Celtic have a long history of having Northern Irish managers and winning with them. Of course, Martin O'Neill falls under that category. He is a club icon and his standing might end up growing further, if that is even possible, if he is able to guide the club to the league title this season.

Incidentally, he is set to take on Neil Lennon's Dunfermline Athletic in the Scottish Cup final. The two will know each other well, having worked together for so long.

Of course, Lennon is another Northern Irish manager who achieved a ton of success at Celtic although his time is largely remembered for his last season at Parkhead as his side blew the chance to complete 10IAR.

Another name that comes to mind is Brendan Rodgers, another highly successful Celtic manager. Unfortunately, both of his reigns ended in less-than-ideal circumstances.

The first time around, Rodgers left in the middle of the season to join Leicester City. The second time, he resigned from his post, which was earlier in this campaign, although it feels like a lifetime ago.

Anyways, that is enough about Celtic and their history of Northern Irish managers. It is time to look towards the future.

Interestingly, they are being linked with another Northern Irish manager. It is none other than Kieran McKenna.

McKenna was linked with the club when Rodgers quit earlier in the season. And those rumours have not gone away, although bringing him in might be much tougher now as his Ipswich Town side have secured promotion to the Premier League once again.

Nobody can question McKenna's rate of success in that job, that is for sure, having joined when Ipswich Town were in League One.

According to Football Insider, Mick Brown said about McKenna: "McKenna is going to be a target for Celtic.

“He’s been linked with a lot of different jobs and he’s obviously very highly rated in managerial circles, plus he’s just led Ipswich back into the Premier League.

“I would suggest it might be difficult to get him out of Ipswich at the moment.

“He’s been there for years now, had multiple promotions and went down with them last year, so now he will want to get them established in the Premier League.

“He knows how everything works there, knows the players, the owner, the transfer policies and all of that so will he want to step away from that now?

“Celtic would be an attractive proposition, no doubt, and I’m sure he’s somebody they’ve looked at because they want to be ambitious with their new manager.

“But I feel it might be hard for them to convince him to leave Ipswich at the moment.”

Obviously, it is going to be very tough to convince McKenna to leave another chance to manage in the English top flight to come manage in the Scottish Premiership. If he were to leave Ipswich Town, it is very likely that would want to join another Premier League team.

Considering the job that he has done as well, one would imagine that there would not be a lack of interest in his signature.

So, there are a lot more realistic managerial targets out there for Celtic to consider. They have been linked with Robbie Keane quite often. Jens Berthel Askou has done a phenomenal job at Motherwell this season, although there might be some doubts about his ability to make the jump to Parkhead. Even Roberto Martinez has been suggested as a possibility after the World Cup ends. When it comes to McKenna, it is hard to see a move happen. But never say never in football.

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