Celtic are currently searching for their long-term successor to Brendan Rodgers after the manager tendered his resignation at Parkhead at the start of last week.
The Northern Irish head coach left the Glasgow giants after successive losses to Dundee and Hearts in the Scottish Premiership, which left them eight points adrift of Hearts in first place.
Rodgers won four trophies and only lost 20 of his 123 games in charge during his second spell, which shows that it was far from a disastrous return to the club.
However, he clearly felt that the time was right for a change, and Martin O’Neill has been brought in to be the interim manager until a successor can be found.
The experienced manager has overseen wins over Falkirk in the Premiership and Rangers in the semi-final of the League Cup at Hampden Park in his first two matches in the dugout.
It remains to be seen how long O’Neill will be in interim charge, though, as one pundit has told the club to swoop for a former Premier League winner.
Celtic told to swoop for Premier League-winning manager
Speaking on The Warm Up, former Celtic central defender Charlie Mulgrew has told the Scottish giants to go and persuade Jurgen Klopp to make the move to Parkhead.
Mulgrew stated: “I would go all out and get Jurgen Klopp in the door.”
After laughs from Kris Boyd and Steven Naismith, the former Hoops man added: “Why not? £7million a year. Give him it. Jurgen Klopp in the door. What’s your argument against it? I know it’s unrealistic, right.
“But could Dermot Desmond go, ‘Do you know what? We’re going to bounce back after Rodgers here and we’re going to go big.”
Klopp is currently the Head of Global Soccer for Red Bull GmbH, which means that he is not managing a club at this moment in time, but he is in a job and would need to be tempted to leave it.
There has been no suggestion, beyond Mulgrew’s comments, that Celtic are considering a move for the German manager, or that he is interested in returning to management in the short term.
11/12 Bundesliga
18/19 Champions League
10/11 Bundesliga
19/20 Premier League
11/12 German Cup
21/22 FA Cup
14/15 German Super Cup
23/24 League Cup
13/14 German Super Cup
21/22 League Cup
19/20 UEFA Super Cup
22/23 Community Shield
As you can see in the table above, the former Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool head coach has had an illustrious career, winning plenty of high-profile titles and trophies, which is why he would be a huge coup for the Hoops.
However, for the aforementioned reasons, a move for Klopp does not seem to be very realistic, which is why the club should be looking to find their own version of the 58-year-old tactician.
Klopp once described his own style of play as “heavy metal” because of how intense he likes his teams to make games, and there is one reported Celtic managerial target who could deploy a similar philosophy.
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It was recently reported that Dermot Desmond and the board have Bodo/Glimt head coach Kjetil Knutsen on their radar as a possible replacement for Rodgers and, more immediately, O’Neill.
The 57-year-old manager is seemingly one of the names on the club’s shortlist, and they could unearth their answer to Klopp by bringing him to Parkhead in the coming days or weeks.
Why Celtic should appoint Kjetil Knutsen
Parking results and trophies aside for a moment, Knutsen would be Celtic’s answer to Klopp because he also plays an extreme brand of football with his teams, which is why Desmond should swoop to appoint him.
Former captain Bodo/Glimt Ulrik Saltnes described his playing style as “kamikaze”, due to the intense forward-thinking nature of the performances and style of play.
Like Klopp, Knutsen typically deploys a base 4-3-3 formation, per Transfermarkt, and looks to play aggressive and intense “kamikaze” football to dominate opponents and score plenty of goals.
2025
27
73
2024
30
71
2023
30
78
2022
30
86
2021
30
59
2020
30
103
2019
30
64
The statistics in the table above show that he has successfully coached his team to score plenty of goals throughout his time in charge of Bodo/Glimt, with their 103 goals in 30 league matches in the 2020 campaign a particularly eye-catching achievement.
Knutsen may not have won the Premier League, the Bundesliga, or the Champions League in his managerial career, as Klopp has, but he has had plenty of success with Bodo/Glimt in the Eliteserien.
2025
27
61 (2nd)
2024
30
62 (1st)
2023
30
70 (1st)
2022
30
60 (2nd)
2021
30
63 (1st)
2020
30
81 (1st)
As you can see in the table above, he has won the league in four of the last five seasons, whilst his team are currently one point off first place with three matches left to go in the current campaign.
On top of his domestic success with the Norwegian outfit, Knutsen also led Bodo/Glimt to the semi-finals of the Europa League last season, whilst Rodgers never even reached the last 16 of the Europa League or Champions League at Celtic.
The Norwegian tactician also reached the quarter-finals of the Conference League in the 2021/22 campaign, and has won 39 of his 78 European games in charge of his side in total, per Transfermarkt.
O’Neill, who is in interim charge, has not reached past the group stage in a European competition as a manager since he reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup with Celtic in the 2003/04 season.
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Therefore, Knutsen could come in as an upgrade on both Rodgers and O’Neill in terms of what he can achieve on the continent, whilst also having the potential to deliver domestic success and a Klopp-esque style of play, if Desmond swoops to appoint him.