Eddie Howe shares detail of his Celtic negotiations

Eddie Howe has revealed the details behind why he never took up the offer to manage Celtic.

Soon after Neil Lennon resigned in February 2021 the message was being put out that the former Bournemouth boss would be taking over as manager.

Months passed with John Kennedy in limbo as caretaker manager, a massive rebuild was required with Champions League qualifiers in July that could unlock £40m for the club.

Suggestions were made that Howe was due to collect a significant bonus if Bournemouth were promoted to the EPL but when that prospect passed there was still no sign of a new manager at Celtic.

On May 28 Celtic made the unusual statement of announcing that Howe would be their next manager, three months on from Lennon’s exit and seven weeks before UEFA qualifiers there was no manager in place to make decisions on contracts and recruitment.

Quickly attention turned to Ange Postecoglou, after 106 days the Australian was appointed as manager with little in the way of infrastructure with what was left of the first team squad heading for pre-season training in Wales without a single new signing.

Reflecting on the speculation in an interview in The Athletic, Howe revealed:

Celtic was the one job I’d been offered that really appealed. The issue there was my staff. I felt that if I was to come into a pressured job like that, I needed to go in with a sense of stability. I could have recruited new staff, but then you’re working each other out and there’s a transition process where it probably takes three, four, five months. That’s five months too late. I needed my staff with me and we couldn’t get them together.

Howe had to wait until November to return to management with Newcastle, after more than a year out of the game. It is fair to say that both clubs are very happy with the progress they are making under Postecoglou and Howe.