Why Celtic must hand their new sporting director a seat on the Parkhead board - and may promote Nick Hammond

John Collins, Phil Giles, Fergal Harkin, John Kennedy, Enzo Maresca, Matteo Tognozzi and David Webb have either been linked with or publicly expressed an interest in landing the new role. All of them have worked at a high level in the game in the past. Every one would have much to offer.

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Yet, for Dr Dan Parnell, the chief executive officer of the Association of Sporting Directors, the skillset and experience of the successful candidate are, while important, not what really matters. 

Dr Parnell believes the remit the individual who is recruited is given and the power he is allowed to wield by his paymasters will determine whether he can make a significant impact on the on and off-field fortunes of the Glasgow giants and help them to reclaim the Scottish title from Rangers.

The majority of major clubs across Europe now have a director of football or sporting director in place. Some, like Jose Luis Caminero at Atletico Madrid, have worked wonders, transformed previously struggling sides and been responsible for remarkable successes. Others, however, are mere window dressing who hold little sway.

Lawwell, a chartered accountant by profession, will stand down after nearly 18 years in June. He will be replaced by Dominic McKay, the Scottish Rugby chief operating officer whose background is in marketing. It would seem the perfect opportunity to overhaul how Celtic operate. 

Dr Parnell, who has advised Premier League clubs seeking to recruit sporting directors, feels strongly that whoever is brought in needs to be handed a place on the board so that he can exert real influence.

“Peter has been extraordinarily successful during his remarkable and lengthy tenure at Celtic,” he said. “But the club may feel it is time to look at a change of the organisation with him leaving. It will be about the new chief executive, how he views his role, what the club want to achieve.

“If Celtic do decide to change their structure, it isn’t likely to change if they just replace Peter. Look at FIFA. They took out Sepp Blatter, but it didn’t change the culture of the organisation. It still operates the same way. My point is that you don’t change a culture by changing one person, you change culture by looking at the organisation, values, people, behaviours.

“Looking at it from a decision-making perspective, if you replace like for like and don’t change the organisation and the structure there is going to be a problem. The new chief executive might not want to give away some of his power to a sporting director. That just isn’t natural. Somebody else has to say: ‘This is right for the club’. It seems like a really good time to do that.”

Dr Parnell added: “The key thing for me is that the sporting director sits on the board. That is where influence takes place. They will have a clear role and responsibilities, but they will ultimately have the power on the board to check and challenge decisions which are made.

“Quite often, if a sporting director isn’t on the board they don’t have any say, they need to rely on someone else to negotiate with a board to get what they want.

“One of the key things about a sporting director coming in is that he breaks down the mistrust between a board and a manager and is also protects the manager and the long-term strategy of the club.

“The board typically has less football acumen. It is full of solicitors and accountants. They don’t have the expertise to determine what the problem is when things aren’t going well.

“The sporting director will be able to communicate with the manager, understand what is happening and then use the language of the boardroom to explain what is happening in football terms to buy the manager more time.

“I think the role requires you to be on the board. If you aren’t then you don’t have a genuine say. You have to fight battles at boardroom level. You have to present arguments on behalf of your side of the operation. You need to have decision-making powers or you will carry the can for decisions other people make.”

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Celtic’s summer recruitment has been partially blamed for their dire 2020/21 campaign; Albian Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas and Shane Duffy have all struggled to justify the outlay that it took to bring them to Parkhead and none of them are currently starting for the first team.

Nick Hammond, the head of football operations, and his scouting team have been castigated by many supporters as their bid to make Scottish football history and complete 10-In-A-Row has ended in failure.

But Dr Parnell knows from personal experience the criticism could be completely unjustified and feels Celtic could decide to promote from within just like Manchester United – who this month moved their long-standing head of football development John Murtough to the football director position – have done.

“Celtic are an amazing club,” he said. “Getting somebody in as sporting director could be a fantastic move. But they might have the person there already. Maybe they just need to shift them. Nicky Hammond is an astute professional with expertise and experience in delivering success. That has been proven. He could be the best sporting director.

“What is his role under Peter? What is he allowed to do? That is the problem in football. You don’t really know who is doing what unless you are really close to it. Often we don’t know what goes on in the boardroom or away from the boardroom when decisions are being made.

“Somebody could look like the best sporting director in the world if things have been going well on the park at his club. But he might not be the one who has actually been making the decisions.”