MORTEN Wieghorst has emerged as a candidate in Celtic's search for a successor to Neil Lennon.
The former Celtic and Denmark midfielder revealed yesterday that he is interested in the managerial vacancy at his old club and would be "honoured" if the Scottish champions offered him the chance to replace Lennon, who resigned last Thursday.
Wieghorst spoke after learning that his name has been floated by Celtic supporters on social media as a potential candidate for the job. The Dane was well-liked by Celtic fans during his seven years at the club before he returned to his native country in 2002.
Wieghorst was manager of FC Nordsjaelland for five years, guiding them to back-to-back Danish Cup successes in 2010 and 2011 before his reputation for developing young players led to him being headhunted by the Danish FA to take charge of the national under-21 side, although the Nordsjaelland team he left behind went on to win the championship.
The 43-year-old was then recruited by Michael Laudrup to become assistant manager at Swansea City, enjoying an English League Cup triumph and a Europa League campaign in which they humiliated Valencia with a 3-0 win in Spain in the group stage, against a team which eventually reached the semi-finals.
Wieghorst was touted as a successor to Laudrup at Swansea, who feared that bigger clubs would poach their manager, but then the Welsh club surprisingly sacked Laudrup last February, with Wieghorst also being jettisoned. Laudrup only reached a settlement last Friday with Swansea over the bitter split.
"I am honoured to be mentioned in connection with Celtic," said Wieghorst. "It is a great club and I enjoyed some fantastic times there. My feelings for Celtic are well-known and I have been back several times since I left. It is a massive club and I would be interested if I got a call. Glasgow was a fantastic place to stay for me and my family."
Georgios Samaras, meanwhile, is pondering an £18,000-a-week offer to join Sevilla after the forward's recent decision not to renew his contract.
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