Jesse Marsch: Red Bull Salzburg coach namechecks Hibs boss Jack Ross as he speaks on Celtic links

Red Bull Salzburg boss Jesse Marsch singled out Jack Ross for praise as the Celtic-linked coach spoke of his experience on a coaching course in Scotland.

Jesse Marsch, coach of Red Bull Salzburg, has been linked with the Celtic job

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland programme Sportsound, the 47-year-old revealed that Celtic’s links with former club New York Red Bulls had led to the Parkhead side sponsoring him so he could complete a coaching course in Scotland.

Marsch said: “I wanted to further my education as well as trying to qualify myself to be a coach in Europe.

"I took my badges in the US but I needed to be educated in Europe. Red Bulls had a relationship with Celtic, and Celtic sponsored me to be on the course, which I took from 2018 to the end of 2019.

"It was very difficult and very stressful; I had to often fly over on a Saturday night directly after our game on a red-eye, then go straight from the airport to the course that lasted eight or nine hours that day, then get a little bit of sleep that night, then wake up on the Monday and go through the course again and sometimes on Tuesday as well, then fly back and coach my team. I did that probably 15 times.”

Explaining the differences between doing his badges in Scotland and in the US, he added: "What I learned – not just about Scottish football – but Scottish people, is how welcoming they were, how open they were to the ideas I had, how challenging the course was.

"Jack Ross was on the course with me and I thought he was really good, [former Hamilton boss] Martin Canning too. A lot of the assistant coaches in the league and some that are starting to be head coaches."

Marsch admits that while being linked with the Celtic job is “an honour”, he is firmly focused on current team Red Bull Salzburg.

He added: “Three or four years ago, being linked with a club like Celtic would have literally been an impossibility for me.

"I always try to look at it as, what would the project be like? Would we have similar ideas to build it the right way?

"How to invest in the academy, how to invest in young players, how to create this development process that I'm talking about and not just focus on winning. I know that when you're the manager of Celtic that winning is the most important thing.

“Of course it’s interesting. But I don't want to say anything other than it's an amazing club, and of course I'd be honoured to even be considered, but I also have a job to do here.

"My way of working is really to focus on the job I'm doing and concentrate on the moment and the more that I do that, the more these other possibilities can arise.

"Right now my full concentration is on finishing my year here in Salzburg. Then, I'll evaluate in the summer what the possibilities might be for a potential next step."

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