John Kennedy

photoshopped imo.

Kennedy out.

 

I imagine probably paid higher elsewhere, we aren’t the highest payers, but you’re right in wouldn’t get a bigger club. But who knows, Maloney got plucked out of our reserves to be assistant manager of the number 1 rated international team in the world with a worse CV, Henrik Larsson got the assistant manager job at Barcelona with a worse coaching CV. Football’s weird.

 

It’s not really strange at all. Maloney and Larsson both had extensive football careers. I’m sure Maloney played for Martinez and was brought into the job by Martinez. That’s how people typically get into those types of jobs, who is doing that for Kennedy?

Larsson has far more experience coaching and vastly more as a player. It’s laughable to compare that to Kennedy being a coach while Rodgers was at Celtic ..

 

Why when Rodgers was with us? I’m saying as he is just now. Larsson’s coaching experience hasn’t been extensive as Kennedy’s. His playing, aye definitely, but playing football and coaching football are far different roles.

Martinez made a judgement call on a guy he knew. He was a reserve coach with us at the time. All I’m saying is weird * in football happens, look at Juventus assistant manager getting the Killie job… that’s like the opposite.

Bizarre stuff happens.

 

Again, Maloney getting the job with Martinez isn't bizarre. Believe it or not assistant managers are usually appointed by the manager, and it's usually someone they can trust and knows their style. It's perfectly normal for Martinez to appoint Maloney once he had a space for him in his team. Textbook, really.

Larsson getting the Barca job is in support of my point, not yours. So is Maloney. They aren't bizarre occurrences, they are two people getting assistant manager jobs because they have what Kennedy doesn't - contacts and experienced CVs, not just at one club.

Look the point I've made is John Kennedy might be more loyal to the Celtic Board than Ange Postecoglou when push came to shove, and the reason is because he would otherwise need to go out and find a big assistant manager job in football. They're hard jobs to come by, and even harder when you have only ever been at one club. Kennedy would be right to keep in with our board, and our board has previous for nepotism (see Neil Lennon).

Are we really saying Kennedy can confidently back Ange and tell the board to * off if push came to shove, because 'bizarre' appointments happen in football? Whether he can get a job or not, he simply cannot have great confidence of walking into another job like this.

The reality is he's going not going against this board unless he has a better opportunity to fall back on. That's not to say there necessarily has to be issues either.

And we can keep hand-waving away his performance as interim manager and seemingly being heavily involved in the dross Lennon served up doesn't matter, but he'll know himself that will stand against him. He's not just a coach anymore, tactical prowess from assistants is important to managers.

For what it's worth, I do think he could develop into a quality AM and maybe even a manager. So long as he's board appointed though, he has to carry that mark. I don't know why people find that so offensive.

 

You’d have to assume if he was as useless as some fans would have you believe he’d have been out the door a while ago.

 

I’m just saying bizarre appointments happen in football * sake mate

Don’t read anything else into it, just think he has a pretty good CV as is. Worked with a guy highly rated in the Premiership, worked with a guy who’s doing well in America just now, working with a guy pretty well respected round the world in Ange. Been in and out of many different coaching setups albeit at the same club and throughout all those different set up’s, he’s been part of a winning setup.

CV look’s pretty good to me.


EDIT: On the board not, who’s his loyalties too then? Because for years everybody’s referred to him as Lawwell’s mate, then he must have been Dom McKay’s, now he must be Nicholson’s. Or is it somebody like Bankier or Desmond himself we’re talking about? Because the guy he spent the majority of his Celtic career as the CEO, was 2 people ago now.

I don’t think a coach has that much say or power, he just does the job.

 

I know mate, but you're not 'just saying' it. You're saying it as a counter point to me saying he might not be confident of getting a big AM job.

I feel like there's a misunderstanding again here. I'm not slagging his CV, but that's not good enough for you to be confident of getting an AM job like Celtic. There's 20 EPL clubs, 20ish Championship clubs if you want to accept them as good enough. That's a very small market to apply in, especially when you consider most AMs are appointed with the respective manager. He could try and go abroad but there's obvious reasons why that would be tough both personally and professionally.

