Steve Evans is a lifelong fan of Celtic but will be happy to stay at Leeds if Cellino renews his contract. And he thinks we can challenge next season if he gets the right players.

With all the speculation in recent weeks that Cellino will be looking for a new coach in the summer rather than renewing Evans’ contract, it’s no surprise that he has been linked with the position in Glasgow that will become vacant at exactly the same time.

The current Celtic manger, Norwegian Ronny Deila, will be stepping down at the end of the season after only two years in the job. A growing number of their fans had become critical of his management, even though he seems likely to bring home a second Scottish Premiership title.

But the league wins were of course mainly due to the absence of any serious opposition in their division, and the final straw was Sunday’s SFA cup semi-final defeat to the auld enemy. Delia and the Celtic board decided that his reign would come to an end in the close season ‘by mutual consent’.

Steve Evans told the Yorkshire Post “I’ll always be a Celtic supporter. I’ve supported them since I was two — and that’s not two years old, that’s two seconds old! You’re born a Celtic supporter, the same as Leeds supporters. That’s why there’s so many of them and that’s why they’re both great clubs.” But all the same, he denied that he would be leaving his present club voluntarily.

“It’s flattering for any coach to be linked to any job but you can’t let it take away focus from the job in hand. The only job that appeals to me at the moment is being head coach of Leeds United. I want to be the Leeds United head coach going forward. I’ve never hidden that but the final decision lies with someone else. I’ll be employed next season in football but I’d love to be here.”

Evans urged Massimo to offer him a new contract, and promised that he would take Leeds forward with the right investment. “This club needs stability. It’s needed it for some time. It has an opportunity to have some stability now. I’m as confident as I can be that if I get the support from the president, a promotion campaign will follow.”

Evans looks likely to guide the current squad to a top half finish this season, but says “We are still two or three bodies, maybe four, away from being a top-six side. We have got some real quality. These players don’t need anything other than a little bit of help. How do you help them? You give them more quality players to work with.”

I agree with Evans that he’s done enough to deserve a full season running the team, but ‘stability’ is the last thing anyone can expect while Massimo Cellino is still in charge. We’ve certainly been inconsistent under Evans, but the away form has been as good as anyone in the division, with the exception of the match at Brighton.

The problem has been at Elland Road, especially against all the average to poor teams in our division, but even that has come good in the last two games, with the wins over Reading and Wolves. Of the signings that Evans has made Bridcutt and Diagouraga have certainly improved the squad he inherited, so I’m sure we can trust him with a bit of extra cash.

But as ever, it all depends on what’s going on inside the head of Massimo Cellino. The chances of him attracting a better coach than the man he’s already got are a lot slimmer than Evans’ waistline. Is Il Presidente really going to risk it all just because Evans talks top much and he doesn’t like working with British coaches?

Photo: Action Images

makka64 added 20:27 - Apr 22 It's probably just as well.... because he hasn't even been in the running for the Celtic job. It was just invented as a story, because he's a Celtic fan. It's utter nonsense!
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