Steve Clarke is the latest manager to shoot down rumours linking him with Celtic, insisting during a talk with Team United that he plans to lead Scotland into the 2022 World Cup.
They may be one of the biggest and most historic footballing institutions in European football but a proud history counts for little when your present is so uncertain.
This has been a miserable season for a Celtic side who won’t even have a tenth successive Premiership title to paper over the cavernous cracks.
The lack of direction and ambition off the pitch continues to infuriate an increasingly disillusioned fanbase, while their chances of reining in a rampaging Rangers side in the near future look decidedly slim.
Olivier Ntcham and Jeremie Frimpong have already jumped ship while Kristoffer Ajer and Odsonne Edouard, out of contract next year, would be forgiven for leaping into the lifeboats.
Celtic legend Paul Lambert has already made it clear that he is not interested in returning to Glasgow despite bringing an end to his disastrous tenure at Ipswich Town on Sunday while Dan Petrescu, who knocked the Hoops out of the Champions League with CFR Cluj in 2019, also distanced himself from the post.
So too has an Ayrshire-born 57-year-old preparing to lead Scotland into a major international tournament for the first time since the turn of the century.
“I will be going on a long holiday after the Euros,” Clarke said when asked about replacing Neil Lennon at Celtic.
“And I am contracted with Scotland until 2022, when I’ll hopefully be taking us to the World Cup in Qatar.”
Out-of-work trio Eddie Howe, Frank Lampard and David Wagner have been linked in some quarters while Mick McCarthy, the former Celtic defender who has turned Cardiff City into the Championship’s form side in the space of just two months, is out of contract in a matter of weeks.
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