JOHN KENNEDY admits he has to face up to the fact that his future may lie away from Celtic Park, as he says that a planned catch-up with new Celtic CEO Dominic McKay will not constitute a job interview.

Kennedy has been interim manager of Celtic since Neil Lennon left the club in February, and has gone on record with his desire to take on the role on a permanent basis.

But he acknowledges that in the short term at least, he may have to step away from the club he loves in order to hopefully return one day down the line, with his immediate future perhaps lying elsewhere.

“Yeah it might,” he said. “You always have to prepare for that as it’s the same year on year if anything changes and depending what’s going on.

“But it’s not something I overly stress about. I keep saying, I focus on what I can control at the moment which is preparing the team. Then if a hurdle comes along or a new challenge, whether it’s a change or anything else, I’ll address it and commit to it then.

“So it’s something I’m overly thinking about right now. I want to just get this period by with and then we’ll go from there.

“I haven’t had the chance [to speak to Dominic] yet. Obviously, he only arrived [on Monday].

“I imagine he’s got a lot on his plate at the moment. We’ve also had a lot of preparation and we’ll be heading to Aberdeen later today.

“I think I’m pencilled in to maybe catch up later on in the week. The conversation will be a casual one. I’ve never met him before so it’s very much about an introduction and a general chat about things. It’s not an interview. It’s not a case of me trying to make a pitch for the job - that’s never been my intention anyway.

“My intention has been purely to lead the club through this period and then, when the time comes, if somebody wants to sit down and have a chat about how the squad is looking and what everyone is thinking going forward, then we’ll have that conversation.

“But I’m genuinely not stressed about what the future holds for me. I’ll deal with it if it comes long.

“I know in my time here I’ve been fully committed to every position I’ve ever been in and I’m content with that. So we’ll deal with that if it comes but it’s not me sitting on Friday trying to make a pitch.

“It’s very much an introduction and a general chat and we’ll take it from there.”

If McKay does pick Kennedy’s brain for advice on the rebuilding job that lies ahead in the summer in terms of the playing squad, he will be left in no doubt that surgery is certainly required, even if it might not be the complete overhaul in personnel that many expect.

“There’s not a number on it,” he said.

“We just have to get through the next period and then look at things in terms of what we need to replace in the squad.

“We’re not carrying a big squad. I’ve been here a number of seasons when we’ve had much bigger numbers. We don’t have huge numbers at the minute.

“There are obviously players who are coming to the end of their contract. There might also be a few bodies who, as always, might be looking to move on elsewhere.

“So it will be a collective decision in terms of what we’re going to do moving forward, there’s a new chief executive and all parties in terms of how the squad’s going to look. But there will be change, probably a bit more than we normally would have.

“Season to season squads evolve, there are always changes. But this season, probably because of the numbers we’re carrying and the players we might lose, perhaps a bit more.

“However, I don’t expect it to be an absolute major overhaul like everyone thinks.”