JOHN KENNEDY has counted them in and counted them out at Celtic during his long association with the club. Alas, it appears increasingly likely that his time has not yet come to step into the manager’s position on a permanent basis, a job that perhaps he and certainly many others – including his former boss Neil Lennon – feels he is one day destined to hold.

Whatever the maelstrom around him in this stormiest of season’s though, Kennedy has endeavoured to remain a steadying influence, and that will not change no matter the shifting sands beneath the feet of those around and above him at the club.

That may well extend to him remaining as assistant manager to Eddie Howe, with the former Bournemouth man expected to succeed Neil Lennon as permanent manager of Celtic next week. It certainly extends though to pressing on with recruitment plans for next season, despite the departure this week of Nick Hammond, erstwhile head of football operations.

The recruitment operation, says Kennedy, is bigger than one man. So, as they all must share in last summer’s failings in the transfer market, so too must those who remain carry on identifying players for next term.

“We wish Nick all the best,” Kennedy said. “He’s decided himself to step away from his position and look for new challenges.

“From my time working with Nick, he’s a really nice guy, good guy, terrific guy, who spent a lot of time building things up, in terms of the recruitment side. He put processes in place and brought in people in positions that the club needed filling. And then the process over the last year has got underway now.

“Again, things take time. When you have had a tough season a lot of things get questioned. Recruitment falls in that. There are still some players here who haven’t hit the heights we expect of them, but again we hope in time that comes.

“As always, judgements are made very quickly, from all quarters. You just have to live with that and trust our processes. With Nick deciding to step away the club will be looking at what they do, whether there is a change of structure, or whether it is a change of personnel there. But also behind Nick there is a recruitment team there: you have a head of recruitment and a team of scouts and analysts and everything else.

“The work still goes on behind the scenes. Nick has had a big impact in putting a lot of groundwork into the process and certain things, and where we are looking and how we find players. Hopefully that comes to fruition in time, in terms of the process producing more and more of the players we are looking for.

“Again, you have seen seasons in the past when the recruitment has been deemed good, you always have some that didn’t work out, for one reason or another, and there are a number of challenges. “This year, more than ever there have been more challenges for any player coming in to the situation we find ourselves in - both football, and life in general.”

Tonight though, the challenge for the Celtic players who are currently at the club is to ensure that a season which promised so much isn’t fatally doomed to yield nothing. A win against Falkirk, Kennedy hopes, can be the platform to end this disastrous campaign on a high by lifting the Scottish Cup.

For some of those players, the season could also still have a happy ending on a personal level, with places up for grabs in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for the European Championships, and Kennedy is banking on that carrot bringing out the best in the likes of David Turnbull, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths.

“I think there is always motivation,” he said. “Especially when you are not in the national team, it’s something in football you want to be part of. Especially when Scotland have not been at that level for some time and the opportunity arises.

“Then, of course, in their mind somewhere will be the motivation to take the opportunity to maybe get there. So if that’s something that spurs them on at club level then so be it.

“That is only going to benefit us, but it’s not one where we put extra pressure on them to perform and make sure they are in that squad.

“That will just naturally happen through good performances and then Steve will make the decision nearer the time.”

Many Celtic fans and Scotland supporters in general were particularly surprised by the omission of Turnbull for the World Cup qualifiers over the last week, but Kennedy says the former Motherwell man’s time will come.

“There is a lot of positivity around David because of his performances,” he said.

“But Steve has also got to respect the players who got him through the qualification campaign.

“The squad he has is strong in itself so David has got to be patient. We very much want him to be part of that because that would be good recognition for him but again, for us the priority is club level and we are delighted with how he is doing at the moment.

“I am sure in time that David will become a future Scotland international and have a huge number of caps under his belt because of the quality he has.

“Steve has a decision to make, we have to respect that, and David just has to keep working to improve his performances in games and prove himself to the national team manager.”