The new Celtic manager just needs to have winning in his DNA

Ironically Lambert cites the most unlikely of sources to nail down what he considers to be the very essence of what it takes to be a successful Celtic manager.

That source just happens to be a legendary former Rangers manager.

Lambert said "I read an article recently by Graeme Souness. In the piece, he declared that being the manager of Celtic and Rangers were two of the toughest jobs in world football.

"I thought about it for a second and came to the conclusion that Souness is absolutely bang on the money here. He is so right on this issue. The demands placed on both Celtic and Rangers managers and players by the supporters is like nowhere else in football.

"You cannot come second in Scotland. You have to be first. End of. Nothing else matters. Managing Celtic is just like playing for the club. The one thing that you must have in your DNA more than anything is a winning mentality.

"Any manager or player coming into Celtic has to win - pure and simple. Winning is paramount, second is nowhere. I also think that Celtic always need a strong Rangers competing in the Scottish Premiership too. Rangers have been nowhere near it recently with the exception of the year Steven Gerrard won the title. They both need each other to be at their strongest domestically as it brings the best out in the two teams.

"Celtic is not just a club with a reach in Europe. It has a global reach and when you think about it as a football entity like that it is no wonder Souness made those kind of remarks. That's how big a club Celtic are."

READ MORE: The Celtic screamer that changed history, not owing Zidane's shirt and why he nearly left Paradise - Paul Lambert Interview

Lambert has watched with interest how Ange Postecoglou came to Celtic and swept the boards within two years winning five out of six trophies up for grabs in the process including a world record eighth treble.

Celtic are currently managerless right now after the Aussie signed a four-year-deal with English Premier League sleeping giants Tottenham Hotspur.

The 53-year-old ex-Scotland international doesn't blame Postecoglou for swapping Glasgow for the bright lights of London but having worked under so many different managerial operators in Paradise, Lambert is well-placed and qualified to proffer his expert opinion on what the new incumbent will need to help Celtic continue to be successful.

The Scottish Premiership champions have been linked with a whole host of names since Postecoglou's departure - Brendan Rodgers, Kjetil Knutsen, Graham Potter, Enzo Maresca, Jesse Marcsh, Davie Moyes and Steve Clark to name but a few.

Lambert said: "Dr Jo, Jansen, Barnes, Dalglish and O'Neill - they were successful or they weren't. We all know who out of those five managerial personalities were winners and who weren't.

"Look at the club Postecoglou has joined - Tottenham - they employed two of football's serial winners in the history of the game Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte and they never achieved anything at the club. It hasn't worked. That doesn't make Mourinho or Conte bad managers, does it?

"Something fundamentally was not right at the club as Mourinho got sacked before the cup final which was an extraordinary decision and then Conte left through the under performance of the players and not getting on with the board.

"Whether you are a serial winner you need the right fit and the right moment and the right time for people to get right into it.

"It does not matter what one of those managerial names you choose off that list and bring in to Celtic they just need to win. This is a club that is steeped and built on a history of winning. It goes way back to the Jock Stein era and even before that with a managerial figure like Willie Maley.

"It was Stein that famously said the Celtic jersey doesn't shrink to fit inferior players. The same rules apply to the manager as the job doesn't shrink to fit them. Being the Celtic manager is a massive undertaking. I can understand why the Celtic managers job could make people shrink, especially with the stress levels attached to it.

"Any new Celtic manager has to recognise that. They don't get lots of time to settle in and you have to hit the ground running.

"That's why Souness is right. The stress levels are through the roof managing a club like Celtic. Football may well be in your blood and your DNA but you are no use to anybody as a Celtic manager if winning is not in your DNA either.

"Celtic is a way of life and any manager coming in has to peak daily. That's at training and on match day. You are bringing your 'A'-game to the table every day. When you're in front of the camera, when you're off camera, you are representing that football club always. That is a given and a constant. Every week you are asked to peak and peak and then peak again. It takes a certain mentality to thrive and survive in that environment as a player but most certainly as a manager.

"That's what separates the good managers from the great managers.

"If it's not in your DNA to crave the challenge and the pressure of being the manager at Celtic and everything that comes with it then you're in the wrong game. Celtic is probably not the club for you."

READ MORE: Celtic legend Jock Stein remembered: Three Kings filmmaker Jonny Owen on the great man's legacy

Lambert is well aware that Postecoglou's replacement will inherit a cracking Celtic dressing room with a multi-talented squad of players.

Whilst recruitment is key to keeping things fresh at big clubs. There is an element that it ain't broke at the treble holders so tweaks may be required but not necessarily wholesale changes.

However, Lambert is aware that a big managerial personality will also go a long way.

Postecoglou's track record in the transfer market - especially in Asia - was almost flawless and he showed that he definitely had a keen eye for a player as he signed seven players from that continent with Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata and Oh Hyeon-gyu all snapped up. Other signings such as Jota, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt, have become firm fan favourites.

Lambert admits that any new Celtic manager would love to walk into that situation.

The former Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 said: "Any Celtic manager walking into that Celtic dressing room has a good start doesn't he? He's inheriting some quality players.

"When Martin (O'Neill) came into Celtic, he inherited the likes of Johan Mjallby, Henrik Larsson, Lubomir Moravcik and yours truly. There was enough quality to work with. The guy who replaces Postecoglou will feel like that. He will know he was walked into a great set-up. He has good players that he can work with from the off.

