Two years ago, current Inverness manager, John Hughes, was guest of honour at the CQN Golf Day. For around two hours during the meal he spoke privately to me about John Collins.
Hughes worked alongside Collins at Livingston and regarded our new assistant manager as the most insightful, tactically aware and innovative person he’d met in the game. According to Hughes, Collins could see things hidden to others, including himself. He could spot weaknesses in opposition teams and make telling observations about his own players and formations.
When recruiting anyone to the management team we want to hear endorsements like this. Most of the CQN demographic are old enough to remember times when managers’ and assistants’ most important attribute was their ability to bang his first on a table and yell “Get stuck right intae them” with a legendary level of authority.
This model of the desirable manager is still valued by British clubs, it’s a superstition which has been fed by famous and successful table bangers like Sir Alex Ferguson, but Ferguson’s Fist was not the source of his magic touch. More than anything else, Ferguson’s successful longevity was his insistence on appointing insightful, tactically aware innovators as assistants, who were often more switched-on than he was.
I wanted a student of the game as manager but I also want another strong tactical head as assistant. The last thing a manager actually needs as his assistant is his pal, or someone who is good at shouting, or even someone to be a buffer between him and the players. Whoever puts the cones out at Lennoxtown, like the Scottish physio at Chelsea, can be the players’ pal, cum-go-between, cum-nag.
One of football’s many inefficiencies is the managerial structure. Unlike other industries, the responsibility and wage gaps between the man with the top job and his assistant are huge. There is no reason for this, in fact, it’s mad. You always need a hierarchy but the no. 2 should have duties, responsibilities and pay only a fraction less than his immediate superior. The huge disparities in authority which are common do not give you a functioning team, at best you have a less efficient autocracy.
As we’ve said for years, guru managers don’t exist, but good, properly constituted, management teams do.
Those in the management team, responsible for spending millions of pounds of our money each year, of making tactical decisions against the best teams in Europe, need to be oracles of the game. Anything less and we’re indulging in one of football’s glaring and costly inefficiencies.
John Collins fits the profile. He also doesn’t suffer fools, with strong ideas on training, fitness, laxity, drinking, diet and off-field behaviour. For Celtic, all of this is necessary. Footballers are elite athletes but there is enormous variation in how dedicated they are to their personal development. This doesn’t exist in elite participants in sports like athletics, where you don’t get near the podium without a puritanical level of commitment to your development, and to your coach’s instructions.
You can also forget any concerns about Scott Brown. The Scott Brown of 2014, who as Neil Lennon’s captain was responsible for imposing misdemeanor fines on players, is more like John Collins than he is like the Scott Brown of 2007.
Over the last seven years we have built the sports science, medical, technical analysis and scouting capacity, all of which are particularly impressive, but the management team has always had a homespun feel about it. In 10 years of CQN I’ve never backed a Celtic management appointment, but with the appointment of Ronny Deila and John Collins we have a new type of management team. There are no guarantees of immediate success in any walk of life, and Champions League qualification this season will still be exposed to the vagaries of sport, but I’m delighted we finally have what looks like a properly constituted team in the dug out.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his book, All the Best.
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KevJungle
08.15
Paint it, dont be sitting on it!!
Couldn,t resist ;)
lilys
Delaney’s, Charlie Nick proclaimed he was an arse sorry Arsenal man on Soccer Saturday a few years ago. That was enough for me. He was great for us first time round but he panders to the English media.
Bobby Murdoch, your story of a sticky protest club to be set up in East Kilbride hasn’t got my morning off to a good start. There are literrally HUNdreds of them here and bitter at that. A lot of their parents and or grand parents moved up here from Bridgeton, Rutherglen so hun-ness is in their genes.
Don’t know if anyone mentioned NFL comment about the Russian goalie.
” He’s wearing Joe Bugner gloves” Panel look stunned.
NFL ” He’s wearing gloves doesn’t know what their for”
Good morning my friends in Celtic,
I too favour the notion when we put the Barcelona team to the sword it was the splinter of the first crack in their invincibility and subsequently Spain’s.
Let us never forget who our manager was for that magnificent night.
NFL may never go down as one of our great managers in terms of achievement, but in terms of what he achieved under the shadow of extremism and adversity then he must surly rank as one of our best.
The snipers on CQN should bear that in mind and apply the same criteria to their own working environment.
It seems PL cannot do right for doing wrong.
