Sir Kenny Dalglish: There is work needed at the Old Firm, and it seems to me Celtic have more to do than Rangers

There will be quite a bit of work taking place at both Celtic and Rangers during the close season.

If anything, I expect there to be more goings-on at Parkhead than over at Ibrox.

A number of Celtic players will leave, and several new ones will be brought in.

But before the club even gets to that stage, they will have to work out the dynamic of the next managerial appointment and the role of the director of football and the head of recruitment.

The Celtic hierarchy will have to make sure there is absolute clarity between both incumbents.

There is room for both roles at big football clubs. Indeed, I’d say it’s a necessity to have them at Celtic.

However, if a clear definition of who is doing what, and where a final decision rests, are not crystal clear from the outset, then you will create confusion and problems down the line.

That is guaranteed.

So it will be interesting to see how that all pans out at Celtic, and whether Neil Lennon is announced as permanent manager or the role is given to someone else.

Neil, or any other new manager, will want to be able to bring in one or two of his own people to supplement his backroom staff.

That may or may not include the person to fill the other high-profile role that is available.

Celtic should first appoint their next permanent manager, agree the guidelines within his job, and then work on finding a successor to Lee Congerton, the head of recruitment who followed Brendan Rodgers to Leicester City last week.

When I returned to Liverpool as manager in 2011, Damien Comolli was already in place as director of football.

We got on absolutely fine and our working relationship was solid.

Damien would come to me and ask what I was looking for in terms of the positions we were looking to strengthen. He’d then come back with names for me to consider.

He never tried to force a player on me. He would only recommend and let me decide from there.

If we pursued a player on my say-so, Damien would then deal with the agent and the contract to try to get it over the line.

Of course, I had a director of football role at Celtic more than 20 years ago when John Barnes was head coach.

Our roles then were clearly defined.

Yet, all those years ago, clubs were being crucified and ridiculed for having such a structure in place.

Now, it’s all the rage – and everyone is getting slaughtered if you don’t have one!

We will wait and see how this all develops in the coming days and weeks at Celtic Park.

Across the River Clyde, there is not the need for as much change as we will see at Celtic.

Steven Gerrard has been in place for a year. He knows his squad inside out and the areas to be strengthened and the players he will lose.

The director of football, Mark Allen, will be working away on that, and they already have players such as Jordan Jones and Jake Hastie secured.

One player they would love to keep, I’m sure, is Ryan Kent.

He has had an excellent season, and his loan move from Liverpool has worked out extremely well for the lad, and for Rangers and Liverpool.

Nobody would be surprised if there is interest in him from elsewhere, and Liverpool will decide from the three options open to them – keep him, sell him or put him back out on loan.

Rangers would like to have him again, and he is a player who has lit up the team on several occasions this season.

Ryan has coped superbly well with the mental pressure of playing in front of 50,000 fans every other week.

It goes to show, once again, that the loan market can be a key part of your plans when used in the right way.

Others could go from Ibrox, such as Joe Worrall back to Nottingham Forest.

There may well be offers in for two or three players that Steven and the Rangers board might want to discuss and consider, such as a bid for Alfredo Morelos.

It all points to there being a considerable bit of activity, and the key will be bringing two or three players of top quality.

When you see the performances in recent week of players such as Jermain Defoe and Steve Davis, that has to give Steven optimism for next season.

He will not underestimate Celtic and their strengths, but he will have a belief about him.

The key is seeing that same desire and confidence from his players.

He will also want to see the players show much better discipline.

Having another 12 or 13 red cards next season will only lead to them failing to lift the big prizes.

Steven knows ability is vital, but self-control and the correct temperament is every bit as important.

It’s a message he has had to hammer home all season.

He will not be of a mind to keep repeating it next season.