{"id":478368,"date":"2026-06-02T01:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478368\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T01:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:25:10","slug":"robbie-keane-moves-closer-to-celtic-job-after-meeting-dermot-desmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478368\/","title":{"rendered":"Robbie Keane moves closer to Celtic job after meeting Dermot Desmond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland legend Robbie Keane is now favourite to become the new Celtic manager after meeting with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond about the job on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Martin O\u2019Neill returned to Parkhead last season in two separate caretaker spells, leading the Bhoys to a dramatic last-day title success which was added to last week with the Scottish FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, Desmond is believed to favour 45-year-old Keane for the post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The successful return of O\u2019Neill could see him continue at 74 in an advisory capacity but Keane is thought to be the preferred candidate at present.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/sport\/soccer\/arid-41849616.html\">last week quit as the head coach of Hungarian side Ferencv\u00e1ros<\/a> after 18 months and has ambitions of continuing his coaching journey on a higher stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It\u2019s understood that Keane\u2019s compatriot, Jonny Hayes, will step up from his position managing Celtic\u2019s B team as one of the first-team assistants if a final deal is brokered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There\u2019s also the possibility of former Celtic captain Scott Brown making a comeback as a staff member.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cork-born billionaire Desmond (75) also holds a 25% share in League of Ireland champions Shamrock Rovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland legend Robbie Keane is now favourite to become the new Celtic manager after meeting with majority shareholder&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2675,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-478368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-celtic","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478368","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=478368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}