It seems petty, sad and pathetic when the continual negativity he receives on CQN seems second only to FF.
Our new managerial team have potential and hope for a new dawn. It can be a fresh start and that is where the optimism and enthusiasm stem from.
It is certainly not their managerial achievement to date.
IMO, A ringing endorsement from John Hughes on our assistant is irrelevant and does not warrant the exposure it received from Paul 67.
Reading back it seems I generally agree with two eminent posters HT and BMCUWP in this respect.
HH, always in Celtic.
Back in again….
______________
Dallas Dallas where the heck is Dallas
08:29 on 19 June, 2014
Delaney’s, Charlie Nick proclaimed he was an arse sorry Arsenal man on Soccer Saturday a few years ago. That was enough for me. He was great for us first time round but he panders to the English media.
______________________________
So, what did ye make of Neil last night?
Neil said – “Yeah, this the Maracana, ‘thee’ theatre of football, just like Wembley.”
A#se-licking the English media, or what?
It’s a lovely day for me; this is a Celtic site. What do I find? Some so called supporters having a go at our last manager. Away and gies peace (and enjoy the day and the times).
Aye, f#ck reallity – good luck.
off oot.
Parkheadcumsalford…………………….Didn’t see Lenny on the Telly but can these people having a pop at him try and imagine the grief and stress he and his family went through just living day to day in the job?
So, he’s tailoring his language (CV) to suit his circumstances, he’s a clever guy.
Dallas dallas
Plenty of good tims in EK too, and some of their parents came from Bridgeton;)
lilys
Good lead article.
First time I’ve ever been in total agreement with Paul’s musings.
The rest of the club was in perfect shape for modern football .
The coaching change will be the last piece of the jigsaw.
I’m really looking forward to this season.
parkheadcumsalford
Surely as this is, as you say, a Celtic site, surely fellow Tims are allowed to express opinions without being referred to as ‘so called supporters’.
Cheap and low shot.
Lily’s, there are a lot of tims here thankfully. I’m sorry for the generalisation that all Bridgeton people are stickies but to state the obvious, its a place notorious for hunnery of the worst kind.
KevJ, doing my Wenger bit here but I never saw Neil last night . Neil does deserves more praise that criticism from us after everything he and his family have had to deal with because he is a succesful Celtic man.
Charlie Nick has become a parody.
Delaney’s you were a brave man to do that outside the Legned owned Rosevale.
Felix McGowan, who might have been in your year, was in the Rosevale when one of the regulars shouted his name. He dropped his drink and scarpered pronto
Yesterday in Tesco’s overheard a young Mum saying to her son,”Wish we could afford the kind eggs, the free range ones but we’ll just have to get these”.
This morning on BBC, Carol at Royal Ascot asks “How much is a meal in your top restaurant?”. The reply, “£1200 per head and we’re sold out”
Yogiy
09:04 on
19 June, 2014
Yesterday in Tesco’s overheard a young Mum saying to her son,”Wish we could afford the kind eggs, the free range ones but we’ll just have to get these”.
This morning on BBC, Carol at Royal Ascot asks “How much is a meal in your top restaurant?”. The reply, “£1200 per head and we’re sold out”
disgusting it really is
HH
RWE: was very impressed by John Collin’s interview in French. Very good accent. Delighted that he stated that Champions League was our “niveau”. Yes, I think he is a true Celt.
Goooooooooooooooooooood morning all
Just tidying the wardrobe oooooooot and the thermals for sitting in Paradise on a freezing day are a distant memory:)))))).
————
Yogiy
09:04 on 19 June, 2014
Sometimes its the briefest of comments that have the largest impact on me.
It truly is an unfair world.
Yogiy
09:04 on
19 June, 2014
Yesterday in Tesco’s overheard a young Mum saying to her son,”Wish we could afford the kind eggs, the free range ones but we’ll just have to get these”.
This morning on BBC, Carol at Royal Ascot asks “How much is a meal in your top restaurant?”. The reply, “£1200 per head and we’re sold out”
——————————————
£1200 a head?
Jeez, damn near choked on my caviar toast when i read that
Down with capitalism – up with some other ism that is better
connaire12
09:09 on
19 June, 2014
RWE: was very impressed by John Collin’s interview in French. Very good accent. Delighted that he stated that Champions League was our “niveau”. Yes, I think he is a true Celt.
