DERMOT Desmond, the major Celtic shareholder, has warned those vying for the vacant manager’s job they must take the Parkhead club back into the group stages of the Champions League after a three-year absence.
Desmond, speaking yesterday at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at the K Club outside Dublin, admitted Brendan Rodgers, the former Liverpool boss, had been interviewed and expressed hope an announcement would be made in the “next four or five days”.
The Irish financier paid tribute to what Ronny Deila had achieved during his tenure, but stressed that reaching Europe’s elite club competition for the first time since the 2013/14 season was vital for his successor.
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Deila failed to secure a place in the Champions League during his two seasons in charge. Celtic lost to NK Maribor in the play-off last season – after being handed a reprieve by UEFA following their heavy defeat to Legia Warsaw – and were beaten by Malmo at the same stage this season.
Missing out in the lucrative tournament has proved hugely costly to the Glasgow club financially in the continued absence of their city rivals Rangers from the top flight of Scottish football.
Playing alongside the likes of Barcelona, Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City in the Champions League this season would have banked the Scottish champions nearly £22m from prize money, television revenue and ticket sales.
“Ronny won two leagues and added a lot to the club, but he found it difficult in the last year which he admitted himself,” said Desmond. “That era is over now. We thank Ronny for his efforts and now we are looking forward to the next manager building the club up to Champions League contenders.”
Asked if Rodgers, the former Liverpool manager, had been one of those interviewed, Desmond replied: “I can’t tell a lie. He is a great manager. He has proved it at Liverpool and I think that he is a worthy candidate at Celtic as all the other candidates are.
“We have spoken to a lot of managers. We’d like to think that Celtic is a very big club and it needs a great manager to manage such a big club so we are looking for that type of person.
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“All the people that we’ve interviewed – in excess of six – merit the job. We’re excited about the managers we’ve interviewed and we’ve discussed, and hopefully in the next few days we will decide and enter negotiations.”
Paul Lambert, who was tipped to take over after resigning from Blackburn Rovers, believes Rodgers will be able to handle the pressure of managing Celtic if he is appointed having spent three seasons in charge of Liverpool in the Premier League in England.
“It will be totally different from Liverpool if Brendan got it,” he said. “I don’t think, because Liverpool is a massive club, you can’t go to Celtic and think, well it’s an inferior club. It’s not.
“Celtic’s a huge football club. Even in my own time when Martin O’Neill came in, I said we needed a manager like him because of the demands of the club. It needed a strong personality to take the job on and Martin was absolutely fantastic to play under. I think if you asked any of us at that time, it was a fantastic five years under him, but we needed a manager to pull the club up. He handled the whole size of it, handled the fanbase and got really good players in to help.
“Could Brendan go in and do it?
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I think he could, but there will be a lot of hurdles he’ll need to get over to meet the demands of it. He knows the club. I think Celtic is still a massive club to take on.”
Niall Quinn, meanwhile, has predicted that Roy Keane, whom he played alongside with the Republic of Ireland and worked with during his time in charge of Sunderland, will receive more offers this summer.
“There is talk about Celtic for Roy, but I think there could be others,” said Quinn. “After the tournament could be a great time for him to get himself back into the No.1 frame of mind.
“But wherever he goes next, I’d have no hesitation if anyone came to me as his former chairman to recommend him.”
While the speculation and hype continues to grow as to who Deila’s successor will be, his predecessor, Neil Lennon, was spotted arriving in Dublin yesterday – fuelling speculation that he was possibly set for talks about a return to Parkhead in some capacity.
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