Big Jan heading home, Coaching Carousel Continued

By: Matt | June 1st, 2009

Celtic and big Jan Venneogoor of Hesselink will part ways this summer. The big Dutchman’s contract with Celtic was up and has agreed to a three year deal with Dutch club PSV Eidhoven . While he struggled this year, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink has been the source of many memorable moments in his time with Celtic. Perhaps the most memorable to me was both the goal that won the league last year at Tannadice and the footage of Big Jan signing “Fields of Athenry” during the celebrations.. Thanks for the memories, Big Mhan, and more importantly, thanks for letting me create the metaphor for pulling your groin with your name. Even with you in Holland, I’ll still refer to the dubious injury as “Jan Vennegooring your Hesselink”.

A couple bits of solid news have come forth in the coaching search for Celtic. The first of which is that most of Gordon Strachan’s first team have been sent packing as well. The termination deals for assistant manager Garry Pendrey, goalkeeping coach Jim Blyth and chief scout Ray Clarke will be finalised this week, making room for the new manager to appoint his own staff. One person who will not be looking for a new job is former player and first team coach Neil Lennon. Lenny met with John Reid and Peter Lawwell and was assured that he would continue to be apart of the coaching staff for Celtic, regardless of who will be hired as the new manager.

Speaking of who will be the next manager of Celtic, a candidate has emerged out of left field (are baseball references allowed on a footy blog?), or at least Wales. Celtic have made an official approach for Swansea boss Roberto Martinez. Swansea Chairman Huw Jenkins said “I had a call off their chief executive [Peter Lawwell] making me aware that they’d like to talk to Roberto.” Martinez is currently on holiday, but will return this week and discuss his future with Swansea and possibly Celtic. Martinez already has a link to Scotland, playing with Motherwell in 2000/2001 and his long time girlfriend is from Scotland as well, so a move to Celtic for the Catalan would not be a big change for him. Paddy Power betting has changed their odds to have Martinez as the favorite for the job now.

Until a coach puts pen to paper, everyone one of these types of posts will be closed with “We shall see…”