Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes has recently made a claim about the club’s ‘manager in waiting’ John Kennedy.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. One topic of discussion was John Kennedy and his role at the club. Dykes believes that the assistant manager isn’t supporting Neil Lennon enough, as he feels that he himself is the ‘manager in waiting’ at Parkhead.
Kennedy has been Celtic’s assistant manager since February 2019. He has previously been the manager of the club’s UEFA Under-19s side. He happens to be a former Celtic player too.
Does John Kennedy want Neil Lennon to leave Celtic?
Yes
No
Dykes feels that Kennedy wants Lennon to leave the club, so that he can become the next Celtic manager soon.
He said (26:35): “I don’t know what happens behind the gates of Lennoxtown, I can only go by what I see – people might say I’m reading his body language wrong and that’s fine but one thing John Kennedy isn’t doing is, he’s not supporting Lenny after games. Whereby, he’s certainly not ever taking the flak, he’s never taken the heat off Lenny.
“He’s never speaking to the press, he’s never speaking to the press so that he can get a message out to the fans. If I had an assistant and that was a proper team and we all wanted the same thing, I’d expect at some point over the last couple of weeks or months, that John Kennedy would realise that Neil Lennon is really struggling and he would say ‘you know what, Lenny? I’m going to speak to the press tonight. You just stay in here’. And I’ve never seen any of that.
“I think that’s because he’s the manager in waiting. In his mind, he’s the manager in waiting. He wants Lenny to move aside so he can take front and centre.”
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments regarding John Kennedy…
Kennedy has been tipped to manage Celtic in the future by Lennon himself in the past. The current Hoops boss has described Kennedy to be an ‘ambitious’ person and someone for whom Celtic means a lot (as per Sunday Post).
Former Celtic player Scott McDonald also believes that Kennedy could’ve managed the club in the future, if things had been going right this season. So it is clear that more than one people have certainty about Kennedy’s capabilities as a future Celtic boss and because of that, it is understandable why Dykes believes that the 37-year-old might want the job.