Harald Brattbakk believes countryman Kjetil Knutsen would be an ideal fit for the Celtic manager’s job.
The Bodo/Glimt head coach has been linked with the role vacated by Ange Postecoglou at the end of the season, albeit it appears both Brendan Rodgers and Enzo Maresca have emerged as frontrunners. Rodgers reportedly held face-to-face talks with club officials in Mallorca last week as he weights up a potential Parkhead return after leaving abruptly in February 2019.
Knutsen, meanwhile, was a target for Ajax but they have now moved on after discussions with the 54-year-old broke down. His candidacy has gained backing with the Celtic support, who witnessed his Bodo/Glimt side’s quality first hand in the Europa Conference League the season before last.
Knutsen has demonstrated an ability to get teams punching above their weight on the continent, masterminding a famous 6-1 win over Jose Mourinho’s Roma in the same campaign in which they later motored past Celtic. Ex-Celtic striker Brattbakk, who also played with Bodo, is confident the Parkhead board would be making a shrewd call if they anointed Knutsen as Postecoglou’s successor in the dugout.
“I think he would be good because the players he can get now is within a certain budget," said Brattbakk. "If he gets here, he can maybe get some players that are higher than the ones he can choose from now in Norway. So that would be good.
READ MORE: Reo Hatate drops major hint on Celtic future after Postecoglou exit
“In terms of the style he plays, the Scottish game has always been physical and that will maybe be his challenge because he doesn’t meet too many physical teams now.
“But he has proven in Europe he can play against the best ones. The best examples are Roma and Celtic a couple of years. Bodo/Glimt outplayed both.
“The consistency he has proved also tells me he would be a good fit here, but you never know.”
Harald Brattbakk was promoting Viaplay’s live and exclusive coverage of Norway v Scotland and Scotland v Georgia. Viaplay is offering a special limited-time offer for Scottish football fans available until June 20th only. Visit viaplay.com for more information.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here