With Bournemouth’s elimination from the English Championship playoffs on Saturday, it’s time for Celtic to get Eddie Howe in immediately.
The Daily Record reported last week that, due to financial obligations, Celtic and Howe had to wait for Bournemouth’s season to end before he could be announced. If the Cherries were promoted whilst Howe was on gardening leave, he would’ve banked a substantial bonus. In addition to that, he was also waiting for his favoured Bournemouth staff to become available.
Both of these were reasonable excuses to hold back on Howe’s announcement. But now both have been wiped out, and in truth, we’re now at the stage where we’ve waited long enough.
Celtic’s season now finished over a week ago. Bournemouth’s situation was the only plausible reason to not appoint Howe. With yesterday’s Scottish Cup final now also in the rear-view mirror, Scottish football is more or less over for another campaign. Only playoff final matches have still to be determined.
But the Hoops have a quicker start next season than many others. Our campaign kicks off in late July when the Champions League qualifiers come around. We’re now officially less than two months away from that particular start date.
Not that we’ll have our rebuild completed by then of course. That’s just a ridiculous notion that nobody we can’t even entertain. Celtic need to sign a double=digit number of players this summer. That won’t all happen over the next 50 days or so.
Background work is all well and good; but Celtic need Eddie Howe announced now
But even though plenty of background work will be being put into our recruitment goals, Howe’s announcement still needs to be made. That’s the only thing that will speed up the process further and allow us to start making major transfer decisions.
For the truth is Celtic can’t be seen to complete transfer work until the new manager is confirmed. It’s a bad look and will lead to more questions than answers for supporters.
Over the course of the last several months, it’s always been something. Always some reason why Howe simply couldn’t be appointed. Whether it be because he didn’t want the gig until the summer, he couldn’t get his backroom staff, or that he had a huge bonus awaiting him via Bournemouth’s potential success. There’s always been something to hold it back.
The waiting game has led to some fans panicking. Crystal Palace’s announcement that Roy Hodgson would leave in the summer didn’t do much to soothe anyone’s fears. And as the managerial merry-go-round gets set to happen in England this summer, Celtic could do with getting their man in now and avaoiding all of it.
There’s now officially nothing holding back the announcement. Bournemouth’s campaign is over as is our own. The preparation for the new season starts now. So it’s time to inform Howe that now is the time and that we’ve waited long enough.
Get it done Celtic – we’re all sick of talking about it.
In other news, two former Celtic managers are reportedly eyeing up returns to management.
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