Crystal Palace co-chairman Steve Parish has admitted that former Celtic managerial target Eddie Howe had agreed to become manager at Selhurst Park in 2011 only to join Burnley instead. In the new Amazon Prime documentary, ‘When Eagles Dare: Crystal Palace FC’, Parish said that he was overseeing an extensive managerial search as Palace looked to stay in the division. This is something that was potentially missed during the drawn out public negotiations between Celtic and Howe earlier in the year.
After George Burley was sacked, Howe was selected as the favourite to take over as Crystal Palace boss. However, Parish explained that everything was agreed with Howe, only for him to opt for a move to Burnley instead. Then Bournemouth manager in his first stint, the documentary states that Howe was toured around the training ground before agreeing to take over.
“Big manager search, we spoke to lots of different people and then landed on Eddie Howe.
“I agreed everything with Eddie. And then woke up the next morning, he’d gone to Burnley. Obviously another lesson about football.”
Celtic fans can draw a number of parallels with Palace as it seemed as if Howe was set to take over as the boss at Paradise. However, for one reason or another, the 43-year-old Englishman decided against the opportunity of a lifetime and Ange Postecoglou jumped at the opportunity.
It was potentially a dodged bullet as Howe clearly didn’t fancy the cauldron that is Scottish football but, as they say, as one door closes another opens. Ange Postecoglou has spoken extremely well, he has impressed on the training pitch and needs to be supported in bringing in talent ahead of a new season.
Howe is undoubtedly a talented manager but Celtic needed someone that was willing to fight ahead of a large rebuild and if he was unsure about taking the job, it was probably for the best that the negotiations collapsed.
