Celtic Score Big In Champions League
The mood around Scottish football is pretty high at the minute. Celtic started its Champions’ League campaign with a comprehensive win Wednesday over Slovan Bratislava, the club’s first victory in an opening group stage match in the history of the competition in the modern era. It was also the Hoops’ biggest margin of victory in the Champions’ League (post-European Cup).
The Full Scottish
Their domestic rivals, Rangers, open their Europa League campaign next week against Swedish side Malmö, a winnable fixture for sure. But north and east of Glasgow, things took a bit of an odd—surprising—turn when St. Johnstone sacked veteran manager Craig Levein.
Levein, who managed the Scottish national team at one point (famously trotting out a 4-6-0 formation in one match) had saved the Perth club from relegation last term, but was only just beginning his first full season in charge at McDiarmid Park (that the Saints once again feature in this space is also, well, surprising).
A segment of the St. Johnstone support, such as it is, considered Levein’s appointment uninspiring. Perhaps memories of that 4-6-0 formation were still fresh. However, the post is hardly a sought-after one, with respect. Levein’s now-former side currently sit in 10th in the Premiership table, with one win in five matches. It’s largely the same side that narrowly avoided relegation last season, and the budget is anything but big.
As of this writing, frontrunners for the job include Celtic assistant John Kennedy (seems unlikely he’d leave mate Brendan Rodgers’ side now), current Ayr boss (and former Celtic captain) Scott Brown and former Celtic manager and captain Neil Lennon. Notice a trend?
Current Falkirk gaffer John McGlynn (himself a former Celtic scout) is the bookies’ favorite, largely because Brown is still settling in in Ayr and Lennon just concluded a(nother) disastrous managerial spell at Rapid Bucharest (after six matches, including five draws and one defeat, and an alleged incident of urinary incontinence).
Put it this way, though: the line of contenders for the job is short, even if there’s nothing but positivity at the opposite end of the Premiership table.