Former Celtic striker believes that the appointment of Eddie Howe could convince Hoops frontman, Odsonne Edouard, to stay at the club.
This afternoon, Edouard’s Instagram post, left some fans asking questions around whether there is a possibility of him staying at the club with the post stating that he could not wait to see fans back inside Parkhead (more here).
As quoted by the Daily Record speaking on Go Radio, Hartson thinks that it is likely that Edouard will depart the club. But, if Howe was to be appointed, he begged the question of whether the Frenchmen could be convinced to stay under the Englishman going forward.
“There’s almost a school of thought and expectancy from everyone – and I mean everyone – that he’s going.
“The club might well not get the right transfer fee for him, somebody’s got to come in and pay the money Celtic value him at.
“I actually know that Edouard loves playing for Celtic. He really, really does.
“Everybody seems to think – and I’m the worst culprit for it, I’ve been saying Edouard will go – what’s he worth? What’s he going to go for?
“But, listen, it wouldn’t be beyond all reason if he was to stay.
“What if Eddie Howe comes and is saying to the owners, ‘look, I want to come and by the way, I love this kid we’ve got, this centre-forward Edouard. I would love to keep him, give me half an hour with him’?
“We don’t know these things.
“There is this thought process that he will leave but he said today he can’t wait to play in front of the fans again.”
As much as fans might want to be optimistic about the 23-year old staying for yet another year it is highly unlikely that will be the case.
Edouard will be going into his fifth year at the club next campaign and with only a year left on his deal, it is also unlikely that he would sign a new contract.
With the quality that he possesses, it would be absolutely brilliant to see him stay. But it, unfortunately, wouldn’t make sense financially.
