SENTINELCELTS

When it comes to my thrice weekly articles, my habit of choice is listening to various podcasts throughout the day, deciding the topic, and slowly but surely envisioning how I will word the actual article so by the time I get home from work all that’s left is to type it up. So this morning I turn those trusty headphones on, push play, start taking onboard the assembled journalists and pundits points regarding the beautiful game,,,and within five minutes I’ve got my head in my hands saying out loud ‘Oh Shit!’. Allow me to explain.

Not long after the ending of two rivals clashing in our scheduled game, two other rival teams clashed.
In Glasgow the richer and bigger club emerged victorious by three of our goals to none of theirs.
The exact opposite happened in the other game. In our world renowned clash one side emerged with their reputation fully enhanced, with the opposition manager finding his jacket on a shoogly peg, the exact same happened down south.
“He won’t make it to Christmas” was the call, on both sides of the border.
And therein lies what could just become one hell of a problem for Timdom.

Have you guessed what it is yet? Eric Ten Haag getting the bullet, and the shortlist of his replacements. Any board worth their salt would have a certain Ulsterman high up, our certain Ulsterman.
Hence my ‘Oh Shit!’ because when Manchester United come calling, every single manager and player has a big big decision to weigh up, their name and the weight of their history demands it.

Look folks, I believe it’s best to throw it out there now and start having the conversation, simply because I believe ‘he’ will be in the frame for the job. Would any reader deny he’s unworthy?
Would any reader deny he does well with the players he inherits?
Would any reader deny he wouldn’t improve that shitshow of a football team at Old Trafford?
If you answered no three times, there’s the reasons he should be targeted by their board as the next messiah.

I’ll go further, he clearly holds an affinity for the EPL, and knows that division well, has won something down south plus lots up north proving he’s got what it takes to push his team over the line, and as things stand I cannot name any Brendan Rodgers signings that flopped showing he can buy well added to getting the best of his already in-house recruits.
Young enough to hang your hat on maybe longterm, smart enough to not only speak more than one language and progress his playing style through time as we currently witness, brave enough to take on tough challenges such as Liverpool and returning to Celtic,,,I see little downside when it comes to appointing the Carnlough man. All the above assets will attract coveting eyeward glances, probably offers throughout the EPL at various clubs. If United come calling though,,,

As usual I’ll throw my personal thoughts out there. Do I expect him to be offered that job, yes. They would be unwise not to.
Do I expect him to walk out mid-season again? No.
He would be wise not to.
It would go one of two ways, a refusal or a compromise. Not an immediate acceptance with a forlorn wave of the hand goodbye.
Not now he’s got his men (in the transfer market and the squad), not now he’s truly got his hand on the tiller of the club, not now he’s got the best chance to make that impact in Europe with the club, his personal ambition.

Hypothetical of course, but the easiest compromise would see Man United either sticking with Eric until seasons end only to replace him, or giving the job to one of the numerous caretaker candidates (Keane, Solskjaer, Bruce, Queiroz) and letting them see out the season before the main man enters the building.
I’m not saying that will be Brendan, but I’m saying if they are smart they will sound him out for the job.

I’m not selling our manager or anything, I’m saying we should be prepared for the offer to arrive, and get our collective heads around all that would entail. Having witnessed numerous first time foreign managers flop at Old Trafford, their shotcallers will surely have previous EPL experience as one of criteria. Sure theres plenty of impressive managers there currently like Unai Emery whose side we shall face, but the buyout come seasons end for an SPL manager with only one year left on the contract would be a lot cheaper than plucking an existing EPL manager under a longer contract.

Which leads me to my final point, once again I’m not trying to sell him, but could external interest see the board move to tie him down longer? Could this potential dark cloud on the horizon lead to the Parkhead boardroom making their move before others do?
Yes. Surely. He’s right man for our dugout, the right man to negotiate qualifiers, the right man to keep our beloved club moving upwards.

So while I was exclaiming ‘Oh Shit!’ earlier, it wasn’t necessarily in a negative sense, it was also in the realization that the biggest club in England might be forcing the biggest club in Scotland to take steps to secure their biggest footballing asset, and after that take steps to keep him satisfied and interested.
Ie, keep buying your own players, keep winning silverware at one of the world’s footballing giants, stay and build a legacy.

So ‘Oh Shit!’, United’s lose could actually become our gain.
I much prefer that, over the opposite. I get the feeling we all would.
Now I’m actually starting to hope they sniff around.
‘We’ve got a mess that needs sorting out’ versus ‘We’ve got a serious team now, the fanbase eating out of your hands, and Europe’s top tier of football times 8 at a minumum, plus you can stay as long as you want!’. It doesn’t sound like much of a choice does it?

But,,football is football, it can surprise you everyday. It’s not a normal industry, hell Martin O’Neill would have accepted the England managers job he once revealed. I can see the sporting reason, becoming immortal to an entire football mad nation IF he delivered trophies.
Osimhen (one of the worlds best strikers) just joined Galatasaray, Jose must be bloody fuming today.
Three Japanese guys are bossing the show in the Glasgow derby.
You just can never tell what’s going to happen in football, it’s a true life soap opera that has billions captured to every twist and turn. The world’s game indeed.

So I’ll discount nothing, not a thing. But knowledge is power, so they say. With the benefit of hindsight I will predict this,,,whether it’s United or not, the rags up north will do their very best to ‘sell him’. All season long, to any EPL club finding themselves leaderless. A giant sniffing around would be their manna from heaven, oh the figures that would get candied about, both salary and transfer budget. I reckon 200 a week and a 200 million warchest waiting on him from United according to the Scottish press, any takers?
So today’s article is both a foresight and a lesson, get used to Brendan’s being linked elsewhere, and let’s watch and see if there’s a Parkhead reaction.
There should be.
Sign that man up for longer, now!

By Mahe sentinelcelts@gmail.com