BBC Scotland journalist Tom English reckons Eddie Howe is ‘in the bag’ for Celtic when it comes to the managerial vacancy.
It’s been over two months since Neil Lennon resigned from the club. Since then there’s been near-constant speculation about who will be become the next permanent choice in the dugout.
In recent weeks that’s been focused on Howe after reports he had agreed ‘in principle’ to become the new Celtic boss. [Scottish Sun]
However, that was a while ago and there’s also been a significant vacuum of information from Celtic regarding the future of the club. They’ve refused to comment on speculation, as you’d expect, with Howe’s agent also coy on the links. [Sky Sports]
It’s all created a fair amount of anxiety. That kind of worry is naturally increased when we suffer damaging derby defeats such as today.
Discussing the situation on BBC Sportsound after the match at Ibrox, English gave his own theory for the delay, stating: “I’m pretty sure they’ve got Eddie Howe in the bag and they’re just trying to add on the bells and whistles.
“He can evaluate it from a distance. If I was Eddie Howe I wouldn’t want to be tarnished by this. I wouldn’t want to coach another man’s players. I wouldn’t want to come into a club that has such turbulence with so many people to be appointed. I wouldn’t walk into that mess. I’d wait until the summer and get everyone’s ducks in a row.
“It’s not too late. If they announce him in two or three weeks, he’s still got a lot of weeks to sign a lot of players.
“I would imagine, unless Celtic are completely incompetent and I don’t think they are, that they will have Howe pretty much lined up and they will already be talking about players and maybe even silently have signed some. I think there’s an awful lot of work being done in the background.”
Is Eddie Howe waiting to make the maximum possible impact at Celtic?
It’s a viable theory from English, even if it is just speculation. Why would Eddie Howe want to take charge of players that clearly don’t want to play for the club and will likely be away in the next transfer window?
It could do the reputation of a fresh start serious damage. We want the honeymoon period with Howe to be as hopeful and positive as possible.
Although we badly want a manager in the door, it does make some amount of sense that he wouldn’t rush into things right now.
Still, I do think we need the announcement sooner rather than later, even if he doesn’t officially take charge until, say, June 1st.
Will this week be the one?
In other news, Jonjoe Kenny joins Shane Duffy and Diego Laxalt on the Celtic loan scrapheap.
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