Celtic fans have a lot to deal with right now but they shouldn’t get hung up on the chat about whoever becomes boss will know he wasn’t the first choice.
This is not a new wife we’re talking about. There’s no need for the best man trying to avoid gags about sloppy seconds.
New managers are rarely the first choice. More often than not they are not even the second or third pick. It works the other way as well.
Every club would love to have Pep Guardiola at the helm and likewise every gaffer would rather be walking out at the Nou Camp.
Every other deal is a marriage of convenience based on availability, affordability and mutually beneficial circumstances.
It doesn’t really matter where they were in the pecking order.
Don’t forget, Celtic were on a wild Guus chase trying to get Hiddink 21 years ago before they ended up with Martin O’Neill.
The trick for the Parkhead club now is to make sure the next on the list is on the mark.
Celtic could do with a time machine to go back to July 2020 and start over again but since that’s out of their price range, they need to take a step back and try to blow away some of the crazy fog that has engulfed the place. They must stop making bad decisions then compounding them with worse.
The Great Eddie Howe Debacle will take a while to get over.
If he was the man in February, Celtic should have stuck a bit of paper under his nose and got him to sign it there and then.
By all means start in the summer but here’s the pre-contract and if you break it you’ll be in front of a judge.
The delay always seemed weird. Who takes a year’s break from football at 43?
He’s a manager, not a Chilean miner.
There would have been money involved but any guy who’d rather keep the cash coming in while he has the feet up is a flight risk.
Waiting for his backroom team doesn’t wash.
I’m sure the Bournemouth boys are good operators but you don’t hang your entire career on the lads who put out the balls, bibs and cones.Howe has clearly taken cold feet and that might even mean Celtic have dodged a bullet after all.
This gig ain’t for the faint of heart. But it does leave Celts scooping yolk off their faces and in a tight spot.
They say they are at “advanced stages” with another candidate but who knows what that might mean. There are supertankers that move quicker than this lot.
It’s nearly 100 days since Neil Lennon left. That’s about three times as long as the First Gulf War.
The scramble is on and it’s Ange Postecoglou who has now shot to the top of list.
There will be plenty of hipsters who’ll tell you he has been a smash hit in Australia and Asia, how he gets his teams to play attacking, high pressing football in a revolutionary 2-3-1-2-2 formation or whatever.
That could be true. But going for Postecoglou would still be a colossal gamble.
We know the famous headline about Wim Jansen being the worst thing to hit Hiroshima or the other saying “Dr Who?” when Jo Venglos pitched up.
And those two had bossed at the top level in Holland and England.
Postecoglou’s star turn in Australia and Japan might be impressive but don’t be fooled into thinking this wouldn’t be a bold move for even the likes of an Aberdeen or Hibs, never mind a Celtic side needing a major rebuild.
The Aussies love this guy and have been expecting him to smash into Europe way before now. It could be an inspired appointment or a wild gamble.
Perhaps it’s more like both.
Either way, whoever on the list gets the gig, Celtic need it to work.
