Former Rangers defender Michael Ball has exclusively told The Transfer Tavern that Celtic need a big-name appointment to bridge the gap to their Old Firm rivals.
The Parkhead outfit were bidding to achieve an unprecedented tenth Scottish Premiership title on the bounce, but have fallen miserably short of that target, and are currently 23 points behind their Rangers, who are 90 minutes away from reaching 100 points and going the entire campaign unbeaten.
Celtic’s wretched season, which was compounded by their recent Scottish Cup exit at Ibrox, will end without silverware for the first time for 11 years.
Their poor form led to the mid-season departure of Neil Lennon, who was sacked after their embarrassing defeat to Ross County in February, with the club already out of both Europe and the Scottish League Cup.
Almost three months later, Celtic are yet to name a replacement for Lennon, although Eddie Howe remains the strong favourite to succeed him, with Jose Mourinho a shock name in the running until he was appointed at Roma following his Tottenham exit.
And Ball told The Transfer Tavern that whoever gets appointed will have a huge wait of expectation on their shoulders:
“Celtic have really high hopes, the fans have really high hopes. They are used to being successful, they know their rivals have gone above them. Early on, there was talk of Benitez coming into the club.
“Their limits and who Celtic fans want to bring will be as big of a name as possible that means they mean business. It will be interesting to see who they bring in.”
