Celtic Name Tony Mobray As Their New Manager

Brings Mark Venus And Peter Grant With Him

Celtic's search for a new manager ended this week when they announced that West Bromwich Albion manager had agreed to join the club.

Mobray, who will face the press for the first time as Celtic manager on Wednesday, also brought coaches Mark Venus and Peter Grant to the club, where the pair will join Neil Lennon as the new Celtic management team.

According to news reports, the deal was finalized after Celtic agreed to pay West Bromwich Albion £2 million in compensation for the right to talk to their manager.

Tony Mowbray played for Celtic between 1991 and 1995, also spending time with Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town, where he began his coaching career under George Burley.

After Burley's firing, Mobray spent a short time there as an acting-manager, before heading for the top job at Easter Road, managing Hibs in the Scottish Premier League.

Leading them to two top-four finishes in 2005 and 2006, he moved to West Bromwich Albion where, in his first year he led them to the Championship play-offs, then in 2008 oversaw their promotion to the Premier League.

According to Peter Rafferty, secretary of the Association of Celtic Supporters' Clubs, the selection of Mowbray was welcomed by Celtic fans.

"He has served a decent apprenticeship in Scotland and England," he said. "He is obviously aware of Celtic and he will be well received by the fans.

"Peter Grant will be coming with him and nobody is a bigger Celtic man.

"Even at West Brom Tony was committed to playing good football and the fans still supported him - and that says a lot when he got the team relegated."

Meanwhile, West Brom's chairman Jeremy Peace, who was determined to keep Mowbray, and refused to back down over the issue of compensation said in a statement on the club's website that: "Tony leaves with our best wishes for a successful future in football.

"We will now concentrate fully on the important task of appointing a new manager who can take the club forward.

"As we stated last week, we did not want to lose Tony nor did we encourage Celtic's approach.

"However, there was a compensation clause in Tony's contract which has been met to our satisfaction and, after talks with Celtic, Tony has decided to join them."