Celtic advertise for promising new coaching role

By John McGinley

April 22, 2023

Celtic are looking to appoint a Head of Academy Coaching, reporting directly to the club’s Head of Academy Chris McCart, a new job listing reveals.

The role looks primarily focused on working directly with and developing the many coaches within the academy set-up itself, rather than day-to-day work with young players, which could further help unify a strategy and vision for bringing through stars of the future.

Some of the responsibilities of the successful candidate include:

– Contributing to the development of an elite learning environment, ensuring knowledge in relation to all aspects of coaching and coach development is up-to-date and forward-thinking, including innovation, continuous improvement and best practice

– Contributing to the development, delivery and ongoing improvement of the Academy’s Coaching Curriculum, Playing and Coaching Philosophy, including alignment as appropriate from 1st Team game and training model to Under18 Team and below age groups

– Training and development of coaches using a broad range of techniques e.g. demonstrations, verbal and digital feedback and mentoring role

– Complete Training Needs Analysis with all coaches. Implement our Coach Competency Framework to monitor and evaluate coaches in order to develop Development Action Plan for every coach

– Working with coaches to develop their abilities, potential, and Provide 1:1 sessions to coaches in order to develop the coach’s skills and competencies

Necessary experience and qualifications include a UEFA Pro Licence as well as a proven track record of working at a senior professional level.

As far as I can tell, this job doesn’t currently exist within the Academy set-up. The Bhoys do have some senior professionals helping things along including former stars Darren O’Dea, Stephen McManus and U18s manager Stuart McLaren, with McCart overseeing the entire structure supported by Academy Operations Manager Brian Meehan. There are then many working within the intermediate and junior groups.

This new role looks to be designed to complement and help existing staff rather than taking any responsibilities away from those already in place.

Celtic have had success with the academy over the last decade, most notably with current club captain Callum McGregor, but there’s a feeling amongst the support that more can be done to provide the first team with more homegrown players.

Recently there have been green shoots of progress with prospects such as Rocco Vata and Ben Summers both making their debuts under Ange Postecoglou.

All in all, the creation of this job looks to be a positive step for the club and good luck to whoever lands it!

In other news, Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou delivers the most exciting assessment of Tomoki Iwata yet.