Old Firm weeks are never quiet in Glasgow, but this one has been off the scale.

On Monday night, completely out of the blue, Brendan Roders resigned as Celtic manager, not the first time he has abruptly departed the club, despite reiterating “without any avoidance of doubt, I will be here next year 200%” following last season’s Premiership title was clinched at Tannadice in April.

However, in the intervening six months, plenty has clearly changed, with owner Dermot Desmond releasing a scathing statement against Rodgers following his resignation, blaming him for creating a ‘toxic atmosphere around the club that had fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team’ and describing the manager’s actions as ‘divisive, misleading, and self-serving’.

Fair to say, he’s probably not returning for a third time!

With Martin O’Neill back in interim charge for now, ahead of Sunday’s Glasgow derby at Hampden, all eyes are on who will be the next appointment, so should the board target a manager currently coaching in the Champions League?

Whether Ange Postecoglou could return to Celtic

Of course, the populist appointment would be to re-hire Ange Postecoglou.

The Australian is out of work following his ill-fated 39 days in charge of Nottingham Forest, but is still ultra-popular in Glasgow’s East End, having won five trophies across two seasons in charge of the club, turning the team around after Rangers had won the Premiership title by 25 points the year before.

However, Lyall Thomas of Sky Sports reports that a Postecoglou​​​​​​​ return to Parkhead is ‘very unlikely’ as he seeks to take a break from football, but would he actually be the right appointment anyway?

Well, Celtic do love re-hiring managers, with Neil Lennon, Rodgers and now O’Neill all given second stints; since 2000, only seven men have managed Celtic, three of which have had multiple spells.

However, despite Europa League glory in May, thereby ending Spurs’ infamous trophy draught, Postecoglou’s reputation may be seriously damaged, considering he’s lost 31 of his last 48 Premier League matches, accumulating just 45 points across this period, his teams conceding 91 goals.

So, rather than looking to the past, seeking to recapture former glories, Desmond, Peter Lawwell​​​​​​​ and Michael Nicholson should look forwards and target a “workaholic”.

Celtic should target Champions League-level manager

Plenty of managers have been linked with the vacancy in the past few days, including Kieran McKenna, Robbie Keane, Craig Bellamy and Kjetil Knutsen, but Nicky Hayen is surely the outstanding candidate on the radar so far.

As per the aforementioned Sky Sports report, Hayen is a figure that the Parkhead hierarchy are currently ‘tracking’, albeit with it yet to be seen if they will be able to prise him mid-season.

The 45-year-old has been a coach for over a decade, holding a variety of managerial and assistant roles, including briefly being the manager of Haverfordwest County​​​​​​​ in the Cymru Premier, winning six of 11 games in charge of the Bluebirds from Pembrokeshire.

He then took the job as Club Brugge’s youth team manager, before becoming their senior head coach on an interim basis when former Celtic boss Ronny Deila was sacked in March 2024.

Well, during his caretaker stint, he won nine of 14 matches, losing only once, leading the Blue-Blacks to the Conference League semi-finals and clinching the Jupiler Pro League title on the final day.

This earned him the job on a permanent basis, and his record at Jan Breydelstadion is very impressive.

Matches

93

Wins

57

Draws

19

Defeats

17

Goals scored

183

Goals conceded

100

League points

132

League points per game

2.13

2024/25 league finish

2nd

UCL matches

15

UCL wins

6

UCL best finish

Round of 16

As the table notes, since winning the Belgian league title during his interim spell, he has continued to rack up domestic victories, beating Anderlecht 2-1 in May’s Coupe de Belgique Final in Brussels, albeit they were pipped to the league title by Royale Union Saint-Gilloise​​​​​​​ on the final day.

Meantime, in the Champions League, thanks to wins over Sturm Graz, Aston Villa and Sporting, as well as a hotly-contested 1-1 draw at Parkhead, Club Brugge reached the knockout stages last season, springing a major surprise by dumping out Atalanta, before eventually falling at Villa Park in the round of 16.

All of this has earned Hayen high praise, with Rob Edwards, chairman of Haverfordwest, labelling him a “workaholic”, adding that he favours a possession-based style, delighted that his club is associated with ‘undoubtedly one of the hottest properties in the world of football’.

Meantime, Will Unwin of the Guardian documents how Hayen does ‘not change his philosophy’, wanting to ‘keep the ball and pass through opponents’, with Jack Chippendale of Total Football Analysis praising his tactical masterclass in Bergamo last year.

To start this Champions League campaign, Club Brugge claimed a result Celtic supporters would have enjoyed, demolishing Rangers 9-1 on aggregate in the play-off round, before commencing the league phase with a 4-1 annihilation of Monaco.

​​​​​This European pedigree will certainly catch the eye of the decision makers at Celtic Park, considering the Hoops’ lack of continental victories over the last two decades and more.

Of course, getting Hayen out of Brugge certainly will not be easy, especially mid-season, but this would surely be a slam-dunk appointment, with the 45 year old very much on the up, while the same surely cannot be said of Postecoglou, despite how popular he will forever be.