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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PHILBHOY on 2ND APRIL 2021 10:02 AM
LIONROARS67
Once again you attack a post of mine without reason,
It was the opinion expressed that was the reason
My disagreement was without pejorative personal insult
I disagree with your opinion philboy, an opinion expressed by many as i eluded to
If Kennedy who has a sterling reputation within the playing staff, and has had a major input into coaching I and development during our recent success in the 9IAR indeed I seen young Welsh pay tribute to Kennedy for his development, i fully expect Howe to assess ALL staff in the football dept, his judgement will be the one that matters and if Eddie Howe keeps Kennedy and Strachan i will be happy with that, many like you will be unhappy
Have a great weekend I’m sure you will be golfing
LIONROARS67
No problem mate!
It’s been a while since I golfed and will be a while before I even think about it!
Have a good weekend!
PHILBHOY ! Agreed both have to go , if EH or anyone keeps them showing weakness already!
What’s with the happy easter stuff this morning? Give us a chance to crucify the poor guy first, please.
Bank holidays are great fun, to be sure.
WISHAW TIM
Agree!
Time for change!
No time for half measures!
LENNYBHOY on 2ND APRIL 2021 10:15 AM
LIONROARS67 on 2ND APRIL 2021 9:53 AM
Good to see you posting B, hope you and HT enjoying your walking.
Hello D thank you pal, hope all is well with you
I have heard little recently in connection with a DOF and Technical director, when Celtic FC are asked regarding progress in the football dept, not even to just outline what the new structure of the football dept will be, the reply is nothing Zada zilch, your sources are far better than mine, not only your sources are aware of new positions they have knowledge of individuals, no surprise as this very blog is proof positive of the modus operandi of our PLC, its who you know, treat the fanbase and the organisations which represent them like mushrooms
Take care D enjoy the Guinness this Easter weekend
Morning all
Was feeling quite up yesterday about the prospect of Eddie Howe..but,not so much Burchill,Peter Grants name mentioned gives me that sinking feeling.great Celtic man but a waffler.talks the talk but disnae walk the walk
Good morning campers.
Celtic News Now running story from ‘Glasgow Live (AKA Daily R – – – – r) who have a story claiming Howe is using Celtic as a stepping stone to returning to the Greatestleagueintheworld.
He’s no even here yet and they’re chasing him oot the door.
He’s no even here yet and they’re chasing him oot the door.
There telling him who to throw oot the door the noo, no surprise it will be Eddie next
My friends in Celtic,
We invite speculation by our protracted negotiations and silence from the club.
We have a news thirsty support and the media are feeding that.
Now where did I put that premier log in I obtained ?
HH.
No matter which of the top names for the job,that were mentioned,there is a gamble.Eddie Howe,was always one of my favorite managers,because of his style of play with Bournemouth,and interview manner.Always thought he looked as young as his players.Will he be a success if he joins us,who knows,as I said,no matter who,its in the lap of the Gods.
Media coming out with all sorts of garbage,that,as usual,they have no clue about.Just ignore them.If Howe wants the job,I would think the delay will be in him getting his backroom staff sorted.He will know who he wants.A lot to be discussed.
On the subject of the nicknames for Wee Nicola,what surprises me most,is that the odious creep,leading the Scottish Tories,a cariacature of the quintessential “Tory Boy”has escaped all mention.Maybe the Unionists on here dont like to draw attention to their small “White hope”,or maybe they actually do admire him.One was on the other day,espousing the great merits of Boris,so who knows.
Bring on the Falkirk.
I’d be delighted with Eddie Howe. There’ll be speculation about the backroom staff but we knew long ago he fell out with his own staff at Bournemouth so he might want one of Kennedy and Strachan for continuity.
Howe won’t be short of offers, won’t be as “grateful” shall we say, as Lennon and I don’t believe he’d start the job with unwanted coaches enforced upon him.
If he’s happy with his coaches then we need to back his judgment.
SQUIRE DANAHER on 2ND APRIL 2021 10:49 AM
Good morning campers.
Celtic News Now running story from ‘Glasgow Live (AKA Daily R – – – – r) who have a story claiming Howe is using Celtic as a stepping stone to returning to the Greatestleagueintheworld.
He’s no even here yet and they’re chasing him oot the door.
###
He’ll be hoping to follow the same path as Rodgers, which is fair enough.
ERNIE LYNCH on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:21 AM
Exactly. If Howe’s next job is in the EPL, it’d suggest we’ve been successful.
