Celtic fans have been shocked by developments at their club since Monday evening, and the players have not been immune to the ‘trauma’ of the departure of Brendan Rodgers and assistant manager John Kennedy either, according to Shaun Maloney.
Maloney, who has stepped up from his role as the club’s professional player pathway manager to assist interim manager Martin O’Neill until a permanent successor to Rodgers is found, admits that it has been a difficult period inside Celtic’s Lennoxtown training base since news of the managerial change was broken to the players.
The more experienced members of the squad, who have known and worked with Rodgers and Kennedy for a number of years, may have been hit hardest by their departure, but Maloney revealed that both he and O’Neill will be relying upon them to pull the group through the next few days, including tonight’s crucial match against Falkirk.
“The last 24 hours have been extremely hectic, turbulent and probably a big bit traumatic for everyone up at Lennoxtown,” Maloney said.
“It's been some 24 hours.
“The players are really close with Brendan and his staff. I would say that the relationship John has with these guys is extreme. It's deep, it runs deep. He helped bring KT (Kieran Tierney) through from the youth team and it’s similar with Callum (McGregor).
Read more:
- O'Neill: Rodgers' Celtic legacy not bruised by Desmond battering
- Stephen McGowan: Desmond missive has made Celtic an undignified circus
- Ange Postecoglou warned against 'disaster' Celtic return
“John's relationship with these guys is really strong. I know that hurt but they have to separate it. And in fairness, they did.
“The senior players were really good today. Alistair Johnson's in that, even though he didn’t come through the academy, and he's a really strong character.
“I haven't managed to speak to Cameron (Carter-Vickers) yet just because of the surgery yesterday, but I will. He's already offered to be a big part of trying to support the group, even 24 hours post-surgery. So yeah, we've got some good people.
“These situations are tough, but the club has seen them before. The hardest part is probably trying to actually detach from obviously the sadness of really good people leaving the club.
“My role was really separate from the coaches. I saw them every day in terms of breakfast, and lunch. I would sit with them, chat about our games and other games going on around the world.
“But to then come straight into coaching the team this morning needed a fair bit of work from everyone.”
That work included the addition of Mark Fotheringham to the coaching staff, with both he and Maloney finding it difficult to refuse the call to help the club in an hour of need.
"I think once I was told about the decisions in terms of Brendan, but probably mainly the staff, I had to speak to Martin,” he said.
“I had to speak to him and see exactly what he wanted from me and how he saw the role.
"In all honesty, when the club asked, you can't say no. It was in a pretty difficult situation yesterday, we needed to try and bring some form of stability. So yeah, I couldn't ever turn it down to try and help him.
“I spoke to John Kennedy about 4.30pm on Monday and you start to understand that something wasn't quite right. But it was only around 6pm that I was asked if I could come and support Martin.
“It took a few hours for that to really materialise and for other parts of the club to get things in place.
“In terms of the staff, I called Mark Fotheringham at 11.30pm on Monday night and asked if he could be at Lennoxtown on Tuesday morning, We arrived at 6.30am and Stephen McManus was the same.
“I asked Stephen at that time to organise in terms of the session that we were wanting. Stevie Woods was the same. Gavin (Strachan) was the same.
“So, it was around 11.30pm on Monday night when we were trying to create a structure and give some form of stability to the players.
“Did I get any sleep at all? Not much.”
Maloney has however vowed to work tirelessly to support his own former manager at the club, O’Neill, who will once again take on more of a figurehead role.
"I guess every manager has different requirements from their assistant,” he said.
“I think with Martin, my experience of him was when he was my own manager, he was very reliant on John Robertson, Steve Walford and I think it will be exactly the same.
"With myself, Gavin Strachan, Stephen, Mark, we've got Greg (Wallace), who's been promoted recently from Coach Analyst.
"Martin will just rely heavily on all the guys. Martin has a brilliant skill of understanding people, understanding what needs to be said at the right time.
"He also understands what he wants to see to win a game of football. So yeah, basically try and help him as much as possible."
A late call will be made on the fitness of Daizen Maeda for the game against Falkirk after the attacker resumed full training this week, though Maloney admitted it was likely he would be on the bench at best.
Share