Celtic and Eddie Howe are relaxed about things according to Stephen McGowan.
Over the last 17 years the Daily Mail reporter has been more accurate than any other reporter in reading the signs from the Celtic hierarchy.
Two weeks ago it was widely reported that Howe had held a face-to-face meeting with Dermot Desmond and Dom McKay but since then the expected timetable has failed to materialise.
Last week a representative of Howe contacted Sky Sports to explain that he wouldn’t be back in management until the summer at least.
That development has left Celtic fans questioning Howe’s commitment and wondering whether the club is on top of the task of bringing in a manager ready to oversee a massive summer turnover of players.
On Super Scoreboard on Wednesday night McGowan said:
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 that things might move quickly because he’s out of work but that hasn’t happened, but there might be reasons for that.
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?
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.
By this time of year Celtic’s Season Ticket Renewal campaign is usually well underway. There are other factors involved but getting 50,000 fans to sign up again without any word on who the manager will be is expecting a lot from fans that feel badly let down by the season coming to a close.
