Gordon Strachan comments on his new Celtic role

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Gordon Strachan has been discussing his new role at Celtic in an official announcement made by the club this afternoon.

After earlier speculation, Strachan has been confirmed as having joined the club on a three-month consultancy deal. The former Celtic boss’ role will be to analyse the workings of the academy, women’s, and B teams in order to recommend improvements to CEO Dom McKay on how those areas can be developed.

The news of Strachan’s return certainly didn’t elate supporters. However, it appears as though there will be no major influence on first-team matters.

And the new Hoops consultant has commented on his job for the first time in the official announcement:

“I am really looking forward to returning to the Club to assist in these areas.  The development of young players and seeing them improve and grow is a real passion for me and I will do anything I can to support the Club in these areas.

“Great people at Celtic always do great work.  I look forward to building on this work, liaising with Dom and all our Celtic colleagues once again and hope we can work together for the benefit of the Club and these teams so they ultimately can develop further and bring Celtic success. 

“I also look forward to continuing my work at Dundee FC where I have established a great working relationship and close bond with the Manager, Managing Director, staff and coaches.”

Nothing to suggest Gordon Strachan to Celtic will turn permanent

Dundee have also confirmed that Strachan will stay on as Technical Director. That suggests that this move won’t become a permanent one after the three-month period is up. You couldn’t imagine Dundee being too enamoured with that prospect either.

Fans will likely be a touch more relieved that Strachan won’t be involved in first-team matters too. That was important, especially when you consider the differences between him and manager Ange Postecoglou on the field.

Strachan’s work here can’t be judged in the short-term either. There’s no point getting too angry about this when you consider what his role actually entails.

It’s not as if Celtic will be forced to act on Strachan’s recommendations. Postecoglou should still have the final say on matters involving the academy and B teams for example. It’s essential his influence isn’t lost in Strachan’s involvement.

For now, we can only speculate how this might go. It’s not a role that should strike too much fear into supporters. Now that it’s been cleared up, there doesn’t appear to be much of a risk here.

And who knows? Maybe it’ll even turn out to be a successful short-term agreement.

In other news, Report: Rafa Benitez’s Everton preparing to make move for Celtic target Aurelio Buta