Celtic have finally agreed deals for Mark Fotheringham and Shaun Maloney to remain on Martin O’Neill’s coaching staff.
That’s over a week after it emerged that Celtic’s offers of substantial pay cuts had put the future of the pair in doubt… and a fortnight after news emerged that O’Neill had agreed a deal to stay.
A fortnight to secure your new manager’s two assistants — both of whom were already in the building — doesn’t bode well for a summer rebuild in which business will need to be done quickly.
After how the club’s last two transfer windows went, the club certainly aren’t giving much reason to expect any different.
👀 A reasonable figure?
Celtic simply can’t afford to move at a snail’s pace this summer
Almost equally as easy to do as the deals for Maloney and Fotheringham are securing the futures of Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi, without both of whom last season’s league and cup double wouldn’t have happened.
The same applies to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, though his relative lack of involvement would make a parting of ways make at least a bit more sense.
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Reports have made it clear that both Saracchi and Iheanacho would like to stay. The vast majority of fans would agree that both should be signed.
Reports have also said that neither yet has an offer on the table from Celtic.
When O’Neill was appointed permanently, the reservations of supporters were much more centred around the club than O’Neill himself.
In hiring the internal candidate with no sign of a football restructure in sight, the club are seriously risking stretching the magical ‘Martin O’Neill effect’ far too thin.
He needs help. They all need help. A manager half the age of O’Neill would’ve been equally overworked in the January transfer window.
Never in doubt… 😅 How relieved are we!?
Of course, recruitment work will have been done ahead of the summer — but the same can be said of the disastrous window that ensued last year. In the way of material change, fans have little to hang onto.
As managers resign like Rodgers, jump ship like Postecoglou or are sacked like Nancy, the conditions stay the same.
As Rodgers himself put it: “We have to make sure our football model is lined up, or we’re just going to be in this cycle.”
…A cycle that inevitably ends with an unhappy manager and an unhappy support.
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