Why missing out on Howe may been the best thing that could have happened to Celtic…
As reported earlier this week, newly installed Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe spoke in his press conference about his protracted negotiations with Celtic during the summer which ended in an utterly embarrassing failure for the Celtic board.
As reported by Daily Mail, Howe said: “The problem is that I didn’t change my mind at the last minute.
“I have not spoken publicly on it because there have been a lot of things said that have been totally untrue.
“I couldn’t get my backroom team together to go to Celtic for a host of different reasons. And I didn’t want to take the job of such size, knowing the job needing to be done, on my own. I knew what was needed.
“So there was no change of mind, I was open and honest with everyone connected.
“Celtic were absolutely brilliant and I was open and honest all the way through. No problems with Celtic whatsoever.”
With the saga finally coming to a conclusion in terms of Celtic and Howe having now both moved on, I thought it would be a good time to see how the events of the summer have worked out for our club.
Many thought that Howe would be perfectly suited to Celtic after his time with Bournemouth where he was renowned for getting his team playing attractive football on a reduced budget. The thing is this was a bit of a myth. 13 of Howe’s signings were in the £10m+ category including a few over £20m including Nathan Ake from Chelsea. Hardly scraping through the bargain bin.
New Newcastle Head Coach Eddie Howe pictured with the club shirt at his unveiling press conference at St. James Park on November 10, 2021 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Howe’s managerial career consists of two spells at Bournemouth and a forgettable spell at Burnley. Why were we getting so excited by this man? To be honest, although many of us despise the EPL and how vastly over-hyped it is, it can be easy to be caught up in some of the nonsense that comes out of it. Yes Howe did have many successful years at Bournemouth bringing them up through the league’s and into a team who became EPL regulars. A Bournemouth legend by all accounts for achieving that feat.
There are many managers that have been hugely successful at just one club over many years and sometimes that can be due to how big a presence they have become within their own confines. They have an aura around them at that club due to many years of success and the players will buy into that. Then they go to another club and that aura doesn’t transfer with them and it all comes crashing down. This is what happened when Howe went to Burnley. So throughout his managerial career he has only been a success at one club.
The whole hype surrounding the EPL means that people assume if someone can succeed in that league then Scotland will be a breeze. Player wise we know that over the years this has proven to be a ridiculous assumption. There are countless examples of this happening, with Shane Duffy and Joey Barton being particularly prominent examples in recent years. Howe has never been anywhere near a club the size of Celtic during his career as either player or manager.
New Newcastle Head Coach Eddie Howe (c) pictured at his unveiling press conference with Directors Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi at St. James Park on November 10, 2021 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
No matter how experienced he may have thought he was having managed throughout the English leagues with Bournemouth and Burnley nothing would have prepared him for how big Celtic is. Bournemouth fans are known for being some of the more pleasant fans in England, with low expectations. Howe would have never had anywhere near the type of expectations placed on him previously that he would have experienced at Celtic Park. Seeing how he handles the pressure at Newcastle will give us an indication of how he would have got on at Celtic.
After the whole humiliating episode finally came to an end when Celtic appointed Yokohama F Marino’s manager Ange Postecoglou, at the time many Celtic fans felt underwhelmed by the signing of the Greek Aussie, probably due more to the fact he wasn’t a well known name in this side of the world.
Postecoglou may not have managed in the EPL but one thing he most definitely has is a winning mentality. Not just at one club. Not just in one country. He has multiple success stories during his career. Yes, Howe has a reputation of playing attractive football but Ange, he doesn’t just like playing attractive football, he wants to play a whole new level of attacking football. The type of football that gets the fans on their feet throughout games.
Hindsight is a great thing but I think you would be hard pushed to find many Celtic fans who will now look back to the summer and regret us missing out on signing Howe. The main bone of contention will be why we didn’t cut our losses with Howe earlier and get Ange in the door as soon as possible giving him even more time to introduce his philosophy into the current squad. With how quickly he’s moulded this team already just imagine how much further on we could have been if we had got him in earlier.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – NOVEMBER 10: Ange Postecoglou is pictured with the Glen’s Manager of the Month award for October at Lennoxtown, on November 10, 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)
Lets be brutally honest here. The board had an absolute nightmare during their managerial hunt. They should have known Lennon’s time was up at the start of 2021. After all the time wasted chasing Howe we didn’t eventually appoint Ange until June. He didn’t really get fully started until July.
The board gets absolutely no credit for appointing Ange. The truth is they got lucky. We are all grateful at the moment to have Ange as our current manager, in such a short period of time he’s had a huge effect on the club. He’s made us a joy to watch on the pitch, he has unearthed some proper quality players including Kyogo and Jota, players we would not have signed under Howe.
Photo: Jeff Holmes
He performs immaculately in front of the media and isn’t scared to fight back against them when he feels they are being disparaging against the club, I just can’t imagine Howe battling against them with such vigour.
In the end I think we have been unbelievably fortunate to have Ange Postecoglou as our current manager. We will never know how it would have gone under Eddie Howe but to be totally honest I’m perfectly happy I will never find out. I have a feeling Howe won’t last long under the pressure and expectancy placed on him by Newcastle’s new mega rich owners.
He may well be looking up the road in a few years with envy at all the success Ange Postecoglou has achieved and think, what if? By that stage Celtic fans will long have forgotten feeling miffed at missing out on the Englishman.
Conall McGinty
