Celtic do not have the ability to secure a manager like David Moyes – that would require us to be serious when it comes to managerial recruitment

Mention the Celtic job and sooner or later somebody floats the name of David Moyes.

Let me save you some time.

It’s a fantasy.

Pure and simple.

And before anybody accuses me of being negative, I’d bite your hand off if it were true.

Moyes would be looking for at least £5 million a year, because that is what he earns at Everton

For starters, Celtic do not pay English Premier League wages.

That’s not a criticism of the players or the manager, it’s just the way the board have always operated.

The highest salary the club has ever paid a manager was £3 million per annum, and that went to Brendan Rodgers.

Rodgers pretty much delivered the club a Treble Treble, so you could argue he earned every penny of it.

And that is the ceiling.

It’s highly unlikely we would see the board offer any candidate a penny more than that.

Not for Moyes, and not for anybody else.

Because we all know how this works at our club.

Silent Mike doesn’t get to decide on a £5 million salary by himself – Michael Nicholson never decides anything by himself.

That decision belongs to the absent meddling golfer in Barbados.

And the day Dermot Desmond signs off on that is the day I’ll eat my season ticket.

Landing a manager of Moyes’s calibre would require the club to get serious

As I’ve said in the headline, that’s the real issue here.

Moyes is a proper manager with a proper CV.

A Glaswegian who played for Celtic, who has managed in the Premier League for the best part of two decades, and who has been in the dugout at Manchester United and Real Sociedad.

You don’t attract that sort of man with a vague promise and a pat on the head.

You attract him with ambition, with a plan and with a budget to back it up.

You attract him by showing him that the people above him want to win things as much as he does.

Does that sound like our board to you?

I didn’t think so.

Celtic’s recruitment of managers has never been serious.

It has been a mix of panic, favours and whoever happens to be available when the phone rings.

Remember how we got Martin O’Neill the last time?

We didn’t plan for it.

We were left with nowhere else to turn.

Under the current regime, serious is not going to be happening any time soon

Which brings me to Martin O’Neill himself.

He is 74 years old and he has already admitted that he thought about his future after the defeat to the Ibrox side last month.

Here is what Gordon Strachan had to say, as reported in the Daily Record:

“Every manager has a moment of doubt after a painful defeat where they question if they want to continue. But after stepping back and reflecting, Martin O’Neill realised how good the opportunity at Celtic is.”

“Martin is the right man for the job.”

Fine.

It’s worth remembering that Strachan is a Dermot Desmond ally – the pair have been praising each other in public for years.

So forgive me if I don’t take it as gospel.

Then again, he might well be right.

I have said myself that I’d have him as long as he wants to stay.

But the question nobody at Celtic Park seems willing to ask is what happens after him.

Because he won’t be here forever.

Seven past Hearts and two league wins don’t change the fact that the clock is ticking.

Three defeats on the bounce, a Europa League opener lost to Ferencvaros and a heavy loss to Benfica since – no wonder the man had to stop and think about his future.

What happens the next time it goes wrong?

And who is the board’s Plan B?

A club that was serious would already have a succession plan in place.

It would have identified the three or four people it wanted, and it would have a pitch ready for each of them.

A club that was serious would have started that work months ago.

Instead, we get Strachan telling us everything is rosy and the board keeping their heads down.

Then again, that is how they like it.

Expect the same old names, and a renewed pursuit of Robbie Keane

So here’s what will actually happen.

When the time comes, there will be no Moyes.

There will be no Glasner either, whatever Foosball Shitsider tells you.

There will be a list of names at the level the board are comfortable with.

Names that won’t cost too much, and names who won’t ask difficult questions about the budget.

Names who will do as they are told.

And at the top of that list, I’d put money on it, will be Robbie Keane.

We’ve seen it before.

Desmond doesn’t let go of an idea once he’s got his teeth into it.

He didn’t get the job done last time, but make no mistake, the pursuit of Keane is coming back.

Maybe not tomorrow, and maybe not next summer.

But it’s coming.

And if you’ve been paying attention, you already know why.

He’s cheap, he’s Irish, and he’s Desmond’s choice.

That’s the level of ambition we’re dealing with – and the support pays for it, as always.

The media can keep dangling David Moyes in front of us if they want.

It sells papers and it fills a slow news day.

But it has nothing to do with reality.

The reality is that a club which won’t pay £5 million for a manager isn’t going to land the sort of manager who earns it.

Dream on, Moyes fans…

End of.

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