Celtic chief Peter Lawwell is set to fail in his bid to try and bring John Park back to the club as the head of recruitment at Parkhead as the talent spotter sets his sights on the job at Sunderland, according to the Scottish Sun.
The newspaper claim on their website that Lawwell was bidding to secure the services of the man who brought the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Victor Wanyama to Parkhead after Lee Congerton’s exit for Leicester City, but that he is to lose out the League One outfit.
It is stated that Park looks set for the director of football role at the Stadium of Light and is excited by the prospect of working with the north east outfit, who failed to seal promotion from the third tier after defeat in the play-off final to Charlton.
Opinion
Losing out to a League One club is a bit of a slap in the face to Lawwell and Celtic, although Sunderland are one of those big English sides who are performing well below par at present and perhaps Park likes the idea of a challenge. He has already done his bit with the Hoops, the likes of van Dijk and Wanyama becoming household names in England, and he might not want the pressure of having to live up to those sort of expectations were he to return. Football has changed, especially when it comes to transfers, since the Hoops were able to secure such impressive signings and maybe Park feels he would be better suited to trying to get Sunderland out of League One rather than trying to improve Celtic on the European stage, with domestic football not much of a challenge to the Bhoys right now. Either way, Lawwell will have to look elsewhere if he is to fill Congerton’s boots any time soon.