Martin O’Neill looks set to get the backroom stability he wanted, with Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham moving closer to staying at Celtic.
The pair have been in talks with the club over fresh deals after playing an important part in last season’s turnaround. O’Neill was confirmed as manager earlier this month, but the make-up of his coaching staff has remained one of the key issues to sort before pre-season.
According to World Football Index, Maloney and Fotheringham have now agreed terms on contracts for the coming season, with only final details still to be completed.
That would be a major step forward for Celtic. O’Neill wanted both men beside him again after the run that took the Hoops from a difficult position to a league title and Scottish Cup double.
The manager brought the authority and belief Celtic badly needed, but Maloney and Fotheringham were clearly trusted voices around him. Keeping that group together gives the club a bit of continuity at a time when so much else around the squad still needs work.
Fotheringham previously spoke to World Football Index about how quickly his return came together, saying: “I received a call around 11.30 at night from Shaun. You could hear the adrenaline in his voice. He simply said, ‘Foz, can you be at Lennoxtown at the drop of a hat?’
“For me, it was an easy decision. I told him I would be there the next morning. I did not ask any questions because I knew he had a lot going on.
“It has been a special feeling because Celtic means everything to us.”
For O’Neill, this matters. Celtic need signings, but they also need the training ground settled quickly. With Champions League qualifiers ahead, there is no room for another slow start or uncertainty over who is driving the day-to-day work.
If Maloney and Fotheringham are confirmed, it gives Celtic one less problem to solve. The focus can then move properly to recruitment, where the manager still needs serious backing before the new season begins.
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6 responses
I am so utterly despondent now with this Celtic Board, and with the control-freak status that Dermot Desmond has at the club, that I no longer follow daily updates. It’s a rudderless ship being run exclusively by a billionaire globe trotter who either doesn’t give a damn or doesn’t have a clue. Be prepared for another very bad window and a difficult season ahead – that’s 21st century Celtic under Desmond and his motley crew of yes men.
You doom and gloom brigade are becoming rather boring now!
It’s very clear you go to bed every night to dream up new things to complain about that you can link to the board, whether or not you have the slightest clue what you’re talking about!
In most cases, you don’t!
Have you asked yourself why Martin took this job on?
Do you think he would have done so without KNOWING he was getting the staff he wanted, and WHEN?
Respectfully, your negativity is embarrassing!
You DIDN’T support the club last season, but celebrated our DOUBLE success in May as if you did!
You DON’T support us now, but no doubt, when May comes around, will celebrate any success we have as if you are a “die hard”!
You are a disgrace to the real Celtic fans!
yeah and majority of supporters are sick of all these protest we lost a good player and theres players wont sign for us cause of it
Me likewise!
Owned by the only Billionaire in World Football who has not put a Euro cent into the club but has made millions (perpetual £500k dividends every year) Rules the PLC like his own little toy and starves the business of investment whilst coining it in and sitting on a mountain of cash.
Dont know how true it is re PL recent conversation with SM along the lines of “DDs the Dictator. Makes every decision. Doesn’t spend a penny willingly. And how difficult it was for PL to work for him” ( tho I’m sure the millions in salary and bonuses helped!)
Celtic is Grace Brothers under Desmond.
While I dislike the way the club is being run it is simply not true that Dermot Desmond has not put money into Celtic.
He backed Fergus McCann’s initial share sale and underwrote the share issue that built Lennoxtown.
He can only get dividends because he has put money in.
I request new shares as opposed to a dividend every year and that is entirely up to each individual shareholder and for all anyone knows Dermot does the same.
All that doesn’t detract from the fact that our Board are operating in a vacuum within a time warp. They do things at their own pace, with a recruitment model that appears at least fifteen years out of date.
hopefully after that can get a dof in then players