————-
are champions league (group stages) really our ‘niveau’ at the moment – our group stage performances last season weren’t up to that standard, but in previous years they have been
i think we may have a few years of mixed champions league performances – anything between not getting into the group stages and being close to, if not actually qualifying for the last 16
I think ‘nous aspirons’ that group stages become our ‘niveau’ in such a way that anytime we are on that stage we look comfortable.
I dont think we are there yet – and constant player turnover doesn’t help, though probably unavoidable given our operating conditions
GoogleTranslateCSC
Bonjour mes enfants en Celtique depuis un temps couvert et froid Nordrhein Westfalen. Nous menons un débat sur la crème hydratante ce matin ? ;-)
Niveacsc
Avez nous assignez quelq’un yet?
connaire12
09.09
Morning Celts everywhere.
Is it only me who thinks Ogilvie skulks on one of the highest niveaus of Masonicism in Scotland?
That picture when Wattie met Campbell at the Firhill Youth Cup final with head bowing deference, could have been any cardinal meeting His Holiness.
hoopy-do
09:15 on
19 June, 2014
This morning on BBC, Carol at Royal Ascot asks “How much is a meal in your top restaurant?”. The reply, “£1200 per head and we’re sold out”
Says it all about the BBC! vastly overpaid for what they do
Public funded service
Example = Alan Hansen 40 grand a week, 2 mil a year to tell us all that defence is shocking + how many wealthy fitba people getting an all expenses paid junket in Brazil ?
Creme Hydratante? Sacre bleu! Vous are ‘avin a larf n’est ce pas?
Guyfawkesaforeverhero
Saw that.
Wisnae as good as when Barry met Sally.
lionroars67
09:58 on 19 June, 2014
hoopy-do
09:15 on
19 June, 2014
This morning on BBC, Carol at Royal Ascot asks “How much is a meal in your top restaurant?”. The reply, “£1200 per head and we’re sold out”
Says it all about the BBC! vastly overpaid for what they do’
########
That doesn’t make sense.
The BBC apparently report that a restaurant charges £1200 for a meal, and that is somehow an indictment of the BBC.
The fact is that for all its faults the BBC is the best broadcaster in the world. That it’s publicly funded infuriates the right because it contradicts their central belief that the free market is the only way to deliver quality.
So my big china plate JUST misses out on a coaching role at Celtic.
Leave him available to step up to management level at another Scottish side.
Good luck big yin
Watching Irish Open,Rory was playing the Pro Am with DD yesterday.
Igc-care to expand?
Celtic Football Club@celticfc · 14m
We’re here at Lennoxtown where John Collins is set to speak at his first press conference as Celtic’s new assistant manager. (MD)
—–
JC: Celtic are a massive club. I hope to bring my knowledge and help the players continue to do well
—
JC: I’m here to support the manager but the big decisions will be made by him. He will pick the team.
—
JC: Ronny Deila has a very similar philosophy to me and I will give it my all here
-JC: I like to work hard, win and be successful. That’s John Collins and that’s never going to change
—
JC: I like teams that dominate the ball and control games and that’s what the manager wants as we’ll.
Ernie I cant believe your endorsment of the Beeb.
Its pure propaganda. The news is only what the government wants you to know.
Its now worse than its ever been. All the other UK msm is the same .
Its Orwellian brainwashing for the masses.
If you want to get balance and something opproaching the truth it is out there but you have to research the issues on-line.
The media in the west has never been as bad as it is now. Hardly any dissenting voices are given airtime. If you believe in the BBC and the msm you will be brainwashed.
Merde alors pas de débat sur la crème hydratante et aucune nouvelles signatures à l’heure actuelle?
Qu’est-il arrivé à l’argent de Glasgow Cup?
bamboo
10:31 on 19 June, 2014
Is this the kind of thing you mean?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27883685
Et pourquois ne usez pas John Collins “mois” en place du “John Collins” ??
Morning Timland from a warm hun free mountain valley.
No bad this WC, only seen one game so far that was pure mince,
I think england will win tonight, I also think Japan and Colombia will win, that’s my Bet for the day.
Spanish neighbour has taught me a few new swearie phrases this morning >}
HH
Je suis aff oot. Jusqu’à ce que plus tard mes amis.
A biento
Sounds like the ole CQN Cliquo and Patapoof…..
#schooldays
ERNIE LYNCH
While I appreciate the BBC,and think it is much better than most of the alternatives,I couldn’t help thinking of a certain NOT THE NINE O’CLOCK NEWS sketch when I read your post!