Fabrizio Romano’s post confirms that Celtic’s dream manager target has accepted a gig in Qatar

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A flavour of Celtic’s managerial shortlist has been doing the rounds.

From up-and-coming coaches from the MLS to niche targets, such as Bodø/Glimt manager Kjetil Knutsen.

It has got a lot of the Celtic Park faithful talking, as many wait to see what direction Dermot Desmond will go in following Brendan Rodgers’ brutal exit.

As soon as Rodgers left Parkhead, the supporters would have been lining up their dream targets, but you can firmly rule out one of them.

• READ MORE: Peter Grant explains why he thinks Celtic should keep Martin O’Neill until the end of the year

Roberto Mancini becomes Al Sadd’s new coach in Qatar

67 Hail Hail was hoping that Roberto Mancini would be considered by Celtic, as the Italian was out of work at the time.

The 60-year-old has a stellar CV, including winning the Premier League title with Manchester City and guiding Italy to European Championship glory in 2020 at England’s expense.

But in recent times, Mancini’s adventures have taken him to the Middle East, including being the manager of Saudi Arabia, and now he has taken the gig at the Qatari side Al Sadd, as confirmed by Fabrizio Romano.

‘Al Sadd confirms appointment of Roberto Mancini as new head coach with immediate effect,’ wrote Romano on social media.

Celtic would have made a statement with Mancini

Given Mancini’s CV and the weight his name carries across the footballing world, his appointment would have been a dream at Celtic.

The Italian did state back in 2017 that, if Celtic were to ‘build a team strong enough to regularly compete in the Champions League’, then he might just decide to manage them.

This is the gripe Celtic fans have with the board. They want the team to be more competitive in Europe. For the club to show it in their decision-making, and with their signings.

Bringing in a man of the calibre of Mancini would have started to build bridges with the fans and the board, but the fact that Celtic seemingly didn’t even try just proves that supporters are right to moan about the lack of ambition to improve on the European stage.

Regardless of whether Mancini would have accepted the Celtic gig, just pushing for him would have been a statement of intent from the champions of Scotland.