Roberto Martinez is someone who has been linked with the Celtic job for the past few months now. The Portugal national team manager has a contract until the end of the World Cup. After that, it will be interesting to see what he decides to do.

Martinez has been out of club management for a long time. Before Portugal, he had a long spell with Belgium but failed to win a trophy with their Golden Generation.

At the club level, the last team that he managed was Everton. He also won the FA Cup with Wigan Athletic in a season where they were relegated.

Bringing in someone of Martinez's level would be a statement on the part of Celtic for sure. But for that to happen, the Hoops would have to show a ton of ambition.

Someone like Martinez would surely want a lot of assurances before committing to take on the Celtic job. Of course, he will be well aware of what the expectations are at this club.

According to Football Insider, Pete O'Rourke said: 

“He’s obviously got links with Scotland and Celtic. His wife is Scottish and he’s worked with Celtic’s current assistant manager Sean Maloney at Wigan and also Belgium.

“So there are obvious links there. Whether Celtic can entice Martinez up to Glasgow, that’s another story.

“Look, getting somebody like Martinez would be a big statement by Celtic, but they’re going to have to show real ambition to lure him back into club management.

“They’re going to have to really back him, and (invest) financially if they are to get him, because I think there’ll be a number of clubs who would be showing interest in Martinez if he wants to return to club management.

“He’s a top manager who has managed some big clubs and also some big countries as well.”

Well, it remains to be seen if Celtic are successful in bringing Martinez to Parkhead or not. Of course, it is very possible that this could just be speculation doing the rounds of the media and the club have no genuine interest in pursuing a move for the Portugal national team head coach.

They will need to bring in a new manager though. That is because Martin O'Neill is set to step down from his job at the end of the campaign and will need to be replaced.

O'Neill has done a very good job with what he has been given. He has them in the final of the Scottish Cup and still with a realistic chance of winning the league title, if they can have a positive post-split run of results.

The last time Celtic tried to replace O'Neill, they brought in Wilfried Nancy. We all know how that turned out.

Two wins in eight games. Nancy did not even seem to understand the expectations that came with the Celtic job and lasted only a month at Parkhead. 

Celtic will need to be a lot better with their managerial recruitment this time around. O'Neill won't be coming in to save them every time things go wrong, that is for sure. He is 74 years old and has mentioned on more than one occasion that managing takes a toll on him these days.

Celtic have been linked with a few other managers as well. Jens Berthel Askou is said to be on their radar based on the brilliant season that he has had with Motherwell. If not for Hearts, they would have been the breakout team in Scotland this season.

Robbie Keane, a former Celtic player, has also been linked with the Parkhead job. And one would imagine that several other names will crop up between now and the summer.

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