Mowbray named new Celtic manager

Celtic appointed Tony Mowbray as manager on a rolling, 12-month contract on Tuesday after agreeing his departure from West Bromwich Albion.

Celtic paid the English club Stg2 million (NZ$5.22 million) to hire its former English defender to replace Gordon Strachan. After being beaten to a fourth straight title by Rangers, Strachan left the Scottish Premier League club last month.

Mowbray will bring assistant Mark Venus and first team coach Peter Grant, a former Celtic teammate, with him to Glasgow. Current Celtic coach Neil Lennon will also be part of the new management team.

Mowbray, who made 93 appearances for Celtic between 1991 and '95, had been on the club's radar for some time and was being tipped to move from West Brom in the last offseason.

The 45-year-old Mowbray made his mark in management at Hibernian in two seasons from 2004, steering the team to finishes just behind the traditional two of Celtic and Rangers.

Mowbray turned West Brom from a one-dimensional unit of hit-and-hope failures into a side the critics once described as the Arsenal of the League Championship because of their attractive style of play.

That free-following attacking football continued in the Premier League last season despite being stuck in the relegation zone and going straight back down to the second tier in May.

Mowbray spent most of his career playing for Middlesbrough, scoring 30 goals in 419 appearances after making his debut in 1982 before joining Celtic for one million pounds in 1991.

He also represented England at 'B' level.

AP