The Celtic Trust believe in “fan ownership.” They are fundamentally opposed to a wealthy benefactor or consortium owning the club because of the risks that poses. The entire reason they exist is to prevent a single or consortium of investors having a controlling stake in the club.
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And where will the Celtic Trust raise the capital for a majority shareholding?
The Celtic Trust should be mobilised to hold the board to account and force Desmond out if he fails to invest. The way to do that is uniting the fans to Boycott the club until such time as changes are made.
Youth focus? Rebuilder? Gettable? Three men who fit profile as new Celtic boss
Kieran Devlin, Alex Stewart and more Mar 5, 2021
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Additional contributor: Mark Carey
Speculation, speculation, speculation.
Just who will Celtic’s next manager be? There is plenty of turmoil at the club just now, with a new chief executive incoming as well as a new head coach, which has fuelled even further the questions of not only who the next manager will be, but what type of manager they will be. Similarly to our Sensible Transfers series for players, we thought it might be worth doing something to shine a light on some potential options for the role.
First, let us establish the profile for what The Athletic would outline as Celtic’s ideal next manager (or head coach, depending on the title).
They must have a proven track record of improving players, especially youngsters. Bedding in youth and sculpting raw potential into something great are not just pivotal to Celtic’s identity but, as recent years have highlighted, they are integral to their business model’s sustainability too, given the profits produced by player sales revenue. If Celtic want to progress both on and off the pitch, having a pedigree for developing players and maximising their potential should, arguably, be the top characteristic to seek now.
There are other important attributes. Celtic are moving to a director of football model this summer, so the coach’s comfort and confidence in that kind of structure would be welcome; they must be happy having their job centred on coaching players, and preparing for and managing matches, with no overriding authority in other departments such as recruitment.
This ideal coach would also have a progressive attitude towards the most modern concepts in areas such as analytics and sport science. They would have a defined idea in mind for the brand of football they’d like their Celtic side to adopt as Plan A for a majority of matches, and a clear strategy for introducing it to a new group of players. They would also be pragmatic and capable of adjusting tactics to different opponents and in-game scenarios. They would have experience in challenging for either league titles or promotions, and so would have some understanding of working under an expectation to win most games.
In terms of the players’ suitability to coaches, it’s quite hard to determine at this stage, given the likely scale of turnover this summer. That, in turn, suggests another welcome characteristic of the new coach; both the strategic nous and strength of personality to handle an immense rebuild of the playing squad.
They would also have to be attainable. They would have to be at the right point of their career trajectory for them to join Celtic. Ideally, they would be on the upswing of their career, destined for bigger things but intent on proving themselves at Celtic. Similar in many ways to recent players such as Moussa Dembele and Virgil van Dijk.
This could also be Celtic’s sell to this level of potential appointees, by using Brendan Rodgers as the prototype for how they want to use coaches from now on. A young, promising and ambitious type who the top half of the Premier League and Europe’s elite are mildly interested in but still have doubts over can come to Celtic and prove themselves over two or three years in highly-pressured conditions.
With all due respect to interim manager John Kennedy, and there is plenty due, this is working off the assumption that he won’t be handed the job full time. That’s an assumption, but it’s by no means a certainty, and Kennedy’s profile as a coach first and foremost would align with the structural transition into a director of football model, where the manager’s role is largely simplified to coaching and game management.
Bearing that in mind, here are three more left-field options who haven’t yet been linked with the job.
How interested they might be in succeeding Neil Lennon is only a matter of speculation, but they are all interesting coaches making exciting waves at their current clubs.
Steve Cooper, Swansea City
Background
Cooper began his coaching career in Wrexham’s youth ranks, before joining Liverpool in 2008. He was appointed their academy manager in 2011, at age 31. He joined England’s youth set-up in 2014, managing their under-16s for a year, before spending four years with England Under-17s, including winning that age group’s World Cup in 2017.
A head coach whose path into the job has been shaped by working with youth players, Cooper took over at Swansea in summer 2019, following current Brighton boss Graham Potter into the role. While with England, he worked with Callum Hudson-Odoi, Jadon Sancho and Phil Foden, and he has a reputation for being sensitive to how younger modern footballers think about the game, allowing them to reflect on their football and working as a facilitator for development rather than just an instructor.
The 41-year-old Welshman led Swansea to a sixth-place finish in the Championship in his debut season. They were eliminated from the play-offs by Brentford, who now sit second, a point and two places above Swansea, having played two more games.
