Jesse Marsch: 'Interesting' Celtic links 'an honour' for RB Salzburg coach
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Jesse Marsch, right, is the first American to lead a side in the Champions League
Red Bull Salzburg head coach Jesse Marsch says it is an "honour" to be linked with the Celtic job and describes the role as "interesting".
The 47-year-old American has been suggested by some ex-players as a good fit to replace Neil Lennon.
Austrian side Salzburg are on course for a second straight league and cup double under Marsch, who has also worked as an assistant at RB Leipzig.
"I've heard [about the links]. It's an honour for me," Marsch told BBC Sport.
"Three or four years ago, being linked with a club like Celtic would literally be an impossibility for me. And now that this is where I am, I always just try to look at it in terms of, 'what would the project look like?'
"Would we have similar ideas in how to build it the right way, invest in the academy, invest in young players and create this development process that I'm talking about? And not just focus on winning.
"Obviously I know that when you're the coach of Celtic, winning is the most important thing."
Celtic are reportedly searching for a director of football as well as a manager in a revamp of their football operations, after their pursuit of a 10th consecutive league title fell flat this term.
Marsch previously coached New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer, winning coach of the year in 2015.
He moved to Germany in 2018 to become Ralf Rangnick's assistant at Leipzig, before taking the reigns at Salzburg the following summer, where he helped develop young talents such as Erling Braut Haaland, Takumi Minamino, and Dominik Szoboszlai.
As a result, Marsch has also been linked to top jobs in the German Bundesliga but is contracted to Salzburg until the summer of 2022.
"I know enough about it to say of course it's interesting," he added of the Celtic role. "It's an amazing club and it would be an honour to even be considered. But I also have a job to do here.
"My way of working is really to focus in on the job that I'm doing and concentrate on the moment. And the more that I do that the more other possibilities can arise."
Celtic would 'win a watch' with Marsch - analysis
Motherwell youth coach Maurice Ross on BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound
He was on my pro-licence coaching course and I spent an afternoon listening to him and I think, if Celtic get Jesse Marsch, they have won a watch.
The new breed of manager is fundamentally a coach and someone who can manage - they are hybrids. This guy's got the lot for me.
I've said before that, if Celtic make a knee-jerk appointment that appeases fans because they are Celtic-minded or that kind of thing that gets bandied about when hiring in Scotland, it will be a mistake.
Listening to Marsch there, the key words for me were "project", "investing", "process", "development". These are things that, like Rangers have done this year, take time to in-bed.
But, if they are patient enough to appoint a guy like Jesse Marsch, who is going to need that first year, maybe two, I think the club would be in a far better state.
I would put him on a par with Eddie Howe and I don't think Roberto Martinez is even an option for Celtic.
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