Alan Stubbs reckons that Celtic have dodged a bullet and after their embarrassment from yesterday fades folk will start to realise that Eddie Howe was NOT the right man for the Celtic job.
“It doesn’t look great for both parties,” Stubbs admitted. If I was the Celtic board I would be absolutely fuming.
“I can also understand fans being furious at the board for letting Howe put them in a vulnerable position,” the former Celtic defender told Scottish Sun. “They put all their eggs in one basket and now are three months behind.
“Celtic identified their man and they must have thought they were in a great position to get him. In a way I am glad because anyone who wants three months to decide whether they will become Celtic manager is not the right guy.
“As the weeks went by something didn’t seem right to me. For Celtic to allow one individual to dictate where they go next was surprising, especially when he wasn’t working.
“I just think it wouldn’t have been the right appointment. It would have been his biggest job to date by a mile. Wherever he goes next, whether that be Crystal Palace or somewhere else, it will not be a patch on Celtic.
“Yes, Palace might be a Premier League side, but we are talking about one of the biggest clubs in the world here. Maybe it was too big for him and maybe Celtic have had a result out of this. In terms of fan base and pressure, this would have been huge. But Celtic are not going to fall apart because Eddie Howe has turned them down.”
And the former Hibs manager reckons that worrying about theRangers should be the last of Celtic’s worries as they need to steady the ship after what has been a terrible year for his old club with the Howe blow being the ‘Cherry’ on the cake.
“Celtic have to get their own house in order before they start worrying about (the)Rangers,” Stubbs added. “(the)Rangers are just a small part of the jigsaw.
“Celtic completed one part in bringing in a new chief executive, but the biggest part was appointing a manager and a head of recruitment. If they were not playing catch-up before, they certainly are now. They are really behind the black ball.
However, in a way I’m just glad the saga has finally ended. The new man has an almighty challenge ahead of him, but he also has an exciting one as well.”
What is now needed as a matter of urgency is for new CEO Dominic McKay to come forward to speak directly to the Celtic support. The plan that Celtic had was for this to happen around about now, with the new manager (Celtic believing that this was going to be Howe) also addressing the fans media. That can wait – McKay needs to organise this on Monday morning and in doing so allow the fans to question him directly and let him put Celtic’s case forward.
Peter Lawwell, incidentally, should be nowhere near this.
Peter Lawwell should be out the door.
Howe was never the right man. He might have been great but he would have only stayed 1 or 2 seasons. I’d much prefer someone who’s going to see this as a longer term opportunity. Let’s face it, we may not beat The Opposition next season but as long as we compete and progress is made I’ll be happy.
Too many Tic fans think they have a divine right to win. Wrong! But we do have the right to expect a decent performance.
Whoever comes in will lijely be in for a tremendous shock and will be expected to win from Day 1. Let’s give the guy a chance, whoever it may be!
I said it months ago, howe would not be able to handle the CELTIC job, all he’s ever done is a couple of promotions with Bournemouth, kept them in epl for a few seasons, failed and was sacked at Burnley, no disrespect to these clubs but they are both a million miles away from managing a club the size of CELTIC.