Stephen McGowan from the Scottish Daily Mail is as informed as it is possible to be about what is happening with the big stories at Celtic Park, in that he has shall we say Pete Lawwell’s ear. The Celtic CEO has various media channels that he utilises to get information out – without actually committing the club to anything – and the former Celtic View man is therefore a clearly a reliable source for updates when for instance the Celtic support is desperate for news on whether a new manager is about to be appointed.
Two weeks ago the support was looking at Parkhead for white smoke as an Eddie Howe appointment appeared to be imminent. Celtic being Celtic though, there was always going to be a hiccup or two along the way and we’ve been left in limbo waiting for news on Eddie.
The theories circulating are that Howe wants to bring in Richard Hughes – John Collins reckoned this week that if this is for the Director of Football role – then Howe would effectively be asking to appoint his own boss! Celtic apparently prefer Manchester City’s Fergal Harkin for that role and Collins revealed that Harkin played a significant role in Celtic getting the likes of Paddy Roberts and Jason Denayer on loan from City and Dedryck Boyata on a permanent deal.
The only other signifiant factor over the past fortnight has been the improvement in the team under John Kennedy and the Interim manager standing up for Celtic in off field matters ahead of this weekend’s Scottish Cup showdown at Ibrox. It is fair to say that Kennedy’s stock is rising again after being tarnished by being part of the hitherto poor season for the club under Neil Lennon.
This week we have seen evidence of the consequences for Lenny of the Celtic Board failing to act at the appropriate time last autumn to take him out of the pressure pot when it clearly wasn’t working. Hopefully they are now reaching out to offer help and support for the Celtic legend.
Last night Stephen McGowan was interviewed on Radio Clyde’s Super Scoreboard and the Daily Mail man sounded upbeat on the chances that Eddie Howe will be the new Celtic manager.
“The two sides seem more relaxed about it than the fans are. He met Dermot Desmond two weeks ago in London, there was an expectation things might move quickly because he’s out of work but that hasn’t happened, but there might be reasons for that,” McGowan said.
“He’ll want fairly precise details on how much money he has to spend, because of all these players potentially going out the door. How much does he have to sign 10 or 11 players?” he added.
READ THIS…Howe Strange: “What he’s asking with the Director of Football is to basically appoint his own boss,” John Collins
Answering the point raised by John Collins on BBC Sportsound earlier this week McGowan said: “I think a non-negotiable point seems to be Bournemouth technical director Richard Hughes coming along as well. I don’t know he’s going to be director of football or technical director, I think he’s going to head up the player scouting operation, maybe a replacement for Nicky Hammond.
“Eddie Howe wouldn’t be appointing his own boss, he just wants someone he can trust by his side. I don’t know he’s keen on the idea of Celtic bringing in a director of football he doesn’t know in Fergal Harkin to work above his head.”
The journalist played down the Crystal Palace link as something of a “red herring” claiming that the view from Howe’s camp is that the former Bournemouth boss doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed as a manager specialising in keeping relegation threatened teams in the Premier League.
Celtic’s confidence appears to have remained high that Eddie Howe is the man to lead the club forward. He will no doubt be watching very carefully how the side handle themselves this weekend – some could be playing for their Celtic futures – and John Kennedy’s own position within the next managerial structure, perhaps remaining as Assistant Manager, is also growing more likely.
Whether an increasing confident John Kennedy would accept a situation where he delivers a strong run in to the season and retains the Scottish Cup to then work under Howe as opposed to maybe taking a manager’s job somewhere else remains to be seen.
READ THIS…The night Celtic won a European semi-final 3-0
David Potter’s latest Celtic book is a biography of Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle and it will be published shortly on Celtic Star Books. Pre-ordering will be available from next week. And after that Matt Corr – who has been quiet on The Star recently due to this – will publish the official Harry Hood story, again on Celtic Star Books.
Celtic improving under Kennedy in the last fortnight? Home victories against the might of Falkirk and Livingstone cannot be used as a measure of Kennedy ability to manage – if that is the criteria we are using half the support would qualify!
I still think that Howe can’t pick who he works for. I think he needs lots of assurances and to be fair, he doesn’t know what it involves being in charge of us so he should be given as much assistance as possible to move etc. Hughes could well do a good job as head of recruitment. But if the club were 90 percent ready to appoint Harkin, we might end up with poor relations with Man City, because Howe told us we couldn’t hire the guy. I think that would be a mistake. It’s up to Desmond and McKay to find the solution but we’ll soon find out