Celtic are reportedly close to naming a director of football with Manchester City’s Fergal Harkin the man tipped to come in according to Football insider.
The club are taking a completely fresh approach to the structure of the business and how it’s run.
Dominic McKay will be looking after the business side of things but will not have powers like the outgoing CEO to pick members of staff for a manger etc.
The Sporting Director will be a man heavily involved with staff coming in and it’s likely the reason why we won’t see a manager at the club until we see a Director of Football in place.
Speaking to Football Insider, former professional footballer turned pundit Danny Mills believes the appointment is massive:
“Yes.
“Director of football is the old-school chief-executive. They’re involved in transfers, involved in contracts, talking to scouts about who they’re going to sign.
“Football is such a big business, it’s global. You need that.
“He then organises the coaches, he then organises recruitment and puts all these people in place.
“The owners and chairman are off doing what they’re doing. They’ve got lives to lead. So the director of football is effectively running the football club and is putting in all the right people.
“He’s basically the CEO of a company. It’s a massive appointment.”
This current season finishes in two months time. Peter Lawwell doesn’t step down officially until July 1st but there’s the small matter of season ticket renewals before that.
If I was to guess, Celtic will give us some indication of who’s going to be in charge before then. Hoops supporters will be reluctant to buy in if things are still up in the air.
