It wouldn’t be a bright, fresh spring morning without the latest Eddie Howe to Celtic chat for you.
I know, it’s a saga that’s dragged on longer than many people would have liked.
However, we can keep track of the situation by listening to what certain journalists and football figures are saying about it all.
Scottish Daily Mail journalist Stephen McGowan is more respected by Celtic fans than most. He’s known to have had some good information on the club over the last few years.
So his relaxed view of the situation on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard last night holds a bit of weight.
A caller ended up on the airwaves to quiz the ‘man in the know’ as they put it about the latest on the Howe to Celtic deal.
McGowan said: “The two sides seem more relaxed about it than the fans are. He met Dermot Desmond two weeks ago in London, there was an expectation things might move quickly because he’s out of work but that hasn’t happened, but there might be reasons for that.
“He’ll want fairly precise details on how much money he has to spend, because of all these players potentially going out the door. How much does he have to sign 10 or 11 players?
“I think a non-negotiable point seems to be Bournemouth technical director Richard Hughes coming along as well. I don’t know he’s going to be director of football or technical director, I think he’s going to head up the player scouting operation, maybe a replacement for Nicky Hammond.
“Eddie Howe wouldn’t be appointing his own boss, he just wants someone he can trust by his side. I don’t know he’s keen on the idea of Celtic bringing in a director of football he doesn’t know in Fergal Harkin to work above his head.”
McGowan goes on to call the Crystal Palace speculation something of a ‘red herring’ and that the noise coming from Howe circles is that he’s wary of the idea of becoming a manager who’s caught in English Premier League relegation struggles.
He also thinks Celtic don’t really have fears of him playing them off against different clubs, or that this narrative is a ‘bit overplayed’.
Finally, the journalist said he still thinks Howe is coming in the door.
It’s all quite promising stuff and feeds into what we’ve been writing over the last week, which is relax, let it all play out.
Just because it’s taking a long time doesn’t mean there’s any significant drama on either side. It’s just about negotiations and figuring out where everything fits. That’s perfectly normal.
Fingers crossed everything is moving in the right direction despite the vacuum of information.
In other news, Celtic could end up making a profit on Patryk Klimala.
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