It is anything but harmony at the big club Celtic. Martin O’Neill has been brought in as a substitute and savior, but the problems clearly run so much deeper than to the coach. Kjetil Knutsen has this month been linked to the Celtic job, but more as wishful thinking on the part of the Scots. On Sunday, the murkiness came to light, which confirms that Celtic is definitely not the club to leave Bodø/Glimt for.
A pure Celtic news channel in Scotland has this week realized Knutsen will not end up in Glasgow: “There have been reports that Celtic are holding talks with manager candidates in London this week. As reported by Michael Shearer of CeltsAreHere, Knutsen is currently at home in Bergen and will likely remain in Bodø/Glimt throughout January.”
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“… Based on everything we have heard in recent days, it feels very unlikely that Knutsen will be relevant for the job. And to be honest, it’s not hard to see why.” In terms of size and history, Celtic is much bigger than Bodø/Glimt. But on the pitch, are they ahead of the Norwegian team? Probably not. They lost 5-1 on aggregate when they faced Knutsen’s side during Ange Postecoglou’s debut season at Parkhead. And the gap seems to have only grown since then, it comes from the Scottish media.
On Sunday, Celtic were in action against St. Mirren, an opponent the big club normally has to play their way to victory against. Not this time. It looked like it was going to be goalless and a scoreline, but deep into injury time, Callum McGregor scored to secure Celtic three points with 0-1. However, it was anything but cheers from the visiting Celtic supporters that characterized the match.
During the game, Celtic fans expressed their frustration with the club’s management by chanting, among other things, “Fire the board”, and Celtic’s interim head coach, Martin O’Neill, was asked about this after the game.
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O’Neill said players are affected when frustration with management overshadows support for the team.
“When it’s not about supporting the team, but just about demanding ‘sacking the board’, it can affect the players. I don’t think it helps,” he told BBC Sport.
Knutsen would be wise to steer far away from Glasgow.