He's landed on his feet big time, thanks to the board. He can't be confident of a similar job, so it would obviously be in his best interest to support them to keep the job if he absolutely had to. It's not something that will definitely happen but people are right to count it against him. It's not a reason to hate the guy, but it's a cross he needs to bear.

It would seriously help him if our board wasn't known to be *, and the Lennon carry on is a big reason why people are more sensitive to appointments like this.

I could see him taking on a management job at some point, and if he did I'd be happy for him.

Whoever is appointing him (or not) at any given time. It's not a personal loyalty and of course it could end at any time if Kennedy gets a better opportunity, Ange insists on bringing in someone else or the board decide they don't want him anymore.

I suspect he's favoured by Desmond but that's pure speculation and largely irrelevant.

 

I honestly don’t think an assistant manager has as much power as people attribute to John Kennedy.

But this is all going off on tangents, my biggest point on this is he might be a * coach, he might be a world class coach, nobody knows. Nobody here has been coached by him.

Haven’t seen anybody complain about him professionally though, and Ange has went out his way a good few times this season already to praise the coaching staff. So unless Ange strikes you as a sleekit, backboneless liar of a man and covering the board on John Kennedy’s behalf I tend to think he’s being doing well.

 

Fair point that is a different angle and I'm not dismissing concerns as ridiculous, I'm just trying to understand. We always seem to be wanting loyalty from players/managers but the one constant that we do have is derided for it.

You seem to be envisioning him as some sort of board mole but I'm not really sure how they would use that. It's just very cloak and dagger when ultimately they're in charge so why would they need an assistant manager to back them in any regard? It's not normally that adversarial anyway and they should all be pulling in the same direction.

I would think that Kennedy could probably go to England and make similar money but that's a guess.

 

Just wanted to pick up on this because it's the central point I think. I think you make good points but I can't imagine a situation where he's going to have to go against the board. When would an assistant manager need to tell a board to * off?

 

Aye that’s what I was trying to get at, just how much power do people think’s he holds?

 

Could be as simple as getting access to player opinions that shouldn’t be shared with the board. Maybe if a player is unhappy and expresses it to the manager, the board find out more than they should by speaking with Kennedy, quite casually of course.

Doesn’t need to be too dramatic or conspiratorial.

Suffice to say the board would find it easier speaking with Kennedy than someone like Davies, who probably wouldn’t speak to them at all since he’s 100% Rodgers man.

That’s a very basic example.

 

I think if they wanted to ask Davies something they would, their is a hierarchy at the club. I think if there’s an us against them being attitude being fostered at the club that’s far more concerning for me. Everybody should be pulling in the same direction.

 

Everybody should have the same agenda and opinion and agree all the time, but it’s just not realistic.

Edit: Especially in an organisation where the personnel are assets and move after about 3 years for millions of pounds and get paid millions of pounds.

 

I think it’s very realistic, especially because that is our model in general. The players, management and board all wanting to do their own thing was a major problem for us last season, we need to make sure we never get in that position again.

 

Interesting reading here guys, or it was about 3 year ago.

The bottom line is this. Ange Postecoglou wants Kennedy on board, and if he thought JK was not a good coach, he'd be out on his *. It's that simple.

 

I think this debate is just getting a bit ridiculous now. So you think there won't ever be conflict between the manager and the board.. because there shouldn't be in an ideal world?

No offence mate but whenever someone makes a point you just hit out with one of these tangents to detract from it. I'm not going to sit here and debate something as daft as that. If you think Kennedy being appointed as AM by the board isn't going to cause problems then I obviously completely respect that, but don't say daft things like there will never be disagreement between a Celtic board and a Celtic manager.

 

Conflict is fine but open communication at all levels is what solves conflict for me. I don’t see it as an issue, I also think Ange has went out his way to praise the coaching staff a lot and I don’t think he’s weaselly enough to lie about that.

Also, not once have I said appointed by the board is ok, that’s a weird thing. My point is all the people calling him out for all our problems and calling him a * coach don’t know anything, and it’s impossible to prove, and I’ve never heard a bad word about him from a professional.

 

It was widely reported at the time that the rat tried to take Kennedy with him. He turned him down and was heralded by the Celtic support for it. I thought everyone knew that tbh.