If his next job is as a pundit or lower reaches of the Championship, then we’d need to worry.
I don’t mind if Howe keeps JK and GS on – largely because it’ll either be as well as Howe’s own team or because Howe’s team are still at Bournemouth and don’t want to come. Also, Howe does much of his own coaching and if Hughes comes aboard as “Technical Director” (probably as well as Harkin as DoF potentially) he has his sounding board a guy who will speak to him honestly and bluntly.
GEEBEE1978 on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:18 AM
Agreed
I do believe though that the influence at the club who would most likely have attempted to tell the guy who he can and can’t have as his assistants is now out of the equation.
Basically Howe holds the whip hand here.
He will have his pick of Greatestleagueintheworld jobs in the summer. The Absentee Landlord needs someone of his standing more than he needs us. If we start pissing him about he will tell us to ram it.
GEEBEE1978 on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:22 AM
ERNIE LYNCH on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:21 AM
Exactly. If Howe’s next job is in the EPL, it’d suggest we’ve been successful.
####
And it could become a rinse and repeat exercise.
Gone are the days when we could say there had been more Popes than Celtic managers since 1888.
SQUIRE DANAHER on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:25 AM
The big difference now is that Peter Lawwell will be out of the picture.
I hope the new CEO has a much lower profile.
All this talk of Howe is fair enough and good as far as it goes.
We’re all assuming though that DD is gonny be happy to have the club run by the DoF and Howe.
If the DoF/new CEO have to adhere to the same KPI as the outgoing CEO, nothing changes.
Ernie
Our posts crossed.
It will be a brilliant coup if we get Don Howe in as manager.
Legend
HH
Phil.
ERNIE LYNCH on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:25 AM
True but then I guess that’s the way it will have to be. If Slippy has another successful season next season, I’m pretty sure he’ll be off.
We need to be shrewd with our player and coach recruitment which I’m hoping the DoF will take care of.
Turkeybhoy
In complete agreement with the first sentiment above.
I did not expect Eddie Howe to come here if he had genuine offers from Newcastle or Palace. It now looks likely that he will consider it. I hope this is, as he says, because the project excites him, rather than DD acting as Sugar Daddy to pay him more than the EPL would. His style at Bournemouth was attack minded, so much so, that he tolerated a sieve like defence for so long that his best bets for victory were the 5:4 results. Towaards the end of his time, I noted that Bournemouth actually developed a better defence and the balance between attack and defence was a more mature one. He may be coming to Celtic at a time when he is amore mature and considered coach.
There is little doubt that he is ambitious and that Celtic may be just a stepping stone but I’ll take that if he can make us more direct in our attacking.
As for your second point, it is no more incumbent upon Labour Supporters here to attack Douglas Ross than it is for Nicola’s fans to attack Alex Salmond or vice versa. There is no more compulsion for us to attack Willie Rennie than Douglas Ross. Neither requires much attacking because there is nobody promoting theur views on here. It is one of the fairly juvenile arguments of the Nats on here to say “you are all on the same side because you are all not Nats.”
Well we now have Alex Salmond’s Nats calling out Nicola’s Nats as a right wing party, so the socialist progressives in the Independence movement have a dilemma- do you choose the left wing sex pest party of Salmond & Sheridan or the “we would be progressive but England won’t give us the money” party of Nicola Sturgeon.
My view is that I don’t want my fellow Scots to land the third leg of the Impoverishment Trifecta. I don’t want us to follow up a Banking recession with a Brexit rececession and then land the third leg of trying to sail a small nation into the shark infested waters where the only economic response available will be to become a race to the bottom, exploited by Amazon, economy to fit the criteria for re-entry to the European Union.
Aye, and Douglas Ross is already a fud. What more can we add?
It would really piss Sydney Tim off if Howe keeps John Kennedy on as a coach, makes James Forrest captain and re-signs Teemu Pukki.😀
GEEBEE1978 on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:33 AM
We need to be shrewd with our player and coach recruitment which I’m hoping the DoF will take care of.
Agreed with a structure that has CEO, DOF, and technical director who maintains a large database of talent on and off the pitch, necessary appointments required on/off the pitch are made with excellent background information also more to the point quicker
Being an Uber Celtic fan on CQN now merely requires a Premier sports log in, how standards have dropped
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:40 AM
It’d be great to see :)
I think there’ll be a lot of confusion on here if Howe chooses to keep Kennedy on.
