Celtic have no option but to wait for Eddie Howe if he is the man they want to lead the club back to their former glories, says Chris Sutton.
Howe is a clear frontrunner to succeed Neil Lennon at Celtic Park. However, the former Bournemouth boss has said he will wait until the summer at the earliest before taking on a new role.
The Glasgow club are desperate to recruit Howe who has also been linked with a return to the Premier League.
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Crystal Palace and Newcastle are just two clubs who could be in the market for a manager in the summer and Sutton says Howe is right to bide his time as he assesses his next move.
“He holds all the aces when it comes to the negotiations and Celtic will need to lump it if he’s the man they want,” said Sutton writing in the Daily Record.
“A manager is never in a stronger position than when he comes in and it’s only right he will want everything to be in place to give him the best possible opportunity to be successful.
“If Celtic need to wait until the summer, then so be it. The squad will be drastically different for next season anyway, so there perhaps isn’t too much to be gained by coming in now and assessing what he’s got.
“I’m sure he’s analysing the squad from afar. As for interest from other clubs, it’s his right to keep his options open, anyone else in that situation would do the same, and all Celtic can do is hope they sell him on the club.”
Celtic look set for a major rebuild in the summer as they look to make up on the ground lost to champions Rangers. The potential appointment of Howe is just one aspect of that, with a new director of football also set to be appointed. It has been suggested that Howe’s reluctance to step straight into the role is part of a negotiating tactic as he looks to bring in his own backroom team.
However, former Celtic striker Sutton says Howe will need a team behind him that he can trust and if that means selecting them himself then it is just something the Parkhead hierarchy will have to swallow.
“I know there’s a lot of talk about the director of football role but I don’t think it should be a problem.
“In the long term the director of football might have a hand in selecting managers, rather than the other way around, but this is the start of an entirely new project and you’d want a team that has history or working together to be in at the ground level.
“There will be massive changes this summer and if it is Howe, then he’ll need all the help he can get, while he’ll also need patience from the support.
“It could well be a year of transition.”
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