Gerrard and compete with the same intensity and desire? Yes he does. Is he going to be somebody the Celtic fans would like to see in charge? Yes I think so. Would I look forward to it? Yes. Would that fire get back into the Celtic players again? I think it would.
“You can actually compare what Steven Gerrard did with (the)Rangers. He started two and half years ago and look at the difference. He now has a team that is ready to compete and fight for the manager and the jersey.
“That’s what we need Celtic to do and unfortunately they need to do it sooner rather than later. Why not? I’d be quite excited to see Roy given a chance so it will be interesting to see if that can happen.”
Incidentally if Dermot Desmond is minded to go down this route again and appoint Roy Keane as the next Celtic manager don’t be surprised if he doesn’t ask Damien Duff to return to the club as his assistant. Stranger things…
