JOHAN Mjallby believes his old club Celtic remain a big enough name to attract some of European football’s most high-profile coaches if Neil Lennon is not given the manager’s job.

The Swede, Lennon’s assistant at Parkhead for three years, believes his former team-mate likely has to win the Scottish Cup if he is to be asked to stay on for next season.

But if the board decide on a fresh start for next season, Mjallby sees no reason why the likes of Roberto Martinez, Andres Villa-Boas or even Rafa Benitez, all linked with the job this week, would not be interested in taking on the job.

Asked if Celtic realistically would have a chance of appointing Belgium head coach Martinez, Mjallby said: “Why not? You can’t talk Celtic down."

Mjallby has also tipped Kristoffer Ajer to reach the very top of football - just like Virgil Van Dijk. 

Former Celt Mjallby, who like fellow Scandinavian Ajer was converted from a midfielder to a defender, has seen the Norwegian flourish at Parkhead this season. 

And the Swede has drawn comparisons with Celtic's former Dutch master Van Dijk, now starring at Liverpool, when it comes to how far Ajer can go in the game. 

Mjallby said: "Ajer is still very young, he is 20, but he’s got all the attributes to become very good." He added: "He could definitely follow the same path as van Dijk if he stays. He’s got every chance of becoming a very good defender."

Another former Celtic hero, however, Stiliyan Petrov, the former Bulgaria captain, believes that Kieran Tierney’s exit from Parkhead is an inevitability given the full-back’s consistency.

Petrov said: "I don’t know if it will be this summer or next but I do think that at some point Celtic’s resolve will be tested."

Before that, Celtic's opponents in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday are Aberdeen, and the Dons manager Derek McInnes has praised the impact of young midfielder Lewis Ferguson at Pittodrie. 

Amusingly though, McInnes admitted that when he first watched Ferguson, the son of former Rangers player Derek Ferguson and nephew of Ibrox legend Barry, he couldn't work out whether he was right or left-footed! McInnes said: “I watched him playing for Hamilton’s youth teams against my youth teams at times at times and he always left a wee impression. I actually remember the first time we watched Fergie in a youth game, and this was a couple of years ago, and it took me a while before I worked out whether he was left or right footed."

The other Scottish Cup semi-final sees Hearts play Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday and John Robertson, the legendary Hearts goalscorer, has spoken of the great burden of expectation weighing on Tynecastle manager Craig Levein as he seeks to deliver the first trophy of the Ann Budge era.

Inverness manager Robertson said: "I know how much it would mean to Craig to lead Hearts into a cup final and to win the Cup with Hearts. I have to try and stop him because I want to win it with Inverness. If there is the one thing missing from Craig’s cv, playing football – where he was cruelly robbed by injury – and as manager, it is that lack of a trophy."

Elsewhere, former Rangers striker and manager Ally McCoist has backed Jermain Defoe to fill Alfredo Morelos' boots at Ibrox should the Colombian move on. McCoist, promoting the Coral Scottish Grand National, said: "I don’t think there is any doubt about that. Steven (Gerrard) would still need to strengthen, [but] there is no doubt he could go in and do that because he is a good player."

McCoist has also called for the hooligans dragging Scottish football’s reputation through the mud to be jailed, believing action against individuals will be more effective than measures such as strict liability.

After a spate of unseemly incidents in Scottish football, McCoist said: "Just go an arrest these people. Throw them out and jail them. Ban them for life. We need to be more hands-on and deal with these people." 

And after beating Brazil, Graeme McGarry writes "an overdue apology, and a toast, tae Scotland's lassies. They deserve respect."

In rugby, Scotland centre Matt Scott says concussion problems remain a serious issue in the game. 

The 28-year-old returned to action in March after a five month lay-off caused by a collision that he did not immediately realise had been serious enough to sideline him.

Scott played the remainder of that match in October, before reporting symptoms two days later and received text book treatment at the club he re-joined last summer, but he does not believe those standards are being followed throughout the sport.

Scott said: "I’ve seen it in the professional game. Guys are saying they have a headache but they just don’t tell (the medics). It is easy to say I would never play with a headache, but you’ve got guys who are perhaps coming to the last two or three months of their contracts, they don’t have a club for next year, and they’re thinking, ‘I’ve got a bit of a headache but I’m not going to declare that because I need to play for a club because no one will pick me up if I’ve not played with the concussion.’"

In boxing, Josh Taylor insists he is "90 per cent" confident that Ivan Baranchyk will be his opponent for the World Boxing Super Series semi-final in Glasgow next month.

And in golf, it's green for go as the Masters blooms once more. Golf correspondent Nick Rodger writes: "The Masters has a familiarity that breeds contentment even if all the rapt reverence, dewy-eyed veneration and drooling piety that tumbles forth from all and sundry has ventured far beyond the realms of self-parody."

And elsewhere, the Sun says Hibernian will use sniffer dogs to combat fans bringing flares and drugs to football games.