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THERE was a time when a youth team boss taking over at the Old Firm would have been seen as a gamble too risky.
That time was three years ago when Steven Gerrard, with no experience of senior management, accepted the daunting challenge of taking over at Rangers.
Critics of the move pointed to the fact he’d only managed Liverpool’s Under-18s and that was no way to prepare for the pressure pot at one of Glasgow’s big two.
But the 40-year-old emphatically disproved that theory by romping to the title, with Gers crowned champions even earlier than Celtic last season when the campaign was ended prematurely due to Covid.
Now it’s the Hoops hierarchy who have to find someone to stop Gerrard in his tracks.
And this time it’s them who have been heavily linked with a candidate in charge of a Premier League academy side.
Enzo Maresca, 41, has emerged as the red-hot bookies’ favourite, the Italian’s name met with some scepticism among a section of a support split on him taking over.
In one camp you have fans listing all the same reservations over the 41-year-old’s suitability for the role as those who reckoned Gerrard was the wrong move.
Those who want a Brendan Rodgers-style statement appointment cite a lack of managerial experience as the main objection to him.
Scottish football has had some spectacular failures when it comes to foreign appointments, with Paul Le Guen and Pedro Caixinha across the city two examples.
More recently, Italian
Angelo Alessio’s time at Kilmarnock was shortlived. Although their current predicament shows the job he did in a much better light.
In fact, they would love to be in the fifth position he left them in.
There is always a fear of taking that leap but with the pressure of 10 in a row removed, it’s a chance for Celtic to be a bit bolder in approach.
Granted, Maresca’s playing career doesn’t compare to Gerrard’s and it was the Liverpool legend’s CV that helped make up for the lack of managerial experience.
But he still played at a decent level with the ex-midfielder moving to Juventus in a £4.3million move from West Brom, where he started his senior career, on top of
With the pressure of 10 in a row removed, it is a chance for Celts to be bolder
spells at Fiorentina and Sevilla. And he has picked up plenty of experience since retiring, with assistant roles at Ascoli, Sevilla and West Ham before taking charge of Manchester City’s Under-23s.
An energetic player who could play in all midfield positions, his old Fiorentina boss Emiliano Mondonico described him as the “complete player”.
And as youth team manager of a Premier League team, there are plenty of similarities with the man he could go toe to toe with next season.
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JOHN McMASTER reckons Aberdeen’s sacking of Derek McInnes was a long time coming and boiled down to winning and losing with nothing in-between.
The Gothenburg Great and former mentor of the axed Dons protege insists a legacy of only one trophy after eight years in the post didn’t cut it and the minute Dave Cormack replaced Stewart Milne as chairman, the die was cast.
A record of reaching four cup finals and qualifying for European football seven years in a row will be held up as the McInnes legacy but McMaster believes it’s that second-best mentality of accepting mediocrity that now exists at the club.
As the search starts for a successor, the 66-year-old is convinced St Mirren’s Jim Goodwin is the perfect fit to replace a manager who has been stripped of his mojo during this campaign.
McMaster said: “I’ve known Derek since he was a teenager at Morton, he’s never been the same since Cormack came in.
“He appears quieter and looks to have lost some power. He was given the keys to the castle by Milne but Cormack’s took them off him.
“It’s all crept up on him this season and I always felt when the new chairman came in, it was only a matter of time. By all accounts his wages were significant but it was the interest from Sunderland and Rangers which lifted him into that bracket.
“Milne loved Derek because he delivered a league cup trophy which was won against Inverness on penalty-kicks and couldn’t see past him.
“What’s can’t be ignored is failures in the big games time and again.
“When I first arrived at Aberdeen in 1972 I saw a team of losers and runners-ups. A side which loved reaching semi-finals and finals but couldn’t win anything. I remember reaching my first Scottish Cup Final and a mate saying I was now a legend. I told him I hadn’t won anything yet. I’d lost in the League Cup and Scottish Cup Final but somehow I was a legend? That was the mentality back then and it’s crept back in to the club under Derek. He had to win trophies and he knew that. The fans will accept a few false starts, missing a few finals and semis. But when it happens five or six times in semi-finals and finals then something has to change.
“It took me four attempts at finals before I won anything. It’s about winning, I remember getting off the team bus after we won the league at Hibs and I thanked Alex Ferguson on my way off. I told him it was the first time I’d won anything and he shouted, ‘F*** O** McMaster, get off the bus’.”
“To him you were either a winner or a loser and nobody remembers losers.
“What’s happened at Celtic this season has been a tsunami and Rangers being resurgent has also helped sweep Aberdeen even further from success.
“I like Cormack, he’s upfront with the fans but from day one I felt Derek’s days were numbered when Milne left and so it’s proved.”
The former Dons midfield schemer now believes Cormack should get straight on the phone and attempt to lure Goodwin to Pittodrie.
McMaster added: “I believe he’s a magnificent manager in the making.
“I’ve watched him since his Alloa days, I watch his manner and approach to the game. I see how he acts in the dugout and he’s constantly talking to his players on and off the park.
“His presentation off the park is fantastic and he’s not a Billy Big Time, he just wants to improve himself and his club.I can imagine him at Aberdeen and working with greater resources, it would be an inspired appointment.”