SENTINELCELTS

If asked to gaze into my crystal ball and map out the teams short term future, I wouldn’t be that confident of getting it all right, but I do see a true coach of the game arriving that’s for sure.

Looking at the financial climate, projected sales, fan contentment or otherwise, and given our Rangers loving billionaire’s propensity to keep his hand out of pocket where the club is concerned, then bringing in two people working in tandem seems the likeliest path.
One brings the players, one coaches and plays them.

It’s the modern way that most cottoned onto an age ago, the incessant demands of the modern game too much for just one man. It’s incredible to believe an under pressure manager who has an important game upcoming should be spending precious time reading player scouting reports or flying across time zones to witness the potential live in the flesh.
Talk about an unwanted distraction, even if he does need to unearth a diamond in the rough.

No, the coach being given players of a prerequisite quality to improve is the way, key phrase being prerequisite. We’ve just witnessed how easy it is to buy the wrong player time after time in the hopes of finding a real player, those hopes raised after a few initial frogs turned into princes, but the lessons in failure never heeded.
The huge list of shame won’t be completely eradicated, there’s always a few just cant leave their mammy, but at least with qualified eyes on the case we can all rest assured the hype around the new Bangura will be somewhat justified.

Qualified eyes of course meaning actual scouts, double triple and quadruple checked by other scouts, alongside analyst’s looking at everything from character references to expected wage demands.
The Head of Football Operations or whatever the title can then watch the lad live and if recommended the CEO jets over to get signatures at a reasonable price. The Head coach need never be involved.

We all know why we didn’t go this route until now, but it’s most definitely the route we should go now. The Head coach in this case needs to be onboard with the system for a start and that rules out many domestic managers, who as the name implies like to manage such activity. Given that it’s their head on the block I understand why, but on the continent they are used to not being in control of player trading, that’s not a deal breaker at all.

Perhaps one reason they suit better is because they are more tactically astute in the main? That’s a huge feather in the cap, underated in Britain where the old school control freak motivator is still in existence.
Perfecting positioning and knowledge of different playing systems is generally not something associated with Celtic players these days, changing that would most definitely be a good thing.

So take my expected criteria,,
A training ground coach
Tactically astute
Fine with being handed players
And throw in willingness to join us, why he would want to join us, wage demands, other possible suitors, connections within the game,,,jumble them all about and you get,,,
Enzo t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶k̶e̶r̶ Maresca!

He ticks all the boxes I suspect need ticking, plus he has hovered around the top of JnPs betting odds list from the beginning.
He hasn’t ruled us out,
He deems himself ready to step out of the safety net and become a first team coach,
He has connections,
He won’t get a bigger suitor so his wage demands should be satisfied,
The platform is huge with a chance of European career enhancement.

A solid defense is the spine of any good team and there’s no defenders better in the sport, Italians see the art in defending that few other nations do and it shows.
Given we don’t actually have a defense an Italian may be ironic, maybe that’s the one area we try to push for good incoming quality overall and build upon it.

There would be some with misgivings should Enzo get the nod, entirely reasonable.
We’ve seen rookies go wrong before and many feel we are simply too big to learn on the job. While these might be true we’ve just seen what a rookie with a good coaching staff can do if focused and helped in their task,,three years later you have a solid successful unit.
To lay down strong foundations I would take the hit, many wouldn’t.

I would also argue that should he himself prove the incorrect choice, I doubt the model adopted will. We’ve all read that huge list with less than 30 appearances, hundreds of millions down the tube.
It’s only fair all around we move to halt that wastage. Let’s see two at the top of the pyramid working in tandem, and judge after five years if it suits our club.
The percentage of signings seeing regular first team football should significantly increase.

Enzo currently runs the under 23s City team which is nice as many of those world class talents would surely love game time on loan with a man they know, breaking into Peps team not the easiest. His much traveled career opens more continental loan doors, music to the ears to those worried about budget. If ever there was an acceptable time to take on several loan players to ease short term transition then this is it.

While he’s not going to stay longterm, and it’s easy to understand we would simply be his career launchpad, both our objectives align for the next few years. Success, it’s that simple.
He moves on and hopefully the successful structure he worked under stays in place and another young hungry coach comfortable on the training ground slots in seamlessly, rinse and repeat.
Glasgow Celtic could then be faced with the rather exciting prospect of becoming a managerial breeding ground, Brendan’s 9 million the benchmark to be beaten in that respect.

So no information but my own choice would be Enzo not just for the man himself but also what he represents, a new system and a step in the right direction.

By Mahe.