Fair play to Newco. Chief exec Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell put themselves through a humiliating two weeks before securing a manager who fits their profile. The club did not publish the report they commissioned into the structure it should take last term, but it is clear it outlined a head coach operating under a director of football model.
This system is more common in Germany than the UK and it is likely that both Steven Gerrard and Kevin Muscat found it unpalatable. The alternative, where a manager is responsible for all aspects of the football side of the club, including the crucial aspect of recruitment, is where most of UK football has been for sixty years or so.
The objections to the head couch/director of football route, is that the coach always has an opt-out. “I didn’t sign any of these players, what do you expect?” Advocates of the historic UK model suggest it is better to appoint a good manager, who works within clearly established lines, and for him to be responsible for success or failure.
The problem with this model is that this concentration of power creates a greater risk. Recruitment is a department with scouts, data analytics staff and finance acumen. If their strategy gets out of alignment with the manager’s, you end up with a mess. Management is not a one trick job either. Is the best coach even adequate at spotting a player? That’s a hard ‘No’.
Glasgow requires other considerations. There is a belief here that you need to be a bit of a hardman to manage one of the big clubs. Could Russell Martin take a team to Celtic Park and make sure they were up for the task? We’ll never know, but he was low on hardman vibes.
Celtic have a theme of trying to compensate for the shortcomings of the previous manager when making the next appointment. When Steven Gerrard looked to be getting the Newco job, this is what I thought they had settled on. Bring in a guy who will bang his first on the table and shout a bit, that’ll sort what Russell Martin did not have.
Gerrard was told he can shout all he likes, but the job on offer was head couch. They have instead appointed Danny Rohl, a technocrat who Martin looks like he could hold his own with.
There is not only one good way to run a football club and even the best plans can be poorly executed. However, in the years to come, Scottish football clubs will start to analyse problems with the question, “What would Tony Bloom do?” Get the analysis right, employ recruitment staff who will work to plan, and appoint a head coach who is worthy of all this investment.
Bloom makes mistakes, but a Gerrad or Muscat would not even get an interview at Hearts. He wants his coaches to coach and stick to plan. The ‘head coach model’ has parked tanks on Kerrydale St. Not sure the biggest risk comes from Patrick, Kevin and Danny at Ibrox, though.
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Afternoon all
No matter the model, manager or head coach – the structure has to be cohesive and focussed on the agreed outcomes, each cog melding to smooth the progress of the whole machine. We don’t have that coherence at present, simply changing the structure would help without a culture shift.
Wouldn’t help
How would Hearts’ recruitment have gone if they had bid half the value for their targets?
Or if they had been scared to go for players who would take them too far in front of Hibs……
Very interesting read, Paul67. We seem to be well away from that sort of set-up. On the face of it, it seems to me the way to go in the future.
PLC, Manager, Players, nobody at our club is reading from the same script. Discipline in every aspect is all over the place. “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians” por cierto
Excellent stuff, analysis you won’t see anywhere else, unfortunately.
We’re hearing a lot at the moment about the pressure of managing the two big Glasgow clubs. It’s almost like people have a vested interest in pushing the suggestion that only big personalities succeed in Scotland. It’s definitely a challenge, we have a media that relies on the drama surrounding us and them for its existence and the focus on “communications” whatever that really means, means all fans place a premium on public statements and public perception sometimes at the expense of proper analysis. But it’s a challenge that clubs like Sevco and us have to get a grips with or Scottish football will forever be a soap opera with football success secondary.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Huns cope with it. We should watch and learn from what works and doesnt.
Theres a Si Ferry interview online with Derrick McInnes, he talks about Tony Bloom’s data analytics and how good it’s been. He doesn’t seem to understand it, which he doesn’t need to, but it’s obviously working for him which is always how to get anyone onside with new ideas. Players turn up from all over the place, look good enough but then over time, he says, he realizes how good they are.
I agree with a lot of that article today. However sadly P67 seems to think the structural problems at Celtic are due to the manager and not the board. How on earth does that make sense?
Although the Tony Bloom wankathon is odd and even further points to weaknesses at the board level. It’s all very confusing.
any quick news regarding celtic ?
GLASSTWOTHIRDSFULL on 21ST OCTOBER 2025 12:10 PM
How would Hearts’ recruitment have gone if they had bid half the value for their targets?
