I’m honoured to be linked with Celtic
RED Bull Salzburg head coach Jesse Marsch last night admitted it is an honour to be linked with the ‘interesting’ vacant Celtic post.
The 47-year-old American has been suggested as a replacement for Neil Lennon, who quit Parkhead last month during a calamitous season in which Rangers were crowned champions for the first time in a decade.
Salzburg are currently on course for a second straight Austrian league and cup double under Marsch, who is also believed to be on the radar of top German clubs. A summer move to the Bundesliga looks more likely than the SPFL for Marsch — who is contracted at Salzburg until 2022 — but he said: ‘I’ve heard (about the links with Celtic). It’s an honour for me.
‘Three or four years ago, being linked with a club like Celtic would literally be an impossibility for me. And now that this is where I am — I always just try to look at it in terms of: “What would the project look like?”
‘Would we have similar ideas in how to build it the right way, invest in the academy, invest in young players and create this development process that I’m talking about? And not just focus on winning?
‘Obviously, I know that when you’re the coach of Celtic, winning is the most important thing.
‘I know enough about it to say of course it’s interesting.
‘It’s an amazing club and it would be an honour to even be considered. But I also have a job to do here.
‘My way of working is really to focus on the job I’m doing and concentrate on the moment. The more that I do that, the more other possibilities can arise.
‘But right now my full concentration is in finishing my year here in Salzburg and then I’ll evaluate in the summer what the possibilities are for a potential next step.’
A previous coach of New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer, former USA international midfielder Marsch moved to Germany in 2018 to become Ralf Rangnick’s assistant at RB Leipzig before taking the top job at fellow Red Bull-controlled club Salzburg the following summer.
There he developed outstanding talents such as current Borussia Dortmund superstar striker Erling Haaland and attacking midfielder Takumi Minamino, who is now at English Premier League side Southampton on loan from Liverpool.
Marsch certainly has links to Scotland. He studied his UEFA Pro Licence here in 2017-18, intriguingly, with Celtic sponsoring him through ties with Red Bull. During that time he flew regularly from America to Glasgow — where his daughter now studies — after New York Red Bulls matches.
On the coaching course here he met familiar Scottish faces, including the current Hibs manager and the ex-head coach at Hamilton Accies.
‘Jack Ross was on the course with me and I thought he was really good, Martin Canning, too,’ said Marsch, who also knows ex-Celtic and Rangers striker Maurice Johnston from his time in the MLS. ‘There were also a lot of the assistant coaches in the league and some that are starting to be head coaches.
‘I enjoyed it immensely. What I learned, not just about Scottish football, but Scottish people is how welcoming they were, how open they were to the ideas I had and how challenging the course was.’
While appearing to despair of the results-driven nature of the football business at times, Marsch remains committed to preparing teams along two key principles that should bring success whatever the country. So far his strategy is proving a success.
He told BBC Scotland: ‘One is that 73 per cent of goals from run of play are scored within ten seconds of winning the ball. The other is that your best chance of winning the ball back after losing it is within the first eight seconds.
‘After that, it drops dramatically. And that’s not in Germany, or MLS, or in Scotland — that’s wherever. So it is all about using those two statistics to guide ourselves so we can shape our success.
‘Football in Europe is very sink or swim. People get sucked into that and are swayed by results. When you’re trying to win but you skip steps in investing in what the team is to be, it’s very hard to control the results.
‘What I try to do is to create an environment that is not about the results. It’s about development and an understanding of what we’re trying to achieve. And the more I’m able to do that, the more we’re able to control the results.
‘Ultimately, if you were to ask me why I came to Europe, it was to see if my idea of relationships and leadership could function in the most competitive environment in our sport.
‘With two years of success (in Austria), and Champions League football, I’ve realised that my profile has changed. In my mind it hasn’t changed at all, but obviously publicly things have.’