Former Celtic striker Charlie Nicholas revealed he would be happy if Celtic landed Eddie Howe as the next permanent manager of the football club.
However, he’s wary of people getting carried away and putting to much expectation on the former Bournemouth manager.
Comparisons with Brendan Rodgers makes Nicholas uncomfortable and Eddie should be allowed to come in without feeling that kind of pressure.
Nicholas write in his express column, cited by SunSport: “Would I be a happy Celtic fan if Eddie takes the job? Yes, I would be.
“But he is already being portrayed as the new Brendan Rodgers.
“He isn’t and won’t be.
“His CV doesn’t match Brendan’s.
“Yes, they play a similar style of football but Brendan worked his way up through Chelsea, Reading and Swansea and he almost won the Premier League at Liverpool before he came to Celtic.
“Eddie is coming up after he did a marvellous job at Bournemouth but his CV is not really comparable to Brendan’s.
“Also, Brendan took over a winning team and Eddie won’t be in that same position.”
Rodgers took a decent side under Deila and made them better. Howe is coming in to basically start from scratch, the project is very different.
Given the enormity of the summer rebuild, any new man has to be given the time to do his thing.
For Nicholas, he’s wondering if it is Howe, why has it taken so long?
“The issue for me is why has it taken Celtic so long?
“If somebody had asked me if Eddie would have been a good target for Celtic six months ago I would have said yes.
“His style of play, the way he goes about things and his age all fit the profile Celtic should be looking at.
“I can understand why Celtic would want to keep Kennedy around and if Eddie wants to work with him and Strachan, then fine.
“If he doesn’t and just takes them anyway then that for me would be a negative start and would weaken his bargaining power right away.
“Roy Keane did not take the job in the past because he didn’t want to work with Ronny Deila.
“Eddie must also be given the final say on all transfers and the big footballing decisions.
“He shouldn’t be answerable to Dominic McKay and if there is a director of football then they should be working together”
We would have to agree with Charlie on the final say on footballing matters. Too often we’ve heard behind the scenes moves by our outgoing chief executive butting into the football side of things far too often.
It shouldn’t be McKay’s call on who we sign and don’t sign. If Howe and a Sporting Director want a player and it’s within the club’s remit, then it should be done.
