47-year-old coach responds to Celtic links, he’s someone Jurgen Klopp has ‘massive respect’ for

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With Celtic on the lookout for a new manager, plenty of names are being linked with the Parkhead hotseat.

Jesse Marsch is one of the latest, the 47-year-old having been suggested by former Hoops players as a good candidate to replace Neil Lennon.

The American has done superbly at Red Bull Salzburg and is on course for a second Austrian consecutive league and cup double.

Marsch also has experience at New York Red Bulls, winning the Coach of the Year accolade in 2015, and has assisted Ralf Rangnick at RB Leipzig.

“I’ve heard [about the links]. It’s an honour for me,” Marsch told BBC Sport.

“Three or four years ago, being linked with a club like Celtic would literally be an impossibility for me.

“And now that this is where I am, I always just try to look at it in terms of, ‘what would the project look like?’

“Would we have similar ideas in how to build it the right way, invest in the academy, invest in young players and create this development process that I’m talking about? And not just focus on winning.

“Obviously I know that when you’re the coach of Celtic, winning is the most important thing.”

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Marsch is a quality coach – Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said he had “massive respect” for him after their Champions League head-to-head in December 2019 – and credit to him for describing the Celtic links as an honour.

That said, you can’t help but wonder whether his dislike of roles which only “focus on winning” followed by his acknowledgement of “winning being the most important thing” at Celtic is him basically saying he’s not interested.

You never know in football though, so we’ll see what happens in the Hoops’ managerial search.