As interesting theories go, Davie Provan on Celtic chairman Dermot Desmond made for intriguing listening.
The former Celtic winger, who made over 300 Bhoys appearances [Celtic Wiki], is suggesting that it’d be too embarrassing for Desmond to have to announce a climb-down. With Eddie Howe all but confirmed weeks ago [Sun], there’s been a level of confusion about a lack of talk from Paradise.
Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, Provan said:
“I don’t think for a moment Dermot Desmond would have exposed himself to the possibility of being embarrassed by Eddie Howe.
And Eddie Howe, himself, has chosen not to rule himself out.
“So reading between the lines I think there’s an agreement, I think it’s a done deal.
“I’m pretty sure Celtic will be working away in the background to beef that squad up. Because it’s going to be a wholesale change of the type that we haven’t seen for a long, long time.
“I’m sure Dermot Desmond will be aware that it doesn’t look good. That makes me all the more convinced that a deal has been done with Eddie Howe, and that they’re working behind the scenes.”
It’s quite the take; let’s explore it.
Davie Provan is probably right about prideful Celtic board
If we know one thing about the Celtic board, it’s that they’re stubborn. When they make a decision, they tend to stick by it. We saw that this season with Neil Lennon staying well past the point of recovering the season.
They’re also a prideful bunch, who are obsessive about positive PR. That makes sense, and is a good thing for the club in a way. It does mean that their moves are calculated carefully, in terms of who will be patrolling the dugout next season. As we’ve noted, they fairly take their time.
So you’d expect if Eddie Howe wasn’t the next Celtic manager, there’d have been some noise out of Celtic Park by this point. It’s similar to what Jackie McNamara was saying to us:
“The fact we’ve not heard anything, I’d imagine they’re trying to get everything done. It is a big decision, you don’t want them to rush it. It’s not just a manager, there’s a lot of things changing, and a lot of players changing this summer.”
Are we clutching at straws a bit? I don’t think so. The old idiom “no news is good news” could be what’s happening here, and while the communication with supporters is still dreadful, it’s not hard to imagine Provan’s scenario being the case. It’d be an utter humiliation for Celtic to wind back from Eddie Howe talk.
While we’re relatively sure Desmond won’t have liked how the Howe “principle” news came out, they’re still an image-conscious bunch who want to control the stories about the club. Therefore, you’d have to assume there’d be something else setting the Celtic news agenda if our hopes weren’t based on something concrete.
READ MORE: Why it didn’t work for Shane Duffy at Celtic
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
