Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney backed for new Celtic roles when the season ends
Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney should remain at Celtic Park after their second spell in charge of the club ends.
That is according to ex-Aberdeen, Aston Villa, and Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes O’Neill could move to the boardroom, whilst Maloney could step up to become permanent Celtic manager.
O’Neill is Celtic’s manager until the end of the season, after the club sacked Wilfried Nancy after 33 days in charge.
The 73-year-old oversaw eight games before Nancy’s arrival, winning seven of them, with Maloney as his assistant.
Celtic need to ‘stick to their football roots’
Aberdeen’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Pittodrie between 2000 and 2004, had lengthy spells as the chief of Everton and Aston Villa and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes Maloney could take over as Celtic manager once O’Neill steps down.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness thinks O’Neill could become a future director of football at the Glasgow club.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “Now, they’ve gone back to Martin O’Neill. They’ve announced that he’s coming back to the end of the season. I think that you and I have discussed how I suggested that Shaun Maloney may be a manager that might take over in due course.
“I still think that could end up being something like that. I could see Martin O’Neill going up to director of football and Shaun Maloney managing with some good new assistants along with him. That would be similar to what I said about Man United trying to get back to the Man United way.
“Celtic would be trying to get back to the Celtic way, and it isn’t that hard and all this experimenting with football hipsters and, you know, Amorim’s formation. I’m afraid there are honest ways to do things in football with clarity and with vision and sticking to your football roots and traditions and being clever about it at the same time, but not getting carried away with the fad of the day. That’s the big thing.”
Martin O’Neill makes admission after Celtic return
O’Neill has stated he has no intention of being Celtic manager beyond the end of this season, and believes he will be under pressure if he does not get off to a winning start.
The interim manager confirmed that Celtic are wanting to add to their squad in the January window, and they are working hard behind the scenes.
Right-back Julian Araujo joined Celtic from Bournemouth until the end of the season, but the squad is in need of attacking reinforcements.