Celtic Diary Friday January 22: Howe We’ll Move Forward

Finally, from the silence surrounding Celtic Park, the bookies and an assortment of drunks have let it slip that Eddie Howe is top of the list to replace Neil Lennon when the Irishman finally accepts that his time at Celtic is up.

We gave you a clue in the title of the diary the other day, but I suppose given this keyboards inability to spell, you probably missed it.

Celtic kept it all quiet, and with Newcastle and Sheffield United sniffing around, you can see why the club opted to keep it to themselves. There’s still time for Lawwell to make an arse of it, so I’d still hold your breath until its actually a done deal.

As for Neil Lennon, he still refuses , almost in a Trumpian style, to accept that his time is up. The guy who once ran his heart out for the club in the thirty degree heat of Seville for two hours now has to accept that the players in his charge are not of that ilk, and have no intention of taking the club to their heart like he did.

It;s a different world out there now, and when Keiran Tierney, a lifelong fan left, the writing was on the wall for a number of others, at least until the plague came to town. the gap in wages, and latterly professionalism, was no longer enough to keep young prospects that were already here, nor to tempt those from abroad of even higher potential.

Lennon had accepted and planned for that, with the purchases of Soro, Turnbull, Ajeti and Klimala, but those who wanted out were limited in their options, and when they decided they had to stay, the manager backed the wrong horses in the wrong races, and thats why we are where we are today.

If, however, he’d have continued with the professionalism installed under Rodgers, with first class training, sports science and attitude, things might have been different, but he didn’t,  so they’re not.

Back in August, one of our regular pish stained drunks had noted the differences at Lennoxtown and throughout the club, and told us that Celtic would be sixteen points adrift at the end of the season, such was the deterioration in standards and application.

At the time I dismissed it as hysteria, and rightly so, as there’s little chance of pulling it back to sixteen unless there is real and significant change.

The season may well be remembered as one where everyone at Celtic just thought we had to go out and do what we had done many times before, but in doing that, we also forgot what that was.

Anyhoo, all we can now do is look forward, and if its true that Eddie Howe is about to be announced as manager, then things will change.

Howe is not unlike Brendan Rodgers in his attitude to coaching and the other aspects that make a good team a great one, and although he has had limited success and hardly any pressure at Bournemouth (twice ) and Burnley,  it was only a matter of time before a bigger club with greater demands made a mive for him, despite his preferred option of living on the south coast.

As a pragmatic fellow, he will have realised that if he wants to further his career, he’ll have to move, and a few years in Glasgow with its scenic Clyde coast is as good a substitute as anywhere.

In fact, it could even be a reason for him taking the post, as let’s face it, the money, the weather and the unreasonable demands of some sections of the support are not going to bring many people hurtling up the M74 shouting “pick me “.

Howe should make a difference at Lennoxtown, and as a new face he’ll have no loyalty towards some players, and no reason to keep any who want to leave.

As long as he’s allowed to do the job his way, without interference and is allowed to bring in players that he thinks will do a job, and remove those he thinks won’t, we’ll be fine.

But if its just a different front for Lawwellball, then we’ll be in exactly the same place as we are now in about six months time.

Even just a measure of enthusiasm from the bench will make a difference….

They wear the look of men who have given up.

Put them out of their misery. Set them free.

Various media outlets picked up on a tweet from Supporters Liason Officer John Paul Taylor yesterday, when he responded to an enquiry about the review that was supposed to have taken place on the manager and his staff….

Today…