In a promising bit of news for Celtic fans, Ange Postecoglou is set to have a big say in his backroom staff, the Daily Record reports.
Postecoglou looks set to be appointed at Parkhead this week, but will arrive as a largely unknown figure to Celtic supporters. Despite a hugely successful career in Australia and Japan, the Yokohama Marinos boss looks set to manage in a top-flight European league for the first time ever.
In the past when unknown managers have been appointed, they’ve been given their backroom team. When Ronny Deila came to the club back in 2014, he was given John Collins as his assistant and John Kennedy as his first-team coach. Even Neil Lennon had issues in this regards to his staff as he inherited his backroom team.
But the Record reports that Postecoglou will be given a say on who he works alongside. Yet that doesn’t appear to spell the end for the current backroom staff either surprisingly.
The report claims Postecoglou will take assess the current coaching team before making any changes. This could give the likes of John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan a chance to save their jobs.
Ange Postecoglou needs to have total authority over backroom staff
I’ve always been of the opinion that the manager needs to choose his own backroom team. It makes very little sense for a football club to throw him in with personnel that doesn’t suit his style or even personality. You have to back your manager, and his backroom decisions will be just as important as his on-field ones.
It’s interesting that Postecoglou is willing to give the current group a chance to impress him. That bodes well for Kennedy and Strachan, who’ll surely be relieved with the opportunity to stay at Celtic Park.
For me, however, the new manager simply has to wipe the slate clean. We should be ridding the club of many of last season’s instigators. Kennedy, for example, played a colossal role in just how disastrously the previous campaign had gone. Removing him from his position would be a big positive in the eyes of the supporters.
As for Strachan, Celtic fans haven’t even been able to see what he does around the place. That’s mainly because we’ve been given no indication as to what his remit or responsibilities are. But like Kennedy, fans see him as a major part of the decline last term.
It would be surprising if both men survived the chop this summer. Postecoglou will surely want to stamp his own authority on things, and bringing in his own backroom team is essential to that. Just the image of the new man working alongside Kennedy and Strachan strikes the wrong tone from the off.
We’ll see how this progresses over the coming weeks. Big decisions need to be made both on the field and off it. It’s down to the club to back their manager in all of them.
In other news, Celtic’s stance on wantaway players has been outlined.
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