1888–1965 For the first few years following its formation, the administrative and team selection duties at Celtic were performed by a committee.
Willie Maley had played for the team since their inaugural match in May 1888, and on his retirement at the age of 29 was appointed secretary-manager in April 1897, effectively becoming the team's first ever manager. His role was quite different to the modern style of
manager or
head coach; he never worked with his players in training and only watched games from the director's box. He did not perform team talks or speak with the players at half time or immediately post-match. Having been a club that initially relied on buying in experienced players, Maley instead concentrated on developing young talent. This proved a success as Celtic won six consecutive league titles in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1907 the team also became the first Scottish side win a league and
cup double. The next decade saw Maley lead Celtic to a further four successive league titles between 1914 and 1917, during which time they went on an unbeaten run for 62 games from 13 November 1915 until 21 April 1917. This remained a British record for an unbeaten run in professional football until it was surpassed by
Brendan Rodgers' Celtic over 100 years later. and was succeeded by another celebrated former player,
Jimmy McGrory. Results improved in the early 1950s with the
Coronation Cup win in 1953 and a league and cup double in 1954. His time as manager is considered largely a period of underachievement, and with chairman
Robert Kelly's domineering influence in the running of the club, many questioned how much say McGrory had in team selection.
1965–1991 was the first British football manager to win the European Cup, leading Celtic to victory over
Inter Milan in 1967. had two spells as manager of Celtic, having also captained the side to their
European Cup win in 1967 as a player.
Jock Stein left
Hibernian to become manager of Celtic in 1965, with McGrory taking on the role of the club's Public Relations Officer. As a player, Stein had previously captained Celtic to their league and cup double success in 1954, and then as manager led
Dunfermline to a famous
cup final win over Celtic in 1961. On succeeding from McGrory, Stein took full control of all team matters. He is considered a football visionary; transforming a side lacking direction and having gone almost eight years without a trophy into the best team in Europe, all whilst playing entertaining adventurous football. And whereas training had previously consisted of mainly running around the track, he introduced practising with the ball into training. followed in 1966 by the first of nine consecutive league championship wins. In his second full season as manager, Stein led Celtic to success in all five competitions they took part in (a
"quintuple"), most memorably their 2–1 win in
Lisbon over
Inter Milan in the
1967 European Cup Final. He led Celtic to a further European Cup final in 1970, knocking out
Benfica and
Leeds United en route, but lost to
Feyenoord 2–1 after extra time in the final. He was seriously injured in a car accident in July 1975 and spent the next year recuperating, with assistant manager
Sean Fallon taking over managerial duties for the season. On his return in season 1976–77, Stein led Celtic to a league and cup double; these would be the last honours he would win at Celtic. He brought the league title back to Parkhead in his first season, clinching the championship in their final match of the season with a 4–2 win over Rangers. A Cup Final win in 1980 was followed by back-to-back titles in 1981 and 1982. A public row however with the board over a contract and funds for new players resulted in McNeill leaving the club in 1983. At only 35 years old,
David Hay succeeded McNeill. and then a famous last day championship win at
Love Street in 1986, defeating
St Mirren 5–0 whilst title rivals
Hearts lost at
Dundee, securing the league on
goal difference. Hay was unable to cope with high spending Rangers the following year, and on failing to win any trophies was sacked by the club. Billy McNeill dramatically returned to the club in the summer of 1987 A further Cup Final win followed in 1989, but the club went into a dramatic decline after that. After two seasons without any honours, McNeill was sacked in 1991. before
Lou Macari was appointed manager. Celtic won their first trophy in six years at the end of the season, beating
Airdrie 1–0 in the Scottish Cup final. Celtic remained unable to overhaul Rangers the following season in 1997. In the summer of 1997, former European Cup winner and Dutch international,
Wim Jansen, became head coach. Jansen quickly turned things round and won the club's first Scottish League Cup in 15 years when they beat
Dundee United 3–0 in the final. Veteran Slovak coach
Jozef Vengloš arrived at Celtic for the following season. A poor start to the season put Vengloš under pressure, but the arrival of new signings and a 5–1 win over Rangers in the league gave rise to optimism. However the league deficit was too much to claw back and a Scottish Cup final defeat to Rangers sealed a largely disappointing season.
2000–2019 won the domestic treble in his first season as manager and led Celtic to the UEFA Cup Final in 2003, their first European final in over 30 years.
Martin O'Neill, a former
European Cup winner as a player with
Nottingham Forest, took charge of the club in June 2000. O'Neill's first
Old Firm game, in late August 2000, ended in a 6–2 victory for Celtic. In that first season, O'Neill won a domestic treble with Celtic, the first time this had been achieved since 1968–69. He was then touted as a potential successor to
Alex Ferguson, who had announced he was to leave
Manchester United in 2002. Celtic then retained the league title in 2001–02, the first time since 1982 that Celtic had managed that feat. Celtic also qualified for the Champions League group stage, winning all of their home games but losing all of their away games. He then guided Celtic to the
2003 UEFA Cup Final in
Seville, which Celtic lost 3–2 in extra time to a
Porto side managed by
José Mourinho. This was Celtic's first European final since 1970 and they beat Blackburn, Celta Vigo, Stuttgart, Liverpool and Boavista on the way to the final. He was named on the five-man shortlist for
UEFA Team of the Year in the manager category in 2003 The following season Celtic regained the league title from rivals Rangers and reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, with their run seeing them knock out Barcelona. On 25 May 2005, Celtic announced that O'Neill would resign as manager to care for his wife, Geraldine, who had
lymphoma. His last competitive game in charge of Celtic was the Scottish Cup final 1–0 victory over
Dundee United on 28 May 2005, decided by an eleventh-minute goal by
Alan Thompson. Under O'Neill, Celtic won 213, drew 29 and lost 40 of 282 games played, making him the most successful Celtic manager since Jock Stein. In his five seasons at Celtic Park, O'Neill won three Scottish Premier League titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup. The two league titles he lost were by margins of a goal and a point, respectively. He also oversaw a record seven consecutive victories in Old Firm derbies, and in the 2003–04 season Celtic created a British record of 25 consecutive league victories. His win rate of 75.5% is the highest of any manager in the club's history.
