Celtic fans have been trying to wrap their heads around what’s gone on in the last 72 hours. We went from hours away from announcing Eddie Howe as the manager to a full on assault by the media on new favourite – Ange Postecoglou.
The Australian’s name was quickly fired out to the media at the same time as Eddie Howe stepped away.
The fans have been trying to do their own due diligence and noises from Australia and Japan say Ange will bring a fresh and exciting brand of football to the club.
But where did his name come from and who recommended him?
Dermot Desmond won’t have known anything about Postecoglou and will be relying on others to fill him in. The majority shareholder put so much time and effort into the Howe deal, it’s likely he has taken a step back is trusting others.
Sky Sports have reported the recommendation has come from Man City man, Fergal Harkin, who is tipped to be the Celtic DoF but the club have yet to make a formal announcement.
The City group are involved with Yokohama Marinos, where Ange is currently manager. It appears the City connection is strong.
It’s worrying if true because it almost certainly means Harkin would have taken Enzo Maresca to Celtic before he moved to Parma last week.
We await the DoF and manager announcement. All bets are off when that will be.
Come on down Steve Clarke…
Not sure why it’s taken so long for Harkin to come on board. If it was because Howe was holding up the deal, then the south coaster has cost us a lot of money. If just to do with an existing contract, fair enough. But yep, our pursuit of Howe has likely cost us the chance to appoint Maresca. I thought that was the plan at one stage then all of a sudden, Howe had met Desmond, Lawwell and a gentleman’s agreement was nodded on. Harkin would naturally be keen on starting off on a good footing and I’ve no doubt Postecoglou is a good manager so I guess we’ll just have to see how it pans out. I’m more relieved we have a long term DoF than Howe accepted as he wouldn’t have stayed longer than 2 years anyway