Their analytics, like ours, helps to come up with a valuation for the player that they won’t go over.
It’s a sensible strategy instead of paying over thr odds because the manager wants them
What if the manager doesn’t want them?
Paul67
Sure there is merit in your model but itwould never work for us . Genius though he may be in his own world of business, Dermot Desmond is no Tony Bloom.
TIMMY7_NOTED on 21ST OCTOBER 2025 12:21 PM
I agree with a lot of that article today. However sadly P67 seems to think the structural problems at Celtic are due to the manager and not the board. How on earth does that make sense?
It makes sense If the manager is responsible for changing the structure to a less efficient one
Such an honest and dishonest article at the same time.
This is exactly the system the board tried to force on Rodgers two summers out of three.
This is exactly what they want to do next season. And those who have criticised myself and others for warning explicitly about it are in for the shock of their lives; it is exactly what this board intends to do and on the current trajectory will do. We’ll never appoint a manager again under these guys.
So if you thought this summer was underwhelming, wait until we have a coach who DOES have to make do with the scraps thrown to him by the non-football people inside this club who think they are geniuses.
As if the fetishisation of them wasn’t enough, the Tony Bloom love-in on here has been an embarrassment for many, many months. And it will clearly continue to be.
We’re now judging ourselves against Hearts. What a fall this is.
This time next year, we’ll look back on these are the Happy Times.
What if BR becomes DoF though? por cierto
Oh yeah and in case it’s not clear – and he makes it clear in the piece – you are telling three quarters of the good coaches out there that Celtic isn’t a club that will even give you an interview.
Suicide by degress this stuff. As if selling Scotland and a club where directors brief against the manager in the media and get away with it wasn’t a hard enough sell.
Two weeks of embarassment and dithering, throw in a bit of nepotistic recruitment in the “head coach model”, publicly pursue two unsuccessful candidates and land on your third choice who, in case you missed it, also previously turned you down. Somehow this is all written up as a positive.
There’s no way Gerrard and Muscat turned down the role due to the head coach model, the red lines would have been laid down on initial contact, far more likely both failures were due to compensation issues.
It sometimes feels the second Brendan reign has been one long moist mattress for some.
Would suggest big Ange fell into that bracket, outwith his own (patchy) Far East recruitment,
Id imagine Ange first met Giakoumakis,Starfelt ,Johnston,Juranovic,,Abada,Jot and CCV when they walked through the door
SonsOfErin on 21st October 2025 12:33 pm
You’re spot on. The remit to those interested as applying, would have quite clearly stated, for the Head Coach position, por cierto.
Most of the EPL teams use the director football / coach, they moved away from old school UK approach years ago.
Even Pep and Klop work under a director of football.
Supposedly Bloom was not involved in appointing McInnes and Hertz are doing well in spite of him.
CQN comments on something the sevco CEO has done.
Perhaps, if the chinless wonder actually does anything of note, we may see a comment on an action of the Celtic CEO.
Possibly next season, when all our problems are solved with Brendan leaving then the padded seats can really flex their muscles and get more involved in the football side.
That nasty bully, Brendan, simply not allowing it this season. The brute that he is
I’m a wee bit concerned about the upcoming semi-final against the huns. Rohl apparently likes to press teams aggressively and can adapt his tactics to suit the opponent. We, on the other hand, are not terribly comfortable when being pressed and have recently shown a lethargy in our play. Brendan I’m sure will be aware of this but being aware and being able to do something about it can be two very different issues. Rohl seems to be well liked by his players and he does have experience working with some exceptional ones. I expect to see an improvement in their play, they will probably get that well known ‘new manager bounce’, I just hope it stalls at Hampden and that Brendan somehow gets a needed response from our boys before we face them, perhaps starting this week.
any quick news regarding celtic
—
yes,
if you are planning on going to the stadium or club shop today, then you wont get your car parked anywhere near it.
apparantly there are a load of tanks parked on kerrydale street.🙄
Glenowen
Brendan doing a horrible job, no matter what side of the debate you are on.
he has failed in every big game in this calendar year home and abroad,
NED’s can fall out too, we live in hope.