Gordon Strachan was announced as O'Neill's replacement in June 2005 and after winning the SPL title in his first year in charge, he went on to become only the third Celtic manager to win three titles in a row. He also guided Celtic to their first
UEFA Champions League knockout stage in
2006–07 and repeated the feat in
2007–08 before departing the club in May 2009, after failing to win the
SPL title.
Tony Mowbray took charge of the club in June 2009, and he was succeeded a year later by
Neil Lennon. Celtic narrowly lost out to Rangers in the league in Lennon's first season in charge, but he did gain consolation by defeating Motherwell 3–0 in the
2011 Scottish Cup Final. Lennon went on to win three league titles in a row, then announced his departure from the club in May 2014 after four years in the role. Norwegian
Ronny Deila was appointed manager of Celtic in June 2014. He went on to lead Celtic to two consecutive league titles and a League Cup, but the team's performances in European competition were poor. Following being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Rangers in April 2016, Deila announced he would leave the club at the end of the season. managed Celtic to two consecutive
domestic trebles.In May 2016,
Brendan Rodgers was announced as Deila's successor. In his first season the club won their 100th major trophy, defeating Aberdeen in the League Cup Final in November 2016, and clinched the league title in April 2017 with a record eight league games to spare. Celtic finished their league campaign undefeated, the first time a
Scottish top-flight side had done so since 1899. In May 2017, Celtic defeated Aberdeen 2–1 in the Scottish Cup final, clinching the club's fourth domestic treble, as well as securing an unprecedented domestic season unbeaten. Celtic continued their unbeaten domestic run into the following season, eventually extending it to 69 games, surpassing their own 100-year-old British record of 62 games set by
Willie Maley, before finally losing to Hearts. In November 2017, Celtic defeated
Motherwell in the
2017 Scottish League Cup Final, before a seventh consecutive league title was clinched in April 2018, with Celtic then going on to defeat Motherwell in the
2018 Scottish Cup Final to clinch a second consecutive domestic treble (the "double treble"), the first club in Scotland to do so. Into his third season, Rodgers led Celtic to another League Cup, defeating Aberdeen in the final, and by February 2019 the club were eight points clear in the league. However, on 26 February 2019 Rodgers left Celtic in a surprise move to take over as manager of
Leicester City. Neil Lennon returned to Celtic to work as caretaker manager until the end of the season. He went on to help Celtic complete their eighth successive league title, and then to a 2–1 win over
Hearts in the
2019 Scottish Cup Final to clinch the treble for the third season in a row (the "treble treble"). The following week, Lennon was confirmed as full-time manager for the second time.
2019–present Into the first full season of his second spell as manager,
Neil Lennon led
Celtic to a 1–0 win over
Rangers in the
2019 Scottish League Cup Final, the club's tenth consecutive domestic trophy. By March 2020, Celtic were 13 points clear in the league and well on the way to a ninth consecutive title: However, all professional football in Scotland was suspended later that month due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, resulting in demands from the
news media in Scotland for the league season to be declared "null and void". However, after several weeks of controversy, Celtic were confirmed as champions on 18 May 2020 following a league board meeting the previous week where it was agreed that completing the full league campaign was unfeasible. The completion of the
2019-20 Scottish Cup was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the semi-finals and final not taking place until late autumn/ winter of 2020. Celtic and
Hearts reached the final that took place on 20 December 2020. The match went to
penalty-kicks after the sides
tied at 3–3 after
extra time, with Celtic going on to win the penalty shoot-out to clinch a fourth successive treble. This win saw Lennon become the first to win a treble as both player and manager. Celtic struggled throughout
season 2020–21 though; poor performances in Europe, knocked out of the League Cup by
Ross County (bringing to an end a run of 35 domestic cup wins), and by February 2021 were trailing 18 points behind Rangers in the league - effectively ending Celtic's hopes of "ten in a row" league titles. Lennon resigned on 24 February 2021, with assistant manager
John Kennedy taking interim charge of the team. On 10 June 2021,
Ange Postecoglou was announced as the new manager of Celtic. His first couple of months as manager was a period of upheaval, with 12 first-team players leaving during the summer transfer window while 10 new players were signed. Celtic lost three of their opening six league matches, but enjoyed high-scoring wins over
Dundee and
St Mirren. with new signings
Jota and
Kyogo Furuhashi flourishing in the side. Celtic then went on a run of 31 domestic league games undefeated to regain the league championship at the first attempt. The title was secured following a 1–1 draw with Dundee United at Tannadice on 11 May 2022. Celtic made a strong start to the following season, and by New Year (2023) were nine points clear of second-placed Rangers in the league, with a significantly higher goal difference. The League Cup was retained with a 2–1 win over Rangers in the final on 26 February 2023, Kyogo scoring twice for Celtic. Back-to-back league titles were clinched on 7 May 2023 with four games to spare after a 2–0 win away at Hearts. A clean sweep of all domestic trophies for season 2022-23 was completed on 3 June 2023 with Celtic defeating Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3–1 in the Scottish Cup Final, the club's eighth domestic treble (a World Record). ==Managers==