Tommy Johnson claims Celtic's "powers that be" blocked his return to Parkhead - despite Neil Lennon wanting to hire him.
The former Celtic striker insists his old team-mate had lined up a role on his backroom staff to aid with recruitment last season.
But there was no place found for the 50-year-old and Nick Hammond was later hired as head of football operations.
Johnson, who signed for Celtic in 1997 and left in 2001, believes Lennon would have reaped the benefits of a familiar face on his dugout team.
Now head of recruitment at Blackpool, Johnson told the Celtic Huddle podcast: "Obviously there has been rumours in the past, I was. I did actually go up and meet Peter Lawwell twice, Lenny wanted to bring me in last year but the powers that be made the decision not to, shall I say.
"Yeah, everybody knows that once you have played for Celtic, how much it means to you, yeah, I would, Neil had asked me to come in.
"I was all for coming up, helping Neil in any which way I can but it didn’t materialise. Nick (Hammond) got the job, not the one that I was going for, Lenny just wanted us in to help with the recruitment. To be someone around that he could talk to.
"The manager has got to have someone, and that is no disrespect to Gavin Strachan who has come in and John Kennedy and the rest of the staff. You need as a manager someone that you can actually talk to on a personal basis as well.
"Neil hasn’t brought anyone in since he’s been at the club which is quite astounding when you look back at Brendan Rodgers and the amount of staff that Brendan brought in which is right.
"Anyone who goes in as a manager, my first bit of advice to anyone is get someone in who you know, who is good at the job and who you can trust and speak to.
"As I said, and it is no disrespect to all of the staff that are there."
