Celtic are prepared to play the waiting game to get their top candidate to replace Neil Lennon as Celtic manager and that is of course Eddie Howe. Bournemouth are leading 1-0 going into the second leg of the Premiership Play-off semi-final this weekend away to Brentford. A decent Arnaut Danjuma goal in the second half, as Bournemouth hit Brentford on the counter was the difference – Brentford finished the season in third place, ahead of Bournemouth incidentally.
Brentford missed out on promotion in the Play-off final last season, losing 2-1 to Fulham, and with former celtic target Ivan Toney leading their line, you would imagine that they are not considering the deficit from the first leg insurmountable. If Brentford win then expect Celtic to announce Eddie Howe as manager on Monday 24 May, with an early morning announcement to the London Stock Exchange.
If Bournemouth win the tie then we’ll have to wait until the play-off final the following Saturday 29 May. The match will be played at Wembley with a 3pm kick-off. Then we’ll get the announcement of Eddie Howe in Monday 31 May.
Why? Pretty simple really. Howe’s Compromise Agreement with Bournemouth will be a complex legal document and one clause will entitle him to a significant bonus should his old club bounce back into the Premier League at the first time of asking. This clause is however conditional on him not taking up a new job and remaining on gardening leave.
Given the huge financial rewards involved in making it back into the Premier League, either via automatic promotion or through the hazardous play-offs, the sum will not be insignificant, even for a wealthy elite football coach like Eddie Howe. And the sum involved is going to be too large for Celtic to have simply written a cheque to pay it themselves, in order to get their man a little earlier. So Celtic wait and we worry.
However not even the Celtic Board could be so stupid as to get themselves into this situation without having the situation completely under control and all other details agreed. Howe is going to be the next Celtic manager, either next Monday or the Monday after.
We understand that the Celtic squad have now been briefed and know that Eddie Howe is coming in as the replacement for Neil Lennon, signalling a return to an elite standard of coaching last seen when Brendan Rodgers had had enough of the DIY DoF.
Of course Dominic McKay will be aware of all this, he’ll also know that theRangers yesterday announced that they have had 44,000 renewals ahead of today’s deadline signalling a huge commitment from their support for next season, despite the remaining uncertainty on how many games each season ticket holder will be permitted to attend.
At the end of last season theRangers fans were not offered a refund for the matches missed due to the league’s early curtailment due to the onset of this dreadful virus. Celtic fans were offered a full refund – exactly one year ago today – and McKay recently revealed at the Fans Forum meeting he attended via Zoom that around 60% of the support applied for and received that refund.
Celtic Supporters have had to endure a horrendous season, which is thankfully now at an end. The appointment of Eddie Howe will raise spirits, there is no doubt about that. And the events at the weekend in Glasgow City centre, particularly around George Square, will have reminded the Celtic support that, as Tommy Burns once observed, this is a cause.
So in summary, will Eddie Howe be the Celtic manager by the end of the month? YES.
Are theRangers well ahead of us in terms of season ticket sales for next season? Have their been prepared to show overwhelming backing to their club that has one just one major trophy since 2012? YES
Are we as a Celtic support, on the back of a second 9IAR, 4 (FOUR) consecutive Trebles then one horrible collapse of a season, from the boardroom to the dressing room, prepared to match theRangers fans and renew come Eddie Howe announcement day? That is the £35m question that will be keeping Dominic McKay awake at night until the Championship play-off situation is clarified.
And the strange thing is that the chances of this being a YES too has been increased by Scotland Shame at the weekend. Maybe all that they achieved with their racist hatefest is to awake a sleeping giant by motivating the Celtic support to come together to make sure that they know that Glasgow is OUR city.
It’s a funny old game.
Alec McNair made over 700 appearances for the Hoops, captaining the club for a spell and winning a total of 34 major honours. In that sense he is a bonafide legend, but his role in the record breaking “Holy Trinity” and famous “Icicle” nickname cement his position in Celtic folklore.
A man who endured much trauma in his personal life, was initially rejected by Willie Maley, and worked in an important role during the First World War; McNair’s tale transcends football. The fact that he managed Dundee, immediately after Patsy Gallacher’s iconic goal against The Dark Blues, merely adds to the mystique of the story.
David Potter appeared as a guest on The Celtic History Podcast earlier this week (listen above). Throughout the episode, he discussed his latest publication and bequeathed listeners with some sensational stories about a man who ranks among the finest to ever pass through Parkhead’s gates.
Received my copy of the new Alec McNair book by David Potter today 📗
It was also a great pleasure to contribute with my collage designs on both the front and rear of the hardback.
The books available on the link below 🍀👇🏼 https://t.co/D4j8iFcgEm pic.twitter.com/u8O02K77NQ
— Celtic Curio (@Celticcurio) May 17, 2021
Lovely to hear that the first advance copies of David Potter’s excellent new book have now landed. Always a very special day.
This batch was posted on Saturday.
From West Dunbartonshire to Western Oz, and Milton Keynes to Massachusetts, the story of Alec McNair is being spread. pic.twitter.com/zuGU99SQPC
— Matt Corr (@Boola_vogue) May 17, 2021
The podcast is not to be missed. It is available on various platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Anchor FM.
To purchase your copy of the book, click on the image below.
Why couldn’t they have told us this sooner???