CHRIS Sutton reckons Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell's failure to act more decisively over the club's managerial situation has left the club vulnerable to another early Champions League exit. The former striker, who was speaking ahead of BT Sport’s live coverage of Falkirk v Hibernian, feels "major surgery" is required on the squad the new man will inherit from Ronny Deila this summer and none of the high profile managers such as Roy Keane and David Moyes will accept the job under the current circumstances. With just 10 weeks until the Parkhead club enter the qualifying rounds of the continent's major club competition, the identity of the next manager remains unknown. Keane will be involved in Euro 2016 with the Republic of Ireland until mid June at the latest while Moyes has indicated he plans to bide his time before rushing into his next appointment.
"I think they are vulnerable already," said Sutton. "A new manager coming in, I would suspect, would look at the current squad and want to ship out a lot of what is there. The team needs major, major surgery. If we are going to be honest, if we are looking at this current Celtic team and thinking they are going to get through the Champions League qualifiers, that is pie in the sky at the moment. That would be a major achievement for this group of players.
"The issue Celtic have is Peter Lawwell and whether he is going to relinquish his grip on a new manager when he comes in," added Sutton. "Is a David Moyes going to want to come in and work under Peter Lawwell in the existing framework? I would argue that he wouldn’t.
“For me the quicker they name somebody the better, so that the supporters and everyone can understand where the club is going. If it is someone who’s managing at the Euros, a Michael O’Neill, a Martin O’Neill, a Roy Keane, then at least they could start making decisions now in terms of recruiting players they might want to bring in and implementing some sort of plan.
"Roy Keane has said he wants to manage again and that is no secret. But if Keane turned it down once because of that situation, because he did not want to be told what to do from above, then it would shock me if he took the job under the same circumstances.
With the exception of Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney, Sutton believes that the new manager could look at "almost every position" in the team. Having said that, he still reckons Celtic will make it six in a row next season. "Losing to Rangers could end up being one of the best things that happened to Celtic. The supporters will not want to hear that but that loss highlighted the massive problems that the club have had under Ronny Deila. And do I think Celtic will win the league next season? Yes I do."
Chris Sutton,
Watch Falkirk v Hibernian in the SPFL Championship play-off semi-final exclusively live on BT Sport 1 from 7pm on Friday 13th May.
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