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Hammond, DoF, Strategy is everything

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

With all senior positions at the club up for grabs at the same time, Nick Hammond, Celtic’s Head of Football Operations, failed to get the Director of Football position, so left the club yesterday.  We are yet to appoint a Director of Football, but with Hammond’s departure, it is likely a candidate has been identified and at least informally confirmed.

The Head of Football Operation’s principle role is to identify signing prospects for the club.  Since Hammond joined in October 2019, Celtic have performed particularly poorly in this respect, as a consequence, his reputation among the support suffered.  Unfairly.

As in any operation, it is easy to scapegoat and easier still to blame the guy who is no longer in the building, but Hammond was only in position four months before travel restrictions stopped him travelling internationally to watch players.  It is not a period many would want to be judged on.

Furthermore, the poster boy signing mistakes of this season were nothing (or practically nothing) to do with Hammond.  He did not suggest Vasilis Barkas as a target or put his name to the goalkeeper.  Similarly, the blame for Shane Duffy cannot be laid at his door.  It is also easy for the guy no longer in the building to blame others.  When Nick sits in his next job interview, he will tell the story of what might have been, had Celtic signed his personal targets.

Given what I know about the merits of Hammond and Lee Congerton, the chief scout who proceeded Hammond at the club and shared most responsibilities, I would take Hammond all summer long.

The revamp of football operations, scouting and player development has been long in the planning, Hammond played his role here well.  Getting the right person as Director of Football is critically important, but I do not subscribe to the guru theory of management.  Getting strategy right is everything, the names on the doors, less so.

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  1. Hot Smoked on

    Despite the posts on here indicating Eddie Howe is becoming more likely, the odds on him with William Hill have lengthened.

     

    I realise, of course, that that could be meaningless but thought it worthy of a mention anyway.

  2. JHB on

    Once again some on here mischief-making with Paul’s piece…not hard to guess why.

     

     

    Of course the strategy is of overall importance. It was strategy that brought such a long period of domestic success(although our main challenger was mostly incapacitated), during which time we had three managers and differing scouting operations.

     

     

    What was the strategy?

     

     

    To have the best squad we could in order to win the title and to give us the best chance of qualifying for the money’spinning CL groups.

     

     

    We’ve had umpteen golden opportunities during the last ten years to qualify for the CL groups – we’ve been in winning positions going into our final qualifying match and players have squandered it. That’s not a failure of strategy, it’s failure ‘on the night’ by players.

     

     

    Of course there have been recent failures in decision-making, e.g. not fully appreciating the momentum of the Ibrox challenge – not seeing them looming larger in our ‘rear view mirror’. However money was spent to add to a title-winning/quadrouple-winning squad which had been kept intact with the express STRATEGY of delivering TEN IN A ROW. Once again when the task got more urgent, the players let us all down. We should be going into the post-split fixtures with something to play for, that we’re not lies squarely in the lap of the football department – management & players.

     

     

    We will not be bringing in a ‘marquee’ manager, unless some think that Roy Keane and/or Eddie Howe fall into that category.

     

     

    Finally, SNP rhetoric and selective application of Covid guidelines did impact our season – the Ibrox club have been treated differently – those are facts, not observations.

  5. David66 on

    Shooooooooooorely we have Eddie Howe signed up if reports are true he is knocking premier league clubs back.

     

     

    We would not be so daft as to not have him signed and risk loosing him, would we???

     

     

    Oh and Happy 55th April….

     

     

    D :)

  7. JHB on

    Johnson’s cabinet?

     

     

    I was a Labour voter, supporter, campaigner & fundraiser for over 35 years until Commie Corbyn took over. I have fought the Tories & SNP all my political life.

     

     

    What has Johnson done since first being appointed PM?

     

     

    £BILLIONS given to the Holyrood administration, almost a million jobs & businesses have been preserved due to the Furlough scheme – that’s millions of households with wages coming in each week/month. Scotland would be ‘scratching its a***’ were it an independent country at this moment.

     

     

    UK leads the world with over 50% of population vaccinated – most other countries are sitting around 15%.

     

     

    UK massively invested in research and development of vaccines – we are streets ahead of other countries.

     

     

    Regarding overall deaths in the pandemic – let’s wait until it is over before we judge – the UK will be far from the worst when ‘the dust settles’

     

     

    I give credit where it is due – there are maybe many issues where I would disagree with Johnson & the Tories , but not for the sake of scoring points. I detest the SNP and what they would do to Scotland – that will never change.

  8. Greenpinata on

    Eddie Howe : Voted Football league manager of the decade.

     

     

    He must have something. Here’s hoping.

     

     

    HH.

  9. ernie lynch on

    Arlene Foster is still available at 500 to 1.

     

     

    Same odds as Gerry Adams.

     

     

    Not sure what to make of that.

  11. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Not bad Pablo.

     

     

    Others here have already commented (IMHO legitimately) on the need for talent and the right culture to supplement the correct strategy.

