Larsson! Much love from the Celtic fans for him!
New era of Celtic starts with wholesale changes
After the initial pandemonium from the Celtic fans, on the back of Larsson's signing for the club, the day to day business of the new manager took hold very quickly.
Assistant manager John Collins let replaced
It may only have been June, but with the early rounds of Champions League qualifiers coming up, business of all sorts had to be done and done quickly.
In the minutes that followed Larsson's appointment, assistant manager John Collins was announced to have had his contract mutually terminated.The former Celtic left sided midfielder, played 221 times for the Scottish club and was appointed assistant manager alongside Ronny Deila last season.
The Celtic board made it clear to Henrik Larrson that it was his right as new Celtic manager, to mutually terminate the contract of any members of staff lower than himself in the food chain.
It's not all bad news for Collins, who found himself named the Accrington Stanley manager just two days later.
It wasn't long before Collins was replaced however, as the club announced the signing of Yves Colleu, who has made a name for himself as the assistant manager at many footballing sides.
His career has seen him manage and be assistant of French side Rennes, assistant manager at Lyon, PSG, Cameroon, his native country Oman and controversially he even had a stint as the assistant manager of Rangers but this ended disastrously.
Larrson released a small statement on the appointment simply saying, "Yves Colleu is someone who has a large pool of footballing knowledge, he has a long career as an assistant manager and he was my obvious first choice pick as soon as I joined the club."
I chose Colleu as I am in the Championship the pool of top draw AM are low so I went for a safe pick who who is good at judging my players ability, to aid with best players etc.
Larsson oversees the hiring of 11 scouts, six coaches and two physios
When Larsson joined the squad, he joined a very, very small coaching and scouting network. It is well known that for any side to be successful in England, a large contingent of scouts is a must.
The SPL is a much easier league, therefore talent is easier to come across. In the Championship and if their season goes as planned, the Premiership, the level of opposition is tough from the top dogs to the scrappy underdogs. As a result a club needs to have the best possible scouts to make sure they can keep their squad competitive and ever improving.
Larsson oversaw the hiring of 11 scouts, from all over the globe, who all agreed to work under a Chief Scout. The Chief Scout, John Park was a big fan of Celtic's sign young players policy, so was keen to implement this across the entire scouting network.
As a result every single scout agreed to the criteria of player they must scout out for their new club.
On the coaching side of things, Celtic brought in six new coaches, mainly ones for fitness and attacking training sessions, as they were two positions that the club struggled in massively upon Larsson's arrival.
Finally Larsson pleaded the board to hire two more physios in case of an injury crisis as he stated, rightfully so, that four physios was simply not enough for this level of football. The amount of games that his side were due to play this season, meant they needed the best possible attention if they were to pick up knocks to prevent them making them worse in later games.
Captain demands to leave Celtic and his wish is granted
The honeymoon period of Henrik Larsson's appointment at Celtic but no one expected it to end with such a crash.
It broke the morning after Larsson's appointment that club captain and fan favourite Scott Brown handed in an official transfer request citing his reasons behind wanting to leave being he 'needed a new challenge'.
The 30 year old club and national captain had made a name for himself throughout his career as being a true hard man in central midfield. Someone you loved to battle beside you but despised if he faced up opposite you.
The transfer saga was over within two days, with Brown handing in an official request, Celtic decided to let their man go. They were eventually able to sell their captain to French league holders PSG, for a club record £20,000,000. A club record transfer fee received for Celtic.
The fans were devestated that they had lost their club captain but understood that firstly it was his own desire to leave and secondly the fact that Larsson was able to haggle so much out of PSG, was applaudable.
It is understood PSG originally offered £14,000,000 for the player, but after two solid days of negotiating Larsson got his price.
Celtic now must turn their attentions away from the staff investment and quickly onto player investment.
Numerous players depart
Larsson has been at the club for only a few days, but already eight players have departed. Efe Ambrose was sold to AFC Bournemouth for £1,500,000 where as Kieren Tierny (Millwall), Derk Boerrigter (FC Utrecht), Aidan McIlduff (AFC Wimbledon), Colin Kazim-Richards (Sivasspor), Eoghan O'Connell (Oldham), Joe Thomson (Carlisle), Tom Rogic (Hamburg), Jamie McCart (Kidderminster) were all sent on season long loans for the coming season.
Larsson stated he was "happy to have done his business quickly in terms of departures so he can quickly move onto strengthening the squad".
