Celtic urged to make permanent CEO decision immediately

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Celtic have been urged to quickly fill the CEO position on a permanent basis after making a key hire yesteday.

Anton McElhone joined the club as Head of Sports Science in a move that brings a bit of a morale boost to Parkhead. It’s an area of the club Ange Postecoglou has wanted to fill for some time, and gives fans a signal that the manager is being backed.

However, there’s yet to be a decision on who will be replacing departed CEO Dom McKay on a permanent basis. Long-term Celtic figure Michael Nicholson currently has the gig on an acting basis. But there are no signs that a permanent decision is due to be made.

And this is something Petrov feels needs addressed immediately.

As quoted by the Herald, Petrov said: “If you don’t have a sustainable structure this it’s very difficult to run a club, because everything comes from the top. They have to make the right decisions on and off the pitch. The manager is there to coach and manage but if he’s doing more than that it takes his attention away from what he has to do.

“I have studied but they have a lot of candidates for it. I saw Ramon Vega has put himself forward. They have to make a decision because you see how important this position is. You see it at other clubs.

“There needs to be people looking at the short, medium and long term, because if you don’t have a plan then you don’t have a direction. I hope they can sort out very quickly. There are some other issues that have to be addressed and you need that balance to have success.”

Celtic don’t seem to be in a rush to bring in new CEO

From the outside looking in, there doesn’t appear to be a great urgency from Celtic to bring in a new CEO. It appears, at face value at least, that they’re happy to have Nicholson plough ahead for now.

Of course, none of us truly know what’s going on behind the scenes at Parkhead. Appointing a new chief executive for the football club will take plenty of time. But there should also be a list of preferred candidates stemming from the process that led to McKay’s appointment.

Make no mistake, Dom won’t have been the only one Celtic were looking at. They’ll have run the rule over a host of options. And it’s time to dig them out.

Whilst fans only really care about what’s happening on the field, the club also needs some direction off of it. Without a permanent CEO, you lose the opportunity to build the club in a certain image or direction.

If it’s going to be Nicholson then it’s going to be Nicholson. The main thing is that Celtic progress with their CEO pursuit and ensure someone is appointed permanently in the near future.

The longer it drags out without a new man in place, the more chaotic things look at the club. Hopefully, this is an issue that’s sorted imminently.

In other news, Anton McElhone arrival gives Celtic slight yet much-needed morale boost