“I’m pretty surprised nothing is in place,” Chris Sutton on Celtic’s dithering

Chris Sutton has admitted that his old club need to get a move on with plans for the new season, after a campaign that just ended with 74-year-old Martin O’Neill in the dugout, a makeshift backroom team, and a playing squad that isn’t fit for purpose – if we’re being totally honest about things…

Despite the Double win, the support can be under no illusions as to the depths of change that is needed at the moment, particularly behind the scenes in the operations room.

After moving from one catastrophic decision to the next, it is apparent the machinery that Celtic are working with at present is unfit for the modern game and that the decision-makers that put these structures in place can be considered just as outdated as the methods they employ.

The recruitment has been nothing short of abysmal for some time now – barring the odd few players here and there, signed by Brendan Rodgers funnily enough – and it cannot carry on or we will he in serious trouble down the line. Hearts came within a whisker of dethroning the Bhoys this year and had it not been for a retired Martin O’Neill, we would have lost our crown.

Chris Sutton reckons all the more reason then that we get a move on with this much talked about rebuild of the football department, and actually get a manager in place with a proper structure behind him, so that he can be successful.

Writing in his Daily Record column this past weekend, the Hoops icon said: “Celtic have so much work to do over this summer. Managerial position, potential other key appointments, huge recruitment needs with a mass turnover of players in the offing. So the question for me is: Why on earth are we still waiting? Individuals should already be in place. What’s the plan?

“Modern football moves fast and, let’s be honest, the club has known about the current situation they are facing for months. I’m pretty surprised nothing is in place. Or nothing that we know about. Martin and his coaching staff did a quite remarkable job to win a double in the final part of the campaign, but that was despite the workings of those above,” Sutton bemoaned.

The English pundit and former professional continued: “It was one calamity after another through the last campaign and they got away with it due to an inspirational boss. Martin, his assistants and the players got Celtic out of a hole and that can’t just be forgotten or buried under tickertape. The manager appointment is the No.1 priority, a matter of urgency.”

Now with the season over and the champagne popped and served up, the Record Sport columnist reckons the hierarchy need to get a grip of their senses and move swiftly to appoint a new gaffer. “If the plan is not for Martin to be at the helm, then surely Celtic were working in the background for at least the last couple of months to get someone teed up. That’s what would you expect to have been happening. You cannot seriously be telling me that the club are waiting for Martin to decide and then beginning the process of looking for a manager? Can you?

“Celtic need to speed up. For a start, who is signing the players? Who is making decisions on who stays and who goes

“The director of football, head of football operations, whatever you want to call it, Paul Tisdale is long gone, what’s happening with the job he vacated? Clubs are already making moves. Rangers have signed Lawrence Shankland. Deals are being made behind the scenes and Celtic are losing ground already.”

“Celtic made a monumental mess of the last two transfer windows,” he went on. “It was clear through the opening months glaring gaps in the squad needed to be addressed in the January window. Fans were told that it would be fixed, yet the acquisitions were, basically, poor and did nothing to help through the run-in. Deals are being made behind the scenes and Celtic are losing ground already. Celtic made a monumental mess of the last two transfer windows.”

When January came around, promises were made to the support and Martin O’Neill about quality to help aid the assault on the title, yet nothing materialised, once again.

On this shortchanging of the support and legendary manager, Sutton added: “It was clear through the opening months glaring gaps in the squad needed to be addressed in the January window. Fans were told that it would be fixed, yet the acquisitions were, basically, poor and did nothing to help through the run-in.”

Revealing his complete and utter disbelief at the way Celtic’s powerbrokers have conducted their business over the last few transfer windows, he confessed: “I can count at least 10 of the current squad who are not going to be there from the end of last season and some of them are key men. We all know that Daizen Maeda is going to be leaving, Arne Engels and Alistair Johnston are going to attract interest, Reo Hatate will likely go. Kyogo Furuhashi hasn’t been replaced in 18 months. Now Maeda is going out of the door and we still don’t see any clear evidence of a Celtic plan.

“I would imagine Martin must have had something to do with the re-signing of several of the boys who got deals towards the end of the season. Those made sense. These were players who you would want to keep in the main, the likes of Liam Scales and Yang Hyun-jun have earned the deals. James Forrest is important and the others will no doubt have parts to play. But the major decisions have yet to made and that astounds me,” a perplexed Sutton asserted.

Never one to shy away fron calling it like it is, our former hero and fan favourite claimed that the time for procrastination has long since been and gone. “The appointment of the manager to set the ball rolling should already be done,” he added. “Dithering has to be out of the equation. It’s been part of the club’s make-up for too long and this has to be the summer where that changes and a new speedy focus arrives. The tasks are piling up. So why are we still waiting to find out who is doing them?”

Your guess is as good as ours, Chris…

Paul Gillespie

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