     

     

    Couple of other things spring to mind

     

     

    “The revamp of football operations, scouting and player development has been long in the planning”

     

     

    But not executed?

     

     

    Tired cliché I know but successful organisations change tyres while the car is still on the road.

     

     

    More pertinently perhaps – 3 tiers of management/leadership being replaced at the same time?

     

     

    Doesn’t leave much time for the three individuals to mesh and find their collective groove.

     

     

    Stabilising for next season needs to happen now.

     

     

    Hail hail

     

     

    Keep The Faith

     

     

    We’re Not Half of Anything

  16. geebee1978 on

    If it is to be Howe, I wonder what the delay was after being told in October that Lennon was staying because there were no suitable alternatives.

     

     

    Also, it’s hard to say who’s better out of Congerton and Hammond if neither of them are calling the shots. Leicester seem to be very happy with Congerton and the work he’s been doing.

  18. lets all do the huddle on

    Arlene Foster is still available at 500 to 1.

     

     

    Same odds as Gerry Adams.

     

     

    Not sure what to make of that.

     

    —

     

     

    or which one celtic fans would be happier with – a split vote i reckon

  20. Tontine Tim on

    As we are a PLC and not some mickey mouse third world club we cannot name our new manager until a statement is made to the stock exchange which since this is Easter weekend is possibly closed until Tuesday.

  21. bournesouprecipe on

    GEEBEE1978

     

     

    Picking players for Leicester is somewhat different to Celtic, or the difficult market we’re restricted to see Bangura Bayo Barkas etc, etc. Congerton was hand picked by BR for Celtic and Leicester.

     

     

    Example BR wanted full Timothy Castagne for Celtic when he eventually got his man it was at Leicester, and he cost £20M.

  22. An Tearmann on

    SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 1ST APRIL 2021 2:53 PM

     

     

    Was thinking T taking on board Ernies suggestion and make Arlene & Gerry both the dream team :-)

     

     

    well tis as rational as anythin else eh 🤣🤣

     

     

    hope the retirement is going well

     

     

    HH

  24. Son of Gabriel on

    GO TELL THE SPARTIM

     

     

    As good a reason as any! First time in a long time I’ve been more optimistic about the Jets than I am about Celtic, no matter how tentatively

  25. PeterLatchfordsBelly on

    So Hammond is just another victim of the OF-loving, giant ego’s control freakery?

     

     

    Good riddance ya bean counting muppet. It seems that your going is the game changer for Howe. Who knew?

  27. Turkeybhoy on

    Amusing to read the abuse whoever signed Duffy is getting.Most on here rolling out the Red Carpet for him at the time.

  29. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    Lawwell over-riding sensible suggestions to stump up what is serious cash for Shane Duffy??? That doesn’t sound in character at all to me.

     

     

    HH

     

    BGFC

  30. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    TURKEYBHOY on 1ST APRIL 2021 3:39 PM

     

    Amusing to read the abuse whoever signed Duffy is getting.Most on here rolling out the Red Carpet for him at the time.

     

    ———————-

     

     

    That is also true.

     

     

    Although, you’d think our Celtic professional management would have thought more deeply about it than some of us clearly did at the time :-))

     

     

    HH

     

    BGFC

  32. geebee1978 on

    BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 1ST APRIL 2021 3:19 PM

     

     

    That’s very true but he’s still operating on a budget smaller than the clubs looking up to Leicester in the table so he’s obviously doing something right. It’s true that Castagne cost £20m but he would’ve cost nowhere near that at the time, although as Turkeybhoy pointed out, he may not have wanted to come to Scotland.

     

     

    My point is, Rodgers wanted him twice and Paul67 has said that we shouldn’t judge Hammond so harshly as some of the signings weren’t his so maybe it’s hard to judge how good or bad Congerton was.

  33. lambert14 on

    It’s been heartening to read this blog over the last few months and see that people who were Lawwellites have at last twigged to the fact that his gross missmanagement of the club has led us to where we curently are, and that no amount of spin he gets Paul Brennan to copy and paste for him will pull the wool over peoples eyes.

  34. geebee1978 on

    TURKEYBHOY on 1ST APRIL 2021 3:39 PM

     

     

    Those rolling out the metaphorical red-carpet for Duffy weren’t paid handsomely to have him watched and scouted extensively and make a decision as to whether he’d fit into our team. They were probably just excited to have a big-earning, experienced EPL defender come – being an Irish international may have been a bonus to some.

     

     

    If they were, they may have seen what Graham Potter and Brighton saw.

  36. Sionnaigh on

    GEEBEE1978 on 1ST APRIL 2021 3:48 PM

     

    …………………………………………………………..

     

    Who knew Duffy’s name til he fecked up at Celtic?

  41. bournesouprecipe on

    Geebee1978

     

     

    Compare the market.com

     

     

    Castagne wasn’t coming because like most pro’s he held out for the big EPL money. We can’t afford these guys, we buy from a different market.

     

     

    That’s why on every single deadline day we get the ones with nowhere else to go but the wee diddy league, where Celtic can ‘only’ pay a mere 15K

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