Of the regrets that may creep into John Kennedy’s career musings in the wee small hours, the path not taken isn’t the one that will keep him up at night.
At 37, Celtic’s interim coach has long been tipped as a manager in waiting. He had his first experience of it yesterday as he oversaw Celtic’s game over Aberdeen but had he picked a different route, Kennedy could have been well used to calling the shots as a number one.
On the shortlist for the Hibs job prior to the appointment of Jack Ross, Kennedy could have made the call to be his own man then. Similarly, his decision not to go with Brendan Rodgers to Leicester but to stay put at Celtic could yet put him out of a job this summer if there is an anticipated re-structure with any new manager given license to bring in his own backroom staff.
Neither call has cause for serious rumination.
"In my whole career and life, I don't have regrets,” said Kennedy. “I very much evaluate any decision I make and I go with it, I fully commit and then what will be, will be. I trust myself to make the right decision. You always reflect on it and question things but certainly at this time that's nothing to do with it at all.
"I have dedicated everything in my time and life to do the best for the club, so that's the same for now in terms of the situation we find ourselves in now. It's about what's right for the club and not my agenda and what's good for me.
“I’m really not worried about what comes in the coming months. I trust myself in terms of coming in here every day and putting full effort into everything I can. This is not a time for me thinking, what if this happens?, what if that happens? The only thing I’m focusing on is making sure I’m setting the right example and try to win as many games as possible. What happens beyond that is genuinely something I am not thinking about.
“The real gremlins will be around the ragged nature of Celtic’s season. The lack of consistency has been notable from a squad of players who have epitomised the word in recent seasons – four successive trebles is a monstrous feat and unlikely to be repeated – yet this term the foundations never been in place."
In some ways there has been a fated feel to the campaign from Celtic’s perspective; from the moment Leigh Griffiths returned to training out of shape and deemed unfit enough to travel for the club’s pre-season camp there was a sense of being on the backfoot. It was underlined by the Champions League exit at the earliest stage since 2005 to Ferencvaros, with post-match comments about players not wanting to be at the club magnifying whispers of dressing room unrest.
Covid added another layer to that with Boli Bolingoli enjoying a chapter all of his own on that front. The combined nature of all these threads meant Celtic were playing catch-up when the season was still in its infancy.
The club’s slippery slope has fed a narrative that Rangers’ success has forged a transition of power in Glasgow. Substantial surgery is expected on Celtic’s squad while off the field there are big changes too with a director of football set to be introduced and a new chief executive coming in to assume Peter Lawwell's role.
"Every squad, whether you are successful or not, evolves,” said Kennedy. “In successful times, you come to the summer and there's still a number of players in and out. Certainly we've under-performed this season collectively on several occasions. Rangers have done very well, not dropped much at all and we've been the opposite. In the past, we've continually raised the bar and met the expectations to be successful and a lot of the guys who have done that year on year, winning trophies and trebles, are still here and in good periods in their career but ultimately this season collectively we've done enough to hit the heights we expect to reach and have done in the past. We've got to address and look at that.
"In terms of reconstruction, it's always there. We are in a situation where several players are going into the last year of their contracts. There will be some looking elsewhere and players out of contract, whatever it might be, but that's something that will be addressed going forward. There's still a lot of very good players here in the core group and it's instilling the belief and confidence in them again to go and perform the way I know they actually can because there's been too many games this season where I've not seen that.”
For the immediate few months as the swell of change looms in the background, Kennedy’s remit is to make sure Celtic aren’t swept away for the remainder of the campaign.
“It's about attitude and commitment,” he said “We will all make mistakes, whether that be in games, missing a pass or shot, that's a technical issue, that's not down to attitude and commitment.
"I don't want that to be an extra stress, with players thinking it's about me playing, me scoring the goals or me being the creator. We have to get back to trusting and believing in each other - everyone's got to do their bit.
"It's like a machine, there's a number of different parts of it and if everyone is doing their part then collectively it works, so that's what we've got to remember.”
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