Eddie Howe holds all the aces as Celtic face anxious wait
- Published
Celtic have held talks with Eddie Howe about becoming their new manager
Eddie Howe is in the enviable position of having a bird in the hand and potentially two in the bush.
The Celtic job is his if he wants it, that much is obvious. What's less clear is what else he might have on offer in the short-term.
Newcastle? Steve Bruce is currently even-money favourite to the be next Premier League manager out the door. Howe has been consistently mentioned as a possible successor. Crystal Palace? Roy Hodgson's position remains uncertain and Howe has been linked with Palace as well.
It's now known that Howe is not of a mind to commit to Celtic any time soon. His people have said that any talk of him becoming Celtic manager in the days or weeks ahead is "extremely premature" and that Howe's plan is to make a return to management only in the summer, at the earliest.
That appeared to kill stone dead the rather hopeful chat that Howe would come in pronto to have a look about the club and see what's what ahead of a monster rebuild in the summer.
If Howe is coming he's coming when everything - or most things - are as he wants them to be behind the scenes, not as part of some patchwork operation that will pant and wheeze its way through the final weeks of the season.
If he's taking the job he'll want to be on the front foot with his own people around him not on the back foot, having to live with somebody else's mess before he gets a chance to change it.
'Howe strengthening his hand'
The comments from Camp Howe are interesting and could be interpreted any number of ways. In appearing to keep his options open Howe is strengthening his hand in any negotiations that might be going on with Celtic, who are desperate to get him and who are singularly lacking in appealing fall-back options.
Announcing that he's still not made up his mind about his future is also a message to any other would-be suitors - 'there's time to make an approach, gents, but the clock is ticking...' Is he playing a game here in the hope of landing what he may perceive to be a juicier job in the Premier League?
Or is he playing hardball with Celtic in an attempt to get the backroom team he wants, not some hybrid operation involving people he doesn't know and doesn't want to work with?
Howe can wait. He's holding most of the aces. Celtic don't really have the same kind of luxury. They appointed Brendan Rodgers in late May 2016 and he got on with the job of galvanising the players that needed galvanising while adding two key men - Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair - to the mix.
What Rodgers faced compared to what the new Celtic manager will face was mere tweaks, though.
Celtic were reigning champions and Rangers were nowhere. Rodgers took over in a period of total supremacy, the kind of landscape that doesn't exist anymore. If it's to be Howe then he's got decisions to make left, right and centre.
None of the goalkeepers are convincing, both full-backs are on loan and two centre-halves are probably needed, if Kristoffer Ajer moves on.
Scott Brown, their leader for so long, is off to Aberdeen. Mo Elyounoussi's loan deal will soon end. It wouldn't be a major surprise if Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor left for the Premier League or if Tom Rogic and Olivier Ntcham left for pastures new.
Odsonne Edouard will almost certainly depart. It remains to be seen what the new manager makes of Albian Ajeti, Patryk Klimala and Leigh Griffiths. Of the team that started the last Old Firm game only Stephen Welsh and David Turnbull are without some kind of uncertainty going forward. Three when you add James Forrest.
'Neither Celtic nor Howe can afford failure'
Celtic are looking at the biggest revamp since Martin O'Neill's time two decades ago - and, of course, the work doesn't begin and end with the playing squad. Dominic McKay will assume the role of chief executive later in the month having moved from Scottish Rugby, but with so many momentous decisions to be made McKay is going to need help.
A mentor, if you like. The big, bad world of professional football is not like rugby. He's moving into alien territory. He'll learn the ropes because he's a very shrewd guy, but it will take time.
Peter Lawwell is leaving his post, but is he really leaving the club for good in the summer? A clean break? Is Dermot Desmond seriously going to let all that knowledge disappear in a time of such turbulence?
It's hard to see. What's easier to see is Lawwell remaining in some capacity for a spell, if it suits him - a consultant, an advisor, a sounding board. Maybe still a person of considerable influence on the decision-making, while not having the final say or the day-to-day grief that comes with it.
Howe has spoken to Desmond and other key people at the club. He'll know the score by now. As much as this is a decision that Celtic have to get right, the same applies to the Englishman. There are so many moving parts at the club right now that it's no wonder he's not rushing into anything.
It's no wonder, too, that he wants his own trusted people by his side. Celtic can't afford to fail, but neither can Howe.
For all the brilliance of his years at Bournemouth, it all ended with a bit of a whimper. Clearly he's a class coach and manager and motivator, but for the entirety of his managerial life he's been the underdog. He's never worked under the heat that the Celtic job guarantees, next season of all seasons as they attempt to prise the title back from Rangers.
Steven Gerrard had it as a player his whole career. He knew what operating under almost intolerable stress was all about. Rodgers had it as a manager at Liverpool. That brutal intensity? Howe hasn't had it.
And he wouldn't have the peace of mind that Rodgers had, that sure knowledge that Celtic are streets ahead of all others. The job then and the job now are completely different. Howe was once touted as a contender for the England job - and, failing that, a job at one of England's biggest clubs.
Relegation last season checked his momentum. Since the link with Celtic became a fact rather than a rumour there's been an examination of his worth and much of it has been an exercise in love-bombing. He's obviously an extremely talented guy.
The one area where there's awkwardness is his business in the transfer market. The good ones have been excellent and pretty cheap - Ryan Fraser bought for £400,000, Matt Ritchie also bought for £400,000 and sold for £12m, Callum Wilson bought for £3m and sold for £20m. Tyrone Mings bought for £8m and sold for £20m.
He unearthed some diamonds and made them better, but he spent a truckload of money elsewhere and too many of those purchases were hair-raisingly wide of the mark.
If you're Celtic and you're about to invest heavily in a new squad, this stuff matters. Between summer 2018 and summer 2019 Bournemouth spent more than £120m on players - £10m on Diego Rico, £12m on Chris Mepham, £13m on Lloyd Kelly, almost £14m on Arnaut Groeneveld, £15m on Philip Billing, £17m on Dominic Solanke, £25m on Jefferson Lerma. In 2020 they got relegated.
So just as Celtic need a renaissance, so, too, does Howe. One failure does not define him, not when so much else he's done has been so impressive.
At some point, though, he'll want to get back in the game. If he wants a project, then a major one exists in the east end of Glasgow. He's not biting yet. As he mulls it over, and a vacuum opens up, Celtic may be getting jumpy.