{"id":109081,"date":"2025-10-28T21:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/109081\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T21:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:09:08","slug":"martin-oneill-rules-out-long-celtic-stay-as-kieran-mckenna-emerges-as-candidate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/109081\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O\u2019Neill rules out long Celtic stay as Kieran McKenna emerges as candidate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin O\u2019Neill<\/a> is adamant his return to Celtic<\/a> will be short term as the Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna<\/a> emerged as a leading candidate to replace Brendan Rodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a shock move on Monday, Rodgers resigned from Celtic with his team eight points adrift of Hearts in the Scottish Premiership. Equally surprising was the return of O\u2019Neill, whose previous, hugely successful, spell in charge ended in 2005. The 73-year-old former Ireland manager said he had to \u201cpull myself off the floor\u201d when taking a call from the club\u2019s main shareholder Dermot Desmond at 5pm on Monday. Rodgers was later castigated by Desmond in a statement posted on Celtic\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is definitely interim,\u201d said O\u2019Neill. \u201cThere could be a new manager in two weeks\u2019 time. That\u2019s it, absolutely. Celtic will be looking for a young manager to come in with a very decent CV. There is nervous excitement. I obviously want to do as well as I can. I\u2019m looking forward to it, I think. This is a role where they\u2019re looking for a permanent manager. At this minute, I\u2019ve been called in to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic play four matches before the next international window, which looks like their broad time frame for hiring Rodgers\u2019s successor. Ange Postecoglou<\/a> was immediately installed as the favourite to replace Rodgers. However, there is little immediate traction associated with a return for the Australian to Glasgow despite him being out of work.<\/p>\n

McKenna is known to have long-time admirers at Celtic on the back of his results \u2013 and style of play \u2013 at Ipswich but whether the 39-year-old from Northern Ireland would view a move to Scotland as sensible remains to be seen. McKenna, previously interviewed by Chelsea, has his team three points off the Championship playoffs. He is under contract until 2028. McKenna would not only prove expensive but may reasonably determine he can make a Premier League switch when eventually leaving Ipswich.<\/p>\n

\"MIDDLESBROUGH,MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 17: Kieran McKenna, Manager of Ipswich Town, applauds the fans following the Sky Bet Championship match between Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town at Riverside Stadium on October 17, 2025 in Middlesbrough, England. (Photo by George Wood\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill understandably refused to assess Desmond\u2019s critique of Rodgers, albeit he admitted it was \u201csad\u201d to witness a relationship breakdown. \u201cI don\u2019t know what has been taking place so there is very little that I can add to it,\u201d he said. \u201cI got a call from Dermot. He said Brendan had resigned. People have been taken aback by that. I assumed nothing would happen until the end of the season for anybody. I was asked if I\u2019d come in and hold proceedings until they found a permanent manager. I had 10 minutes to make up my mind, which I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the easiest thing in the world to say that when a club is successful it has everybody going in the same direction. That doesn\u2019t seem to be the case at this moment. So really, that\u2019s it. Whether I\u2019m able to do that or not is in the lap of the gods. But I think winning football matches has always been the main idea with fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill, whose description of what Celtic will pursue fits with McKenna, will be assisted by his former player Shaun Maloney. There is no prospect of Maloney, who was already in a background role at Celtic, being given the manager\u2019s job. Celtic host Falkirk on Wednesday before a trip to Hampden Park to face Rangers in Sunday\u2019s League Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n

Hours before his appointment, O\u2019Neill had talked up the prospect of Hearts ending 40 years of Old Firm title dominance in Scotland while bemoaning Celtic\u2019s lack of physicality. \u201cI stand by everything I said,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cAlthough, if I\u2019d known I was going to get the job, I wouldn\u2019t have said anything. Hearts are very strong. They\u2019re going brilliantly at this minute.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin O\u2019Neill is adamant his return to Celtic will be short term as the Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15009,16605,2675,61,66472,60,66471,65855,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-109081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ange-postecoglou","9":"tag-brendan-rodgers","10":"tag-celtic","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ipswich-town","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-kieran-mckenna","15":"tag-martin-o-neill","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}