Tactical analysis
Swansea’s system morphed over the course of last season from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-1-2, while this season a 3-5-2 has occasionally also been used, with Cooper swapping his No 10 for a screening, linking defensive midfielder. Swansea’s defence are mean — they’ve conceded the fewest goals in the Championship, 23 in 32 games — which compensates somewhat for a low-volume attack in terms of shooting. They are efficient, though, registering the fourth-most shots on target as a percentage despite languishing mid-table by volume.
Swansea tend to build up patiently from deep, using at least one midfielder as a pivot to provide receiving options behind their opponents’ first pressing line, but then like to get the ball out wide, creating triangles between a wing-back, the ball-side midfielder and a forward to progress into an area from which they launch attacks.
Cooper has created a team who build well, defend patiently, without a hugely vigorous press, and are tough to break down. Swansea’s underlying numbers in defence and attack point to an overperformance and this is something that could be a concern in terms of replicating his success elsewhere. But it’s working for the Welsh club now and that, coupled with his excellence in developing young players and his previous use of a 4-2-3-1, does make Cooper an interesting prospect.
Statistical analysis
Below is an example of smarterscout’s coaching profile graphics, which attempts to highlight the distinctive traits, and effectiveness, of each coach’s playing styles.
As well as considering formations and xGD (expected goals difference), this also includes metrics such as “average seconds to recover possession”, which measures the time between possessions to see which teams win back the ball the quickest. Other notable metrics include the average positions of the full-backs and wingers, to determine the extent to which width is used in their playing style, and game flow and average substitution times, which can help illustrate the effectiveness of a coach’s game management.
Cooper is a coach who is a little more adaptable in the systems he uses. At Swansea, he is fairly settled on a back three but has varied his approach in midfield — swapping between a 3-4-1-2 and a 3-1-4-2 — and in attack, where he has played with both one and two up front.
Looking at the average seconds to recover possession in open play — as a proxy of defensive intensity — Cooper has made Swansea a strong outfit defensively, particularly pressing the opposition when playing away from home. They are not the most likely to press high, but when they do have it in their own half, they are likely to play out from the back rather than hit it long — particularly on their travels.
In attack, Cooper’s Swansea profile is about average for their frequency of aerials and directness in attack — perhaps indicative of a team who can mix up their style depending on the opposition. Looking at the full-back and wide midfielder touches, it is clear Cooper likes his players to stay high and wide. Rather than many teams encouraging their wide midfielders to venture inside as inverted forwards, he looks to ensure his players keep the width.
Cooper’s influence on the team in the “expected goals (xG) effect” — calculated by looking at how well a club should perform based on the previous output of its players, then compare those predictions with actual results to see whether the head coach may be having a positive impact — appears to be strong and shows how much his coaching is benefiting them. Specifically in defence, the smarterscout model shows that Cooper’s team are conceding quite significantly less than expected, which points to the beneficial coaching he can offer.
A strong candidate overall.
Suitability to Celtic
Cooper’s profile is probably the neatest alignment of the three, given the outline above. His track record with promoting and developing youth is compelling, both in the England and Swansea set-ups. He would fit in well with Celtic’s sporting and business model, and it would be exciting to see how he could sculpt players such as David Turnbull and an injury-free Mikey Johnston.
That Cooper’s Plan A adheres to patient, possession football signals a clear direction of how he wants the game played, and his tactical flexibility is also a notable positive. His defensive organisation is another huge plus-point.
There would however be some risk to the appointment, including the red flags of Swansea overperforming their underlying numbers, and his relative inexperience in club management.
There would also be questions over whether he could handle the pressure of managing a team who would be expected to mount a far more serious title challenge next season; although this is arguably a question that hangs over all three of our candidates, to varying degrees.
The difficulty in convincing him to go to Celtic would also increase greatly if Swansea win promotion back to the Premier League.
Vincenzo Italiano, Spezia
Background
Italiano has the least high-level coaching experience of our three candidates, but enjoyed the best career as a player, making more than 200 appearances for Hellas Verona in Serie A and Italy’s second tier. Though German-born, his entire professional career so far has been in Italy. He began managing at amateur sides, before being given the head coach role at Serie D side Arzignano Valchiampo for 2017-18. Every subsequent season since, Italiano has progressed up through the Italian leagues.
