'The Story Of' is a web series dedicated to small but special tales from Celtic’s illustrious history. Here, ex-first team coach Damien Duff hails the work rate of a former colleague.

SPEAKING after his departure from Paradise, Damien Duff described his time at Celtic as the best of his sporting life. One man who made his time in Glasgow so memorable is assistant manager John Kennedy – whose work-rate the Irishman could not praise enough.

After moving into coaching, Duff joked about the stresses of working a 9-5 job for the first time in his career, and said any player who moves from the pitch to the dugout will face the same rude awakening. When Duff made the jump to first team coach, he said Kennedy’s idea of ‘regular hours’ was even more demanding still.

“Let me tell you, working with John Kennedy, that man would stay at Lennoxtown until 8 or 9pm at night!” Duff told the Celtic View. “I might have said I was getting used to a 9-5 when I first started coaching, but when I moved up to the first-team, I was more from 8am right through until who knows when.

“But seriously, it was amazing, and it was great to work with all of these people at the club. I do like my sleep, though, so I’ve been enjoying catching up with it at home during this down-time. The players work hard, but they don’t have a clue. When I was a player, I didn’t have a clue just how much work that goes in behind the scenes.

“I imagine when the time comes, a lot of the boys will go into coaching themselves, and they’ll all get the shock of their lives whenever they do make the switch to coaching.”

The Story Of… Damien Duff's praise of John Kennedy's work rate