Turkeybhoy
I should have added a 4th losing bet of post-Covid economies but I did not know the name of a 4 way bet.
I now know it is a quadfecta we face.
Didn’t realise the game was on premier. Gives me a chance to try the new laptop with s mode/edge/chromecast/hesgoal (hopefully)😎
My view is that I don’t want my fellow Scots to land the third leg of the Impoverishment Trifecta. I don’t want us to follow up a Banking recession with a Brexit rececession and then land the third leg of trying to sail a small nation into the shark infested waters where the only economic response available will be to become a race to the bottom, exploited by Amazon, economy to fit the criteria for re-entry to the European Union.
Look around you that reality is here! Amazon is exploiting workers literally to death now, Liz Truss may not be wanting to rejoin the EU, but any other country or countries be they banana republic, human rights abuser’s, WTO zero tariffs, race to the bottom wage payers she is happy to join up with, a loathed regime laughed at around the world on its levels of incompetence and stupidity, left with promoting flagshagging as its main domestic policy, not for me thanks
SFTB
Does a trifecta mean you are fecked three times and a quadrifecta means you are fecked four times? :)
LIONROARS67 on 2ND APRIL 2021 10:35 AM
All good here my friend and yes I’ll have a couple of Guinness (unfortunately from a can).
Stay safe and take care.
Until we meet again…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
If Eddie Howe is the next Head Coach then he will need John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan, for the 1st year at least. Doesn’t know enough of Scottish football to go it alone without their input, not only on opposition players but teams that we will meet in the cups. No Scott Brown either. So the reasons for keeping them are obvious, por cierto.
Lionroars
No disagreement with you on attacking the Tory policies including “flagshagging”.
But have you seen an independence rally?
You get the flags and the faux-Jacobite fancy dress to add to the “retreat into the past” Nostalgia.
When the Tories add Morris Dancing to their mix, you will have the equivalence
POR CIERTO on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:55 AM
Scott Brown said he left due to the uncertainty regarding the new manager. If only he’d waited a couple of weeks before making his decision.
SFTB,
You constantly denigrate our status as a club and our appeal by calling it realism.
It is not realism, it is acceptance that we are back of the bus. Negativity in extreme and lacking ambition.
Why for example would Eddie Howe choose Newcastle over us ?
Steve Bruce is well documented as the lowest paid manager in the EPL. His sucessor could not expect much more.
Newcastle are continually up for sale with constant speculation about take over deals.
Ashley is still there.
Newcastle may get relegated again and sell sell sell. No immediate prospect of promotion.
Newcastle will never see European football.
We can match the salary on offer, have better infrastructure, have bigger crowds, bigger reputation, bigger brand, larger fan base, better transportation links and can offer legendary status.
HH.
SQUIRE DANAHER on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:30 AM
‘If the DoF/new CEO have to adhere to the same KPI as the outgoing CEO, nothing changes.’
###
Maybe, just maybe, having helped reinstate the huns as a major force in Scottish football TGD’s game plan of moving to the EPL (by necessity as part of a revitalised and vibrant Old Firm) is now back on track, which might mean that the KPIs have shifted from treading water to kicking on towards that objective. Having Slippy managing the huns with Howe at Celtic and Rodgers flying high in England all helps make the proposition more interesting and attractive to the people that matter, the broadcasters.
And, without dragging politics into it, you can see how such a move might become attractive to a number of interests which might otherwise be ambivalent or disinterested.
GREENPINATA on 2ND APRIL 2021 11:59 AM
I’ve spent a lot of recent years abroad and you’ll be surprised how little the SPFL is regarded. We know Celtic are a huge club but it counts for little when we’re in such a small pond.
Why did Wanyama and Forster leave us for Southampton? Rodgers for Leicester?
If Newcastle got their ownership issues sorted and Howe does well, don’t be shocked if Howe did leave us for a club like Newcastle.
Greenpinata
“You constantly denigrate our status as a club and our appeal by calling it realism.
It is not realism, it is acceptance that we are back of the bus. Negativity in extreme and lacking ambition.
Why for example would Eddie Howe choose Newcastle over us ?
————————————-
I don’t denigrate our status as a club. I do have a realistic appreciation of its standing in the world of football.
The answer to your final question is
Armstrong, Forster and Van Dijk went to Southampton
Ki went ot Swansea
Hooper went to Norwich
Petrov went to Villa
Viduka went to Leeds
& add McClair, Dalglish, Macari and Hay to the mix to get your answer.