Back pages filled with empty nonsense

My inbox today was full of angst at the latest series of ‘favourites’ for the manager’s job.  There are upwards of 20 journalists working on this story right now, each of whom need to push the story on every day.

No information?  Tough, write something.  Not found a single person Peter Lawwell has spoken to?  Hard lines, get Ownie’s neighbour’s granny on again, she’ll be good for a word.

Who’s fault is this?  The journos are just doing a job, the media have space to fill – and it will be filled with any type of speculation.  We all know the rules so why take the bait?

By the time the news of Neil’s resignation leaked out on Thursday Celtic’s moves were already underway.  Potential candidates jockeyed for position in the limelight for a couple of days, and for most cases they were disappointed the call didn’t arrive.  Even Henrik was talking about returning to Celtic at one point, only to reaffirm his commitment to his current employers a couple of days later.

Agents will also be busy offering their clients, Celtic will respond respectfully, but just because an agent opens a one-sided dialogue doesn’t mean meaningful dialogue is taking place.  Celtic will also speak to applicants out of courtesy.  If a former player or prominent candidate asks to be considered, you can expect Celtic to meet them, whether they have a genuine interest or not.

>90% of this activity will be fruitless.  Some of it will seep out into the public domain but it is vastly more likely that those wanting to raise their profile make the newspapers, as opposed to those Celtic have approached.

Order your dedicated copy of Tommy Gemmell’s All the Best at the fancy new CQN Bookstore.

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