Former Everton boss to Celtic verdict as ex-Toffees and Hoops ace holds major silverware concern

Aiden McGeady has provided his next Celtic manager verdict on an ex-Everton boss becoming Parkhead head coach- as well as Motherwell gaffer Jens Berthel Askou.

The Fir Park boss’ work in turning his team into a European football contender with an eye-catching style has earned plaudits, and thrown him towards the debate of becoming Celtic’s long-term managerial solution. McGeady wonders if he’d get the time to implement that style at Celtic and has more familiarity with another rumoured option, Roberto Martinez, who is head coach of Portugal. He has also managed Belgium recently as well as Swansea City, Wigan Athletic and Everton.

Ex-Celtic and Everton man McGeady was asked about Martinez and Askou, starting by asking questions on the latter. He told Open Goal: “How long did it take to get that style of play embedded at Motherwell? What I was going to say is like, you have that time at Motherwell to do that. But if you do that, if you come into Celtic and it's Askou at Celtic, and you're taking a little bit of time to get the players kind of buying into the way you want to play. I just think at Celtic you're not getting 10, 11, 12 games. That's the thing you wonder about these managers when they go into a big job.”

Who does Aiden McGeady want as next Celtic manager?

McGeady does first-hand experience with Martinez, having worked with him at Everton, albeit the former winger alluded to not being the Spaniard’s favourite. He doesn’t know whether or not Martinez has the cutting edge to go and claim silverware like he would be expected to do regularly in Glasgow.

The former winger said: “Martínez? Potentially. I don't know, because obviously Portugal have got the World Cup, don't they? He is a top manager. The career he's had and the jobs he's had would suggest that. I've always found with Martínez, I just don't... I could be wrong here because Portugal could win the World Cup.

“I just think with the teams that he's had, Belgium with that squad, you should have really won something there. You should have and that was always the thing I found with Martinez at Everton. I thought he was a really, really good coach with really good ideas but I just wasn't sure he had enough about him to go and win things. Which he still hasn't done.

Roberto Martinez to Celtic verdict

“I think he is a good coach. Based on my time at Everton with him, it was always the two midfielders, where it was always James McCarthy and Gareth Barry. They would literally do 13k a game because they were the ones required that if the ball was coming wide to a fullback, they would always be the ones to get out and put that fire out, and the wingers would just stay up. So he was a pure attacking and loved his attacking players. Just not me, right enough.

“He loved his attacking players and he was all about attacking. He was very, very possession-based, to the point where it would be sometimes in games you would have to get a certain number of passes before you could really pass forward and go out the other side. The Everton fans didn't really buy into that because they were used to David Moyes going to get the ball forward, balls in the box, headers. We finished 5th under him when we should have finished 4th in the Premier League.

“We lost two of our last three games and if we won them... we were winning 2-0 at home to Arsenal and again that goes back to management where I came on as a sub. Probably my fault, right enough. We were winning 2-0. He didn't want his wingers to really come back. That was Gareth Barry and James McCarthy's job to go across. You are 2-0 up but I came on and it was like, don't come back past the half-way line, and I think it was Nacho Monreal's crossed. He's crossed and it's went to the other full-back who might have been Hector Bellerin. He's then crossed it back in and Olivier Giroud scored. I'm like, if I am back there, that might not happen.”

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