John Collins urges Celtic to make decision in line with what "every big club in the world" does

By John McGinley

March 1, 2021

Former Celtic midfielder and assistant manager John Collins has called on the club to put in place a director of football before appointing a new manager.

Since Neil Lennon left Celtic Park last week, speculation has been rife regarding who will take permanent charge of the team moving forward.

However, that’s perhaps out-of-sync with the way Celtic will handle business over the next couple of months.

Surely it makes more sense to have his immediate superior in position first before appointing a new head coach.

Collins certainly thinks so, telling BBC Scotland: “Every big club in the world has got a director of football in place first.

“The director of football has got to help choose the manager so the manager’s his man and there’s a relationship between the manager and the director of football that’s so tight.

“The most important thing is they have the director of football in place before a manager so the director of football is in the process with the owners, the board helping them select the right type of manager for the type of football the club’s looking for.”

How are Celtic handing director of football search?

As we’ve discussed on 67 Hail Hail before, Celtic have employed experts Nolan Partners to conduct their search for a director of football or sporting director.

They work with some of the biggest brands in sport and entertainment to fill a variety of behind-the-scenes technical roles such as this.

Names linked with the job include David Webb, Fergal Harkin and Matteo Tognozzi.

Fergal Harkin has been linked with a move to Celtic / (Photo by VI Images via Getty Images)

We’ve spoken to Webb on our YouTube channel about the role previously. My colleague Hamish Carton interviewed him about a variety of footballing topics and he gave great insight into what it involves.

Collins is spot on with his assessment and, fingers crossed, we hear more about this from Celtic in the coming weeks.

Any outstanding candidate would ideally be in place as soon as possible to start preparing for next season.

In other news, Nick Hammond and Gary Penrice are set to leave the club at the end of the season.