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Alan Sheehan is building his backroom staff after being appointed Swansea City manager on a permanent basis

Darren O’Dea is set to swap Celtic for Swansea City to join part of Alan Sheehan’s coaching staff for next season.

According to Sky Sports (18.04), the 38-year-old has agreed a three-year deal to join the Championship side from the Glasgow outfit.

Sheehan was initially appointed by the Swans as a temporary replacement for Luke Williams earlier this season, but a strong run of form to end the term led to him becoming the permanent replacement.

The Irishman is now looking to build a backroom staff that can help him improve the club’s standing in the division next year after leading the team to an 11th place finish.

Celtic coach joins Swansea backroom staff

O’Dea has reportedly agreed a three-year deal to join Swansea as Sheehan builds his staff for next season.

The 38-year-old was the pathways manager at Celtic, but is now set to become assistant manager with the Welsh outfit.

Sheehan also agreed a three-year deal when he was appointed permanent, having overseen seven wins from 13 games in charge.

O’Dea has previously been a coach at Motherwell, joining the Scottish side in 2019, before quickly making the switch to Celtic’s underage system later that year.

He has held the role of pathways manager since 2024, a role created to help academy players progress into the Premiership club’s first team squad.

Sheehan will now be hoping O’Dea can have a strong impact with Swansea, as they look to improve on the side’s 11th place finish in the league last season.

Alan Sheehan’s impact at Swansea

Sheehan was appointed as an interim head coach in February following Williams’ dismissal.

He oversaw the final 13 fixtures of the season, with the team sitting 17th in the table and on 37 points when he took over.

Seven wins and three draws in that run led to the Swans moving up to 11th, finishing the campaign with 61 points.

Swansea ultimately ended up missing out on a play-off place by just seven points.

Sheehan building out his coaching staff is a positive step

Sheehan showed a lot of promise as a coach during his brief spell as interim manager, and has earned the chance to show what he can do on a full-time basis.

Bringing in someone like O’Dea as assistant manager is an exciting step forward, and shows the club are backing him by bringing in key staff to help him do the best job possible.

O’Dea has earned over five years of experience at Celtic working with their academy setup, and has an existing relationship with Sheehan to build off of.

The key will now be to recruit well in the summer and get a strong start to the next campaign to show that the club can bridge that gap to the top six and fight for Premier League promotion.