Celtic eyed Philippe Clement in Ange aftermath but real Todd couple question remains around Cantwell – Keith Jackson

Here's a quirk of fate of which not many will be aware.

Around eight months ago, when Big Ange first dropped the Spurs bomb on Celtic, the name of Philippe Clement featured high up on a very short list of preferred potential candidates to replace the outgoing Australian. Yes, at that time the Belgian was still taking home a fat tax-free wage from Monaco which might have proved problematic around the negotiating table even if his long term job prospects in the Principality were already the subject of some serious speculation amidst suggestions of a splintered dressing room.

And, in any case, once Brendan Rodgers had answered the call from Dermot Desmond, the whole process was put on hold for as long as it took to persuade the Irishman to bring his planned year-long sabbatical to an early end. In other words it was a conversation which never really got off the ground but the fact remains that Clement was a person of considerable interest at a moment in time when Desmond and his board of directors needed to find a credible fix to a Postecoglou sized problem.

Ultimately, the Rodgers redemption shot offered the most highly qualified, lowest risk solution. Within a couple of weeks Clement was removed from his position at the Ligue 1 club just as Michael Beale was careering across the continent in a breathless pursuit of the likes of Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers and putting in place the feeble axis which would eventually cost the Englishman his own job.

The doors were sliding. Having previously been under consideration for the manager’s role on one side of Glasgow’s divide, Clement was offered the vacancy at the other end of town. And now here he finds himself, wedged in between a rock and a hard place as he attempts to take