"If you don't have that kind of dressing room then you might be up against it. A manager with his smarts about him will work it all out for himself soon enough.

"Under Postecoglou, the Celtic dressing room was a harmonious place to be and the dressing rooms during my time at Celtic were good. There were not many bad ones. It can happen when managers go into a dressing room that is not great.

"Even the managers that did not succeed at Celtic during my time there like Dr Jo had been to the World Cup with Czechoslovakia and he was assistant when they won the European Championships in 1976.

"John Barnes was a serial winner as player at Liverpool and he was a world-class footballer. Okay, it didn't happen for John at Celtic and everybody remembers the Mark Viduka incident against Inverness but those are exceptions to the rules.

"Mark was a brilliant guy and he could play. He never caused any problems whatsoever but he had that infamous spat but that happens in every dressing room in every club up and down the country and it was unfortunate that got made public. I have not inhabited many bad dressing rooms as a player.

"Wim Jansen had won the European Cup and played in the World Cup final. Martin had won European Cups and Kenny Dalglish is well he's Kenny Dalglish and he is revered in football circles.

"They were all big characters managerially and they had their own style and personality but they all knew how to handle a Celtic dressing room full of quality players and egos.

"Managers need to try and get the right players in and make it all gel and work. Postecoglou brought in good players who were good people into the club and if you have that in the dressing room then every Celtic manager whoever it is will have a chance."

Ironically three out of the five managers Lambert played under were not exactly steeped in Celtic.

Although it is not a potential barrier to taking the Paradise reins the former Aston Villa, Norwich and Ipswich boss readily admits that it helps.

Lambert said: "Being steeped in Celtic can help. If you look at Tommy Burns, God rest him, he bled green and white but he won a solitary Scottish Cup and the League flag eluded him because of a strong Rangers team and that cost him his job.

"Tommy couldn't break that cycle. So when people say that a Celtic manager needs to have the club in their DNA then I would say that it could possibly help but it took an insider in Wim Jansen to come in and stop Rangers' 10-in-a-row attempt. That is arguably one of the club's greatest ever achievements.

"Wim never knew as much as what Tommy did in terms of the history of the club but that turned out to be a masterstroke as he was detached from the pressure of it all. If somebody Scottish had taken over after Tommy they might have crumbled under the burden of expectation and the demands from the Celtic fans.

READ MORE: How Tommy Burns took new Celtic signing to mass on his first day of training

"Wim came in and was calm and cool under pressure. It was a bit like Postecoglou when he first came in and rebuilt Celtic. He stayed cool, calm and collected. He largely ignored and shut out all the noise and focused on the job.

"Celtic's new manager has to do the same. He has to steer clear of newspapers and phone-ins and find a coping mechanism and stick to the task at hand."

Another item on the Celtic managerial DNA checklist is playing with an attack-minded philosophy as well as developing a rapport with the green and white faithful.

Postecoglou mastered both of those elements with ease. Certainly, domestically his brand of free-flowing attacking football and the "We Never Stop", slogan became a club mantra but it was a different story on the European scene.

Lambert said: "The Celtic fans demand attack-minded football and they want to be entertained at all times.

"Playing at Parkhead is different as the crowd drives you on. Martin O'Neill's Celtic team went toe-to-toe with them all in Europe. We didn't always win but we were never humped in Europe.

"In Europe, you might have to be more pragmatic because it is no use going to the likes of Real Madrid and getting humped as you cannot be gung-ho against that level of opposition. History tells you these players are world-class but every manager has the right to approach games like that, whatever way he wants.

"Celtic under Postecoglou were great domestically but were still finding their feet in the Champions League and I've played against players who can hurt you in a heartbeat having not been in the game for 89 minutes.

"If the new manager coming in adds to the players that are already there then they can improve in the Champions League and at Celtic Park the crowd demand that you compete in every game no matter the competition.

"Martin had a wonderful rapport with the Celtic fans and he always interacted with them. Postecoglou will tell you that due to the fan base Celtic is a huge club and they are what make it special. I'm sure he was torn when he made the decision to leave Celtic for Spurs.

"I'm sure if Postecoglou could transfer the Celtic fans to London he would do it in a heartbeat."

Lambert is adamant that Celtic's new manager will be walking into a happy place and taking over a club that is arguably in one of the best shapes it's ever been in during its illustrious 135-year history.

Lambert said: "Structurally Celtic are solid. They are in a really good place. That ticks a box. The new manager is walking into a dressing room where everything is already in situ. They have the bonus of playing Champions League group-stage football and not being involved in the qualifiers.

"This is a level that the Celtic players are expected to handle. There is no respite from it and any manager worth their salt will fancy this challenge and meet it head-on.

"The new Celtic manager will have to be brave to take it on but that's what makes playing and managing Celtic the experience that it is. That is why you are there.

"If you are a top-level person that's what you want in your professional life as that's what top-level football is all about.

"Any new Celtic manager will certainly be encouraged by what Postecoglou achieved at the club but he will want to take it on a notch. He will want to show the Celtic fans that he is confident in his own ability and he can go into that pressure pot and carry the club on their shoulders.

"Those are the kind of qualities that should be in the new Celtic manager's DNA. That manager is definitely out there somewhere and it is up to the Celtic board to find him and hire him."