Celtic supporters have grown used to change over the past few seasons, but some departures still hit harder than others. Behind the scenes at Parkhead, the backroom team has been reshaped once again, and the latest development has only just come to light in public comments from a senior member of the current coaching staff.
The club has already seen significant movement among its support staff this summer. Players and fans have watched as familiar faces have moved on, with new appointments arriving to fill certain roles. Yet one particular exit had remained largely under the radar until recent remarks confirmed what many had begun to suspect.
That confirmation arrived during a conversation about how responsibilities will be divided among the remaining coaches this season. In discussing the individual work that takes place away from the main group sessions, the coach made it clear that two key figures who previously handled much of that detailed work are no longer part of the setup.
One of those figures had already departed earlier in the summer. The other, it turns out, has followed a familiar path out of the club and into a new project in the Middle East.
Speaking to The Celtic Wiki, Shaun Maloney reflected on the way individual coaching was organised last season. He was careful to give credit where it was due and made no attempt to claim the work as his own.
“Last season it was Gavin Strachan who did that. I can’t take any credit for that!” Maloney explained. “We also had Greg Wallace, who went to Saudi with Brendan Rodgers recently, and those two were really good with the individual stuff. I was doing things away from the pitch more, so I will pick more of that up this season.”
He continued by outlining how the remaining staff will cover different areas of the squad. “Stephen McManus and Mark Fotheringham do their stuff with different positions, but it was Gav and Greg who did the attacking work.”
Those few sentences carry significant weight. They provide the first clear public confirmation that Greg Wallace is no longer part of Martin O’Neill’s first-team coaching group. Celtic themselves have not released any formal statement on the matter, yet Maloney’s wording leaves little room for doubt.
Wallace’s departure means the club has lost another experienced member of the backroom team in a relatively short space of time. His exit follows Gavin Strachan’s move to West Bromwich Albion earlier in the summer. Together, the two men had been responsible for a large portion of the individual technical and attacking work that often goes unseen by supporters.
With both now gone, Maloney has indicated that he will take on a greater share of those responsibilities himself this season. The shift reflects the practical reality of a reduced coaching group and the need to redistribute important duties among those who remain.
Wallace first arrived at Celtic in 2022. He joined from Tottenham Hotspur, where he had built a strong reputation as an analyst and coach. At Parkhead he took on the dual role of Head Analyst and First Team Coach, positions that allowed him to influence both the data-driven side of preparation and the day-to-day work with players on the training pitch.
His time at the club spanned several managerial eras. He worked under Ange Postecoglou during a period of significant tactical evolution and success. He remained in place when Brendan Rodgers returned for his second spell in charge. And he continued into the early stages of Martin O’Neill’s tenure before the latest change of direction.
That ability to adapt and remain useful across different managerial styles speaks to the quality of his work. Analysts and coaches who survive multiple transitions are rarely accidental. They tend to be the ones who deliver consistent value regardless of the head coach’s preferred methods.
The decision to leave and join Rodgers in Saudi Arabia continues a pattern that has become familiar in modern football. Successful managers often look to rebuild their trusted support networks when they take on new challenges. Rodgers has previously shown a preference for working with familiar faces, and Wallace’s move suggests that relationship remained strong even after their time together at Celtic ended.
For Celtic, the exit adds to a summer of quiet but meaningful change behind the scenes. While the first-team squad has been the main focus of transfer speculation and new arrivals, the coaching and analysis department has also undergone its own restructuring.
Ross Grant has come in as set-piece coach, bringing specialised knowledge in an area that has grown increasingly important in modern matches. Meanwhile, Maloney, McManus and Fotheringham have all stayed on alongside O’Neill. Their continuity provides a degree of stability even as other roles have turned over.
Still, the loss of Wallace and Strachan removes two individuals who had developed a clear understanding of the players and the club’s preferred ways of working. Individual coaching sessions — the detailed technical work that happens away from full squad training — often play a quiet but important part in player development and match preparation. Filling that gap effectively will be one of the quieter priorities for the remaining staff this season.
Maloney’s comments suggest the group is already adjusting. By taking on more of the individual work himself, he is stepping into a broader role than the one he occupied last season. That kind of flexibility is often required when clubs experience multiple departures in a short period.
Supporters following developments closely will recognise that backroom changes rarely generate the same volume of discussion as player transfers. Yet experienced coaches and analysts can exert significant influence on performance over the course of a campaign. Their knowledge of opposition analysis, individual player improvement plans, and the finer details of training sessions all contribute to the overall standard of the team.
In that context, Wallace’s quiet exit represents more than just another name leaving the building. It removes a coach who had been part of the fabric through three different managerial periods and who had built relationships with a large portion of the current squad.
The fact that Celtic have not issued an official announcement is not unusual. Clubs often handle coaching staff departures with less public ceremony than player moves, especially when the individual is not a high-profile name among the wider fanbase. Maloney’s remarks in a relatively informal interview setting have therefore become the primary source of confirmation.
As the new season approaches, attention will inevitably shift back toward the players and the results on the pitch. Yet the structure that supports those players continues to evolve. The redistribution of coaching duties, the arrival of new specialists, and the departure of experienced figures all form part of the ongoing process of building a competitive environment at Parkhead.
Whether the remaining staff can fully absorb the workload previously shared with Wallace and Strachan remains to be seen. What is already clear is that the coaching group looks different now than it did at the end of last season. Maloney’s willingness to expand his own responsibilities offers one practical response to that change.
For now, the confirmation of another key departure closes one chapter and opens another. Celtic move forward with a reshaped support team, while Wallace begins a new chapter alongside a manager he knows well in a very different football environment. The full impact of these changes will only become apparent as the campaign unfolds, but the latest exit has already added another layer of transition to a summer of significant movement at the club.
Fans who value continuity behind the scenes will feel the loss. Those who focus primarily on the first-team squad may barely notice. In reality, both perspectives contain an element of truth. Coaching staff turnover is a normal part of modern football, yet each departure still removes knowledge, relationships and institutional memory that take time to replace.
Parkhead has seen plenty of change in recent years. This latest development simply continues that theme, confirmed not by an official club statement but by the straightforward comments of a coach who remains at the heart of the current setup.