Craig Gordon backs Roy Keane for Celtic manager

Craig Gordon previously worked under Roy Keane at Sunderland. Picture: SNS

The Irishman remains among the favourites to replace Ronny Deila, along with David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers, and Gordon has given a ringing endorsement of Keane’s capabilities.

Keane took Gordon to Sunderland from Hearts in the summer of 2007 for a £9 million fee that was, at that time, British record fee for a goalkeeper. The Stadium of Light side had then just been promoted to the English top flight after a remarkable run under Keane and what happened next Gordon believes is too often overlooked.

“I’ve worked with Roy in the past and I’m sure that, if he was offered the challenge of leading the club, he would accept it,” he said. “He’s a hard-but-fair manager. I know there are people who will say that he failed at Sunderland and at Ipswich. But I would say that he got Sunderland into the Premier League and kept them there and I don’t think he got the credit he deserved for that, regardless of what happened after.

At Sunderland it was a great achievement to stay up and he probably didn’t get the credit he deserved for keeping a pretty average team up.”

“Off the park, he likes things to be organised and he demands that from every- one on the staff; he expects certain standards to be maintained and, if they aren’t, he’ll certainly let you know about it. But, if you’re giving 100 per cent and doing all you can, then he’s going to be all right with you. He’s a good manager in that sense.

“Regardless of who is appointed – Brendan Rodgers, David Moyes, Roy Keane – any of those guys are massive names, regardless of who comes in, or if someone comes in outwith that.

“They’re going to bring in good managerial experience and they will gain that instant respect.

“It’s interesting to talk about and speculate about who’s coming in and I’m just looking forward to whoever it is and getting started again.

Gordon added: “So many candidates have been spoken about and some big names have been mentioned and quite rightly so because Celtic is a big club.

“If the new man can get us back into the European competitions and bring back those big occasions… who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

“From a purely footballing point of view, you won’t get many stadiums in Britain which can produce an atmosphere to rival Celtic Park on a Champions League night so there will always be famous names linked with the job.”