BenLynch29
Well-known member
James has written two articles today mentioning the creation of a DoF role within the club.
I find this a very curious development, but one that I support 1,000% for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, this role is actually far more important for the club to get right than the managerial appointment as it will have much more significant and longer lasting consequences for the club. And I’m curious who the club is looking at to fill the role.
One thing that never sat well with me with BR was his insistence of total control of everything related to the football operations of the club. While he was here and winning trebles and guiding us into European football after Christmas, it was sort of a necessary evil IMO, but now that he’s gone we should never allow a single person with that much influence ever again. And having a good DoF is a big part of that. It also ensures squad cohesion when we bring in a new manager in the sense that one of the responsibilities a DoF typically has is defining the playing style of the club and the appropriate characteristics of successful players at the club. So a new manager wouldn’t be given carte blanche to rip up the squad and start over as we so often see with more traditional power structures in football.
But this is going to be a monumental task for the DoF at Celtic because what is required and/or desirable domestically is very different than what we need for European football. It’s very much in Celtic’s DNA going back over 50 years to play attacking football; It’s attractive, sexy, exciting, and quite frankly it sells. But we’ve also seen how this plays out on the European stage, and it’s doubtful we’ll ever make another run to a final using such tactics. So how the DoF reconciles this dichotomy will be crucially important for how the club operates going forward in terms of player recruitment, managerial appointments, and even the youth development setup.
I find this a very curious development, but one that I support 1,000% for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, this role is actually far more important for the club to get right than the managerial appointment as it will have much more significant and longer lasting consequences for the club. And I’m curious who the club is looking at to fill the role.
One thing that never sat well with me with BR was his insistence of total control of everything related to the football operations of the club. While he was here and winning trebles and guiding us into European football after Christmas, it was sort of a necessary evil IMO, but now that he’s gone we should never allow a single person with that much influence ever again. And having a good DoF is a big part of that. It also ensures squad cohesion when we bring in a new manager in the sense that one of the responsibilities a DoF typically has is defining the playing style of the club and the appropriate characteristics of successful players at the club. So a new manager wouldn’t be given carte blanche to rip up the squad and start over as we so often see with more traditional power structures in football.
But this is going to be a monumental task for the DoF at Celtic because what is required and/or desirable domestically is very different than what we need for European football. It’s very much in Celtic’s DNA going back over 50 years to play attacking football; It’s attractive, sexy, exciting, and quite frankly it sells. But we’ve also seen how this plays out on the European stage, and it’s doubtful we’ll ever make another run to a final using such tactics. So how the DoF reconciles this dichotomy will be crucially important for how the club operates going forward in terms of player recruitment, managerial appointments, and even the youth development setup.