Former Celtic ace John Hartson has delivered his verdict about John Kennedy’s future as manager.
Hartson was talking about multiple issues involving the Hoops when he appeared on OTB Football. He spoke about potential candidates for the managerial role at Parkhead and was asked about Kennedy’s future. The Welshman tipped Kennedy to manage another club and suggested an opportunity might come up at Parkhead for him in the future.
Kennedy was previously been linked with a move to Hibernian, but Neil Lennon had insisted that the Scotsman was talked out of it. He is expected to remain as the Celtic interim manager until the end of the campaign.
Should John Kennedy leave Celtic in the summer?
Yes
No
Citing comments made on Sky by Jackie McNamara, Hartson feels that Kennedy has learned a lot from the likes of Brendan Rodgers and Lennon, and he should get a job elsewhere without too much difficulty.
The Welshman said: “I agree with Jackie, Jackie said he would like to see John just go and cut his teeth, that’s not really a word that I like, but maybe go and take a manager job, because I think he would get one on the back of the people that he’s worked with at Celtic.
“And being a coach, a good football man, knows what he’s talking about, speaks ever so well and being around Brendan Rodgers for those three years, being around Neil Lennon, who’s had a lot of games as a manager, he will get a job, and hopefully he could do very well and then come back to Celtic.
“Maybe he feels if he goes away, he might not get another opportunity. Maybe that’s why he is not deciding to do that. We don’t know if he might do it at the end of the season, we don’t know. But that’s what Jackie said and I tend to agree. Go and take a manager’s job somewhere else. As a number one. Get the results, do well, and then the Celtic opportunity, you know, to manage them might come then.”
TIF Thoughts on John Kennedy…
While Kennedy certainly has worked under former Celtic managers in the past, he is yet to manage a team on a full-time basis.
Celtic have been linked with managers like Rafael Benitez, Roberto Martinez and Steve Clarke, who are highly experienced in the dugout, with Benitez having won the Champions League in his career.
So because of the superior experience of potential managerial candidates, Celtic should perhaps avoid appointing Kennedy and it would be better for the Scotsman to get managerial experience from elsewhere.