'Give Larsson replacement a chance'

Celtic chairman Brian Quinn has urged supporters to allow Henrik Larsson’s successor to settle at the club.

The former Sweden international will quit Parkhead in the summer when his contract expires, leaving manager Martin O’Neill with a massive hole to fill.

Quinn has already warned O’Neill that the income generated from the current UEFA Cup run, which reaches its next destination in the quarter-final second leg against Villarreal tomorrow, will not all be used for squad strengthening.

But the Hoops chairman is confident that O’Neill can get the best from Larsson’s successor, no matter who he is.

Quinn told the club’s official website, www.celticfc.net: “Clearly it is an issue for us. You can’t replace Henrik Larsson.

“To expect someone to come in and do a Henrik Larsson right away is unfair and unrealistic, especially since Henrik himself was given time to settle in.

“We have not had a bad history of finding players and making a success out of them.

“Martin has a great eye for a footballer and, once he goes for a player, he is pretty confident he will do a job for him and that’s evident from the current team.”

Quinn maintains the current European run – especially the defeat of Barcelona in the last round – will have a major say in helping the manager convince bigger names to step forward to replace Larsson.

He added: “Here we are in April – last year we got to May – and we’re still active in European football and this is the basis with which I measure Celtic’s progress.

“If you look at it over a five-year period, our progress has been steady and good and maintaining that is the primary interest for us.

“I spoke to a senior journalist who is the sports editor of a leading newspaper south of the border and he told me that I had no idea the impact that the result against Barcelona had on opinion in England regarding Celtic.

“He mentioned that getting to the UEFA Cup final last year was remarked upon but, by taking a scalp like Barcelona’s, Celtic are back on the map again.

“The brand and the image of the club has been raised and this is the time to build on that now and put Celtic on a different level.”

Quinn has also vowed to enhance training facilities at the club to impress visiting dignitaries.

The news will come as a major boost to O’Neill, who has previously admitted looking on enviously at Rangers’ state-of-the-art Murray Park training complex.

Now, however, Quinn insists the board are preparing an overhaul of the current training facilities at Barrowfield to bring the club in line with other major European teams.

Quinn said: “When foreign clubs and potential sponsors come to Celtic Park, they want to see the training facilities and they are not impressed.

“If we want to portray a picture of a top side, then we have to attend to that. We also have to attend to Celtic Park as well.

“Right now, it wouldn’t make any sense to rebuild the South Stand because it would require a lot of money and I’m not sure that it would pay for itself, but what we can do is improve the lounge facilities and the boardroom.

“These are not as they should be. We are a big club and we want to reflect that in what we have on offer.”