The now-43-year-old’s work with Arzignano Valchiampo, getting them to the play-offs, convinced Serie C side Trapani to hire him, and he delivered promotion to Serie B. In summer 2019, relatively more established second-tier club Spezia grabbed Italiano, and he took them up to Serie A for the first time in their history. In their debut season in the top flight, they currently sit 15th, five points clear of the bottom three.
Tactical analysis
Spezia are a fun watch, playing an aggressive 4-3-3 with high and wide wingers who then cut infield, full-backs that try to stretch the play horizontally but also underlap, and midfielders who drop off or push up to create numerical superiority behind the opposition’s defensive lines. The deep passing of screening midfielder Matteo Ricci is the starting point for lots of Spezia’s attacks, and their combination play out wide can be devastating when it clicks.
Defensively, they aren’t great — only three teams in Serie A have conceded more goals, and all are below them in the table — but their pressing game, using an aggressive, man-orientated style, can really disrupt the opposition. This style of pressing, flooding the area of the pitch where the other team have possession, is quite unusual in Italy but can be very effective.
Spezia do sometimes sit off and defend more compactly, and this is very much determined by the opposition and Italiano’s assessment of what can be most effective.
Statistical analysis
As you can see, Italiano is fixed on using a 4-3-3 system with Spezia, which would be a change to Celtic’s way of playing. Looking at his attacking style, we see Italiano likes his side to “keep the ball on the deck”, as shown by their low frequency of aerials.
Likewise, Spezia play a style that is below average in terms of directness. This metric is measured by looking at the total distance the ball travels closer to goal during a possession. If a team make passes and dribbles that have a distance of 100 metres but get them 50 metres closer to goal, they are less direct than playing a single 50-metre long ball each time. Italiano’s style suggests Spezia are more likely to retain possession and work their way upfield.
Defensively, it looks as though Italiano’s style is to press the opposition high up the field — especially when playing at home. When they do regain the ball in their own half, Italiano rarely encourages his team to play out from the back and instead elects to go long. It is likely this is down to the quality of Spezia compared with other teams in Serie A, and would be different given Celtic’s comparative dominance in the Premiership.
Finally, we can look at Italiano’s effect on the team’s expected goals (xG) for and against, compared with expectations from his players’ previous performance levels. This essentially allows us to see the beneficial effect the manager is having on his players collectively, in attack and defence. Expected goals is a metric where each chance is rated by how likely it would be to result in a goal depending on factors such as the distance from goal that the shot is taken and the angle available.
Looking at Italiano’s effect on the team, the smarterscout model suggests he is not having a hugely beneficial influence in attack and defence per match.
Might be one to put in the “so-so” category, overall.
Suitability to Celtic
If Cooper’s profile suggests developing youth is a strength, Italiano’s aligns with the complementary attribute of maximising the potential of limited players. His pressing style and system might also seem like the neatest fit for Celtic’s playing staff — it’s not hard to visualise Callum McGregor in the Ricci role as a deep-lying playmaker — and would also likely win over many fans. This would be particularly compelling if he could handle the change in dynamic of taking over a more possession-dominant side, and combine that high intensity with a measured attacking style. His pragmatism against tougher opponents is also a good sign.
Italiano is definitely the biggest wildcard choice of our trio.
On their day, Spezia can play much better than their squad’s quality might suggest they can, and this speaks volumes for Italiano’s tactical awareness and coaching methods. But his relative inexperience could count against him, if he even wanted to join. Spezia are often an exciting spectacle, but they are also often too open and struggle.
Not having that defensive credibility might stand against him, particularly after a season as beset with defensive calamities as Celtic’s 2020-21 has been.
Pellegrino Matarazzo, Stuttgart
Background
After securing a degree in applied mathematics at Columbia University in New York, the American-born Matarazzo’s career as a defender was spent in Germany’s lower divisions. He finished his playing days at Nurnberg, and segued seamlessly into coaching at that club, managing the city’s second team, under-17s and under-19s before joining Hoffenheim’s youth system.
He graduated to working as Julian Nagelsmann’s assistant for 2018-19, before taking over at Stuttgart from Tim Walter in December 2019 when they were in Bundesliga II. The 43-year-old promptly led Stuttgart to automatic promotion via a second-place finish.
They currently sit 10th in the Bundesliga, only a few points off the European places. In December, they won 5-1 away at Borussia Dortmund.
