Howe pantomime ends, what now

Two weeks ago, I cautioned that the line being given to Celtic by Eddie Howe, that he was waiting to assemble his backroom team, did not hold water, “This could be the reason proffered for the lack of a signature, but I’m not buying it.”

With his former Bournemouth backroom team now free from football commitments, I understand Howe told Celtic he is unable to convince his team to come to Glasgow and is not prepared to come without them.  I’m not buying that either.  He either has one of the EPL jobs he coveted, or his strength of character is not sufficient for him to cope in Glasgow without a chaperone.  If it is the former, he has strung us along, if the latter, he’s too weak to cope here.  It is the former, surely?

Howe was clearly our first choice and the man a board felt it worthwhile to not only offer a huge contract and the opportunity to recruit the entire backroom team, but to allow him to sit on the pot until the end of May.  Like all these decisions, it was a gamble.  Your view is as good as mine as to whether he was worth the wait.

So where has this left us?  The ponderous time Eddie Howe took allowed a clear preference to emerge if his deal remained unsigned.  You and I will have a weekend in the dark, which is frustrating, but I am not seeing any panic at Celtic Park.  The new guy is not from the EPL circus, we’ll find out soon enough if that is a good thing or not!

Have a good weekend, if that’s possible between the two mood killers of managerial recruitment and lockdowns.