Imagine you bought something in 1994 then bought more of it in 1999 and didn’t spend a lean penny on it, during its lifetime? Capitalism is stifling Celtic football supporters dreams whilst filling up, the nepotistic nouveau rich. A quick look at the Celtic playing squad and results, you can see a divide now on and off the park, as predicted last August, when a mobile phone number, replaced any Celtic No 9.
We cover this divide on this ‘ unique channel ’ with “many Celtic coaches are appointed to sign players” Brendan Rodgers might ‘nod them’ all through in the beginning, but allegedly might have first met Inamura and Yamada in the canteen at Lennoxtown. Simpson-Pusey, Osmand add to four nowhere near Dundee.
Hearing Brendan Rodgers in public, our only public voice has been painful at times, since the NED’s decided despite his overall success, he wasn’t getting near year four. He of ‘face tripping him‘ put that one to bed earlier in summer, and then ‘Great Guy’ poo pooed tabloid speculation, as a mere matter closed.
Not all heroes wear Hoops?, DD can’t save his Irish compatriot, not now highly unlikely, that Victim Rodgers ‘not here for five in a row’ was already in summer marching with O’Neill and Lennon. Winning two doubles or 13 from 16 trophies was never going to be enough for any ambitious Celtic manager whatever his name happens to be, just any guy who thinks beyond a Jet wash and stadium
spring clean. How dare you recommend Pricey Engels we’ll see you with Punt Nygren, – we got £18M for Nicolas you know.
The first league loss in Dundee and they’re circling for the kill, deflecting to Sturm Graz, all Green Huns of the Celtic Collective Sneering Group. Have they even thought about who the next Brendan Rodgers will be? they’ll wait till deadline day and pick another ‘great guy’, unless NED 1 jumps in at the last minute, safely home from the Gowf.
We deserve butter CSC👍
NOTTHEBUS
I suspect that if you replace ‘Ange’ with ‘Brendan in that last paragraph you would have a much happier manager with the quality of the ‘surprise’.
Very interesting and moderately persuasive piece Paul.
I’m probably one of the old fashioned (rather than old) types who has a slight resistance to this model.
Driven in part by my own unshakable belief in two things mostly
1. The “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” adage
2. Informed heavily by #1, … that team based athletic contests ..
… where teams are well balanced and margins tight
… can be won by one or, preferably more, athletes on the field making a conscious decision to go beyond their physical, emotional and psychological limits to prevail.
In the modern sporting world the above frankly forces an athlete to make a contract with themselves which risks future health in older age for JUST A SHOT at glory today.
It requires a phenomenonal commitment, the like of which I am incapable of.
What’s all this dross got to do with your article?
Simple.
An athlete will run through a brick wall for a manager who the player believes sees him as one of HIS guys ….
Far more readily than he will
For a head coach who the player believes sees him as one of a number of tools handed over to the coach to perform his duties.
Notthebus
I don’t disagree. Team selection, tactics and my perception of motivation are all sub par
I suspect there are 2 or 3 reasons we are where we are.
CQN seems to focus on one and flog that one to death.
A more neutral, lateral view of things would see this site debate a range of approaches.
However, it appears that replacing the manager shall cure all ills. Hhmmmm
Head Couch?
Sofa so good for Hearts and Tony Bloom…
glendalystonsils
it begs the question,,,who got it so right back then? and who is currently getting it so wrong?
NOTTHEBUS
Unfortunately we can only guess at that . There are a few candidates and I suspect the first to depart might well be your man .
GLENOWEN
Replace the manager the minute he’s not winning and use Sevco as an example .
Old Firm CSC
Aff oot CSC
Hampden?
If the next 2 games and subsequent post match interviews go as I (regrettably) expect he should be long gone by Hampden.
Whether by luck or design the Huns have appointed a very good manager. I wish we had him.
GLENOWEN on 21ST OCTOBER 2025 12:55 PM
“However, it appears that replacing the manager shall cure all ills. Hhmmmm”
Thats pretty much the opposite of what’s being suggested. The manager as figurehead, is the problem.
Brendan as head coach wouldnt be a problem, but a Brendan who insists on an outdated structure is
Glass 2/3 full
It would fail probably but not definitely.
Why do you ask ? Do you actually have any clue what anyone big other than what those who have no interest in Celtic’s success tell you ?