Tactical analysis
Nagelsmann’s influence is clear. Stuttgart generally set up in the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 that the now-RB Leipzig coach used at Hoffenheim, with aggressive wing-backs and a dropping midfielder to link play. Stuttgart do not actually press that much, but if they do close down aggressively, it tends to be in their attacking third. They look to strangle teams at source and use their rapid counter-attackers to transition at speed. Their front three tend to play quite narrowly, with at least one technical, creative midfielder tucking in deeper to connect the play.
Stuttgart’s system generates lots of shots — at the time of writing, the fourth-most in the Bundesliga — and although their passing volume is mid-table, they are extremely efficient at getting the ball into the penalty area, ranking fourth in the league for this too. Stuttgart’s recruitment is led by former Dortmund and Arsenal head of scouting Sven Mislintat, and Matarazzo has impressed hugely in taking some classic Mislintat signings — mostly raw but promising players such as Tanguy Coulibaly, Silas Wamangituka and Orel Mangala — and shaping them into genuine top-flight footballers.
He has also improved his central defenders’ ability to play the ball out from the back — Stuttgart favour lots of shorter passes in the build-up — and his man-management skills are impressive. Matarazzo has used a back four at times and his use of a midfield double pivot in the 3-4-3 means he could adapt to Celtic’s most likely system, a 4-2-3-1.
Statistical analysis
Another coach who prefers a back three, Matarazzo is similarly adaptable in using different formations.
His Stuttgart team are very direct in their attacks, which shows they quickly look to progress the ball up the field — particularly in away matches. As shown by the full-back and wide midfielder touches, Matarazzo allows his players on the flanks to come inside and support through more central positions — particularly around the penalty area.
Defensively, Matarazzo’s side are fairly average across the board. Although he encourages them to press quite high at home, their intensity to recover possession is not overly strong.
It’s clear Matarazzo’s strength as a coach has been to help the team in attack. Looking at his effect on them, the smarterscout model shows his contribution adds 0.22 xG per game.
Celtic require improvement in front of goal, and Matarazzo certainly looks as though he’d help in that department.
Suitability to Celtic
Matarazzo’s tactical flexibility and inventiveness are appealing. But his pedigree in developing players, particularly talented youngsters, is his most attractive credential.
That he’s making all this progress on the training ground while also making a newly promoted team competitive in the Bundesliga is very impressive. He’s clearly predisposed to a patient, ball-playing style requiring technically accomplished centre-backs, which would also fit Celtic’s position as a team who dominate possession in a majority of matches.
Perhaps the biggest question is whether, similarly to Italiano, Matarazzo can successfully transition from a recently-promoted team with relatively limited expectations to a side expected to reclaim their league title while also competing in Europe.
Otherwise, his pedigree as a coach, tactical flexibility, poise and confidence as a man-manager — not to mention his experience working in a director of football model — make him a very attractive option.
Similarly, these risks in hiring ambitious but comparatively unproven managers are ultimately necessary for clubs of Celtic’s standing. How else can they attract a head coach to take them to the next level?
Does it have to be a billionaire that invests in Celtic or can it be a multi-millionaire?
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Billionaires only.
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Would a communist such as yourself not be fundamentally opposed to some billionaire capitalist taking over a football club, given your staunch political outlook?
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No.
So lets say I’m a multi-millionaire, have wealth declared in the Sunday Times rich list as €850 million (€400m liquidity), big football fan, looking to invest in a club. I’ve been seen back in the day at Parkhead watching Celtic playing in the champions league, at big league and/or cup games and would count Rod Stewart as a friend. Celtic are a team I’ve mentioned my admiration for when interviewed but would also be interested in say a club like Blackburn or Nottingham Forest - clubs with a rich history and great potential. I’m Irish and a regular churchgoer, a God-fearing Christian. Am I not welcome to wipe out the £15.8m debt and invest a further £50m due to the fact that I’m not a Billionaire?
Celtic would cost probably well over £100m to buy. I’d have concerns you would have the capital resources to do that.
Rod is willing to throw a few pound in
Rod is a notoriously tight fucker
Abramovich was told by Putin to buy Chelsea. To raise Russia’s profile. It’s how he avoids being jailed like Khodorkovsky, fund projects from time to time.
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There’s only one problem. You’re a prod cunt who would buy Rangers instead.
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Hey, I’m not a cunt.
They’ve used sport the way the 19th century industrialists and 21st century tech moguls used/use philanthropy.
You are for the purposes of your virtual self.
Exactly. Jailed, or considerably worse.
Let’s take him.
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Chris Wilder
A mullocker like Wilder is not really suited to the Celtic job and developing the team.