Have Celtic board’s plans for next manager fallen apart due to poor start?

Is it possible that the Celtic board already had their next manager picked out and those plans have fallen apart due to the poor start to the season?

It’s obvious that there are issues at Celtic with the manager and his coaching team under huge pressure. It looks as though the board have no plan nor alternative strategy, but is that really the case?

Way back when Brendan Rodgers decided to leave Celtic out to hang in the dry, there were lots of comments about John Kennedy refusing to go with him to Leicester City and deciding he was staying at Parkhead. Neil Lennon came in as a safe, experienced pair of hands to steady the ship and see the club through to successfully complete that season and the treble that went with it.

There have been stories around in the media though that Kennedy wants the Celtic manager role. He is well respected at the club but it’s too early in his managerial career to give him such a big role.

Kennedy was also considered and approached for the Hibernian manager role before Jack Ross was ultimately appointed. But in the end he decided to stay with the Hoops once again. As a result, you’d have to wonder what promises were made regarding his future.

Lennon was one of those persuading him to remain. The Sunday Post quoted the manager at the time on what he said to Kennedy:

"“John came to see me about it, and I gave him short shrift!“I told him: ‘Look, I am not surprised by this, but you are just too important to what we are doing here. You know your time will come’. John is ambitious, he has his own ambitions, but Celtic means a lot to him.”"

Since then it’s been made clear many times that Kennedy is here not as defensive coach but as the assistant manager to Lennon. That’s important in building his status and importance.

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What if the board were planning to deliver Kennedy as manager, but it started to fall apart this season with the awful results? Can you imagine a scenario where the board come up with a plan to deliver a Celtic through and through man, with several years of coaching experience, who knows the club well… and is someone who is willing to work with the board. It’s not unlikely, is it?

Keep thinking of a scenario where the board are perhaps complacently comfortable to let Lennon steer Celtic to 10IAR and back him with some signings and spending over the summer. A scenario where at the end of the season with the historical title secured, Lennon decides or has already agreed to step down having achieved plenty with the club through the course of his career.

And in that scenario, the board bring Kennedy forward to finally take over as manager. Too big a risk to do it sooner. With 10IAR in the bag though, it’d be a calculated risk they would maybe take at that time, probably thinking the Rangers would have imploded one way or another along the way.

But nobody expected what has happened this season. Kennedy’s name is being tarnished by recent events, performances and poor results. Any plan to put him into the hot seat at the end of the season has fallen apart and only works if the 10IAR is secured.

And for that to happen it’s likely to need another manager in soon, which could leave Kennedy out in the cold as far as the manager’s position is concerned. It would be highly unlikely they’d replace Lennon with Kennedy at this critical time. Neither would such a move pacify fans.

Some people would badge this as ‘in the know’, ‘unnamed sources say’ or ‘we’ve heard or been told’. Let’s be clear that there is no such claim attached to this article. This is just a theory. But that doesn’t mean that this is any less likely than anything else out there right now.

It is mere speculation, but some of the described possible thinking by the board is by no means far-fetched. It could mean there was a plan, but it’s way off track and unlikely now. Which may be why the board are taking so long to take a decision on Lennon’s future.