Top five candidates to be next Celtic manager

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The Celtic Star

·19 Maret 2026

Top five candidates to be next Celtic manager

The search for the next permanent Celtic manager is underway as The Celtic Star looks at the five mostly likely appointments…

Celtic CEO Micheal Nicholson looks on during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Motherwell at Celtic Park on March 14, 2026 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Celtic face a major rebuild in the summer with a long-overdue Boardroom shake-up likely to happen. A significant overhaul of the current squad including decisions having to be made on a large number of loan signings at the club or contracted Celtic players who have been shipped out this season.

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And perhaps most important of all, Celtic will need to appoint a new permanent manager probably before any of the other urgent business takes place, particularly relating to assembling the squad for next season.

Whoever gets the Celtic job faces a daunting task. Who are the candidates, what can they bring to Celtic for the next cycle as the club looks to maintain its dominant position in Scottish football? Online Bookies UK currently have Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou as the front-runner for the job but is a season of shocks and surprises nothing would now surprise the Celtic support. Here’s our guide to how things currently stand…

Five leading candidates to be the next Celtic manager…

Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill at Celtic Park on October 28, 2025 (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

ONE – Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney – The pair are currently enjoying their second interim spell at the club this season and are currently well placed to deliver a Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup double over the next few months. The veteran Celtic manager recently turned 74, so certainly wouldn’t be a long term solution.

But a year overseeing a hand-over to Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham as his assistant would be a simple yet effective solution and one that the Celtic support would certainly appreciate if it comes on the back of what was looking like unlikely trophy triumphs come May.

Head Coach Kjetil Knutsen of FK Bodo/Glimt before the start of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Round of 16 Second Leg match between Sporting CP and FK Bodo/Glimt at Estadio Jose Alvalade on March 17, 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)

TWO – Kjetil Knutsen – With his astonishing run in the Champions League coming to an end in Lisbon, Bodo/Glimt’s highly rated manager Kjetil Knutsen may well feel that the time is right for a new challenge and the Celtic job could be right up his street. While the results in European football may well improve dramatically under Knutsen’s guidance, his radical approach to managing a football team might not be appreciated by the conservative (small c) Celtic Board. It’s one that works best in theory, the reality might end up being something completely different.

Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou is seen during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Motherwell at Celtic Park on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

THREE – Jens Berthel Askou – Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou is himself an admirer of Kjetil Knutsen’s work at Bodo/Glimt and has referenced their success in Norwegian football to his Motherwell players who have responded magnificently. Jens Berthel Askou is believed to be very interested in the Celtic job and many regarded Motherwell’s visit to Celtic Park on Saturday as effectively an audition. It was one that, despite the result going Celtic’s way, the Danish coach passed with flying colours.

Jens Berthel Askou has knowledge of the Scottish game, has built a strong team with excellent low cost signings at Motherwell and has many admirers for the way he has his team playing. Chris Sutton described his Motherwell team as the best in Britain to watch this season.

Robbie Keane, Head Coach of Ferencvarosi TC, looks on prior to the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD8 match between Nottingham Forest FC and Ferencvarosi TC at City Ground on January 29, 2026 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

FOUR – Robbie Keane – There’s no denying that Robbie Keane has done well in his time at Ferencvaros, taking over in January 2025 and going on to win the Hungarian title that season. This year he has had notable success in the Europa League with Ferencvaros and Keane has his side well placed to retain their title, currently sitting a point behind leaders ETO Gyor with a game in hand.

Although Keane played for Celtic for a short period at the end of his playing career, his time managing in Israel wasn’t well received in his homeland and that would be a distraction certainly in the days and weeks around any appointment.

Keane may well be the favoured choice of fellow Irishman Dermot Desmond who is the king maker at Celtic Park with an iron fisted control over the Boardroom. Dermot gets what Dermot wants and he cares not a jot what others think. He has been quoted saying that if a million people disagreed with him he’d back his own judgement rather than accept any contrary view.

Craig Bellamy, Head Coach of Wales speaks to the media during a press conference at Wembley Stadium on October 08, 2025. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

FIVE – Craig Bellamy – Like the aforementioned Robbie Keane, Craig Bellamy had a short spell wearing the Hoops during his playing career. Bellamy is currently the National team coach at Wales and is preparing for the World Cup play-off matches against Bosnia & Herzegovina the if that game is negotiated successfully the winners of the Northern Ireland versus Italy game. If Bellamy gets Wales to the World Cup – and it is a big if – then timings would effectively rule him out of the Celtic job, where he is probably the outsider of the five options mentioned on The Celtic Star today.