Anyone need a Number 2?

Don't ask me - I'm saying nothing!

Amid all the recrimination and justification of all and sundry over Ronny Deila's tenure as Celtic manager, some have pointed to the backroom staff.

Any manager is entitled to an assistant and coaches he can trust. These guys are not just professionals carrying out the training and tactical instructions of the manager but they are also his allies and friends, his extra sets of eyes and ears.

It is vital that he can trust them. When the going gets tough – as it inevitably will, especially at a club with the pressure associated with Celtic, these guys are the rock that the manager will lean on.

Any rebellious player will find himself facing a solid, indivisible phalanx of comrades. Gordon Strachan had Tommy Burns; Neil Lennon had Johan Mjallby and Alan Thompson; Martin O'Neill had John Robertson and Steve Walford, Billy McNeill had Tommy Craig and Frank Connor; Jock Stein had Sean Fallon.

Ronny Deila had the two Johns.

Now, I have no reason to suspect that John Kennedy is anything but a good guy. I just fail to see what he brings to the team. Having a “defensive coach” sounds oh-so-modern, and yet, Celtic often defended abysmally, persisting with a zonal marking system that the players lacked the wit to implement – and rarely appeared to understand.

And, individually, to see Dedryck Boyata running forward, losing the ball, tracking back and pulling a player down was to despair. If John Kennedy couldn't knock that out of him, what the hell was he doing?

But I was reminded recently of Eric Black, when someone touted him as a potential Celtic manager. Black, as some will remember, had a coaching role at Celtic under Wim Jansen. Wim was not the saint he portrayed himself to be but he once curiously dismissed Black as “Brown's man”, referring to the then “Manager”/Football Director Jock Brown.

It was a comment dripping with sinister undertones.

Black is a curious figure, having been appointed as caretaker manager four times in his career, on each occasion taking over from the man he was appointed to assist.

And I can't help thinking of similarities between Black and John Collins. Maybe it's the silky-skilled play they both once demonstrated, maybe it's the fact that they both went to the French league for the best payday they could get, maybe it's just the suntan.

But Collins was widely said to be a divisive figure when manager of Hibs and similar rumours persist around his dealings with Celtic.

I recall when Gordon Strachan was verbally abused by a steward at Pittodrie, having answered back some fans who had been baiting him. Clearly upset, Gordon didn't speak to the press that evening but, instead, Tommy Burns gave the TV interview in as noble and comforting a show of support as anyone could have wished for.

When Mark McGhee refused to shake Ronny Deila's hand, Ronny decided not to take the interviews. And John Kennedy gave what seemed like a professional performance, without any words of support that I read reported.

But where was John Collins? In fact, where has John Collins been at any time when the pressure was on his boss?

Remember, Collins is the one with the Celtic connection, who knows the pressure attached to the club, is familiar with the Scottish game and how the press react.

And Collins should have been the first one standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ronny when the going got tougher than any manager in the Tippeligaen has ever had it.

Perhaps the fact that Norway is a non-EU member meant that Ronny's coaches would have found it difficult to get work permits, as happened when Christian Gross went to Spurs, from Grasshoppers, though Haakon Lunov, Ronny's academic analyst, would have had skills that were not readily available in the UK, allowing him to come.

But some of the pressure on Ronny came from statements like committing himself to winning the treble, which is the sort of comment that anyone who understands the Scottish game would advise against.

Maybe Collins is being hard done by. Maybe he was just too shy to back his manager in the media – and when Kris Commons acted so disgracefully. But I hope that he didn't have the impression that Ronny's failure could have been his opportunity to step into the breach.

If he did, he must be a very disappointed man that Ronny has chosen to see out the season, rather than allowing Collins the chance to show how he could transform the team overnight.

One of the best gifts that the next manager could be given would be vacant positions to fill with his own assistant and coach – and that should happen soon.

Good luck to them both, especially Collins in finding another managerial position. He'll need an assistant. I can't recommend any individual but would it be wrong to hope that his next number two is a hedgehog?
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