Dean Jones believes now is the ideal time for Celtic to make a move for Eddie Howe to take over from Neil Lennon.
The Celtic boss has been under severe pressure these past few months with the current season having been a disaster both on and off the pitch, with his side currently sitting 21 points behind Rangers in the league table.
And whilst there haven’t been any concrete reports linking Howe to the job, speaking on the Celtic Huddle Podcast (as quoted by The Scottish Sun), former Celtic player and current Chief Scout at Howe’s former club AFC Bournemouth, Mark Burchill, believed that there is enough to offer to “entice him north of the border” should Lennon be shown the door.
And speaking on Touchline Talk, Jones thinks that if the club are going to make a change in the dugout, that now is the time to do it.
He said: “There almost seems nothing to lose for Celtic in appointing somebody like Eddie Howe. And it’s certainly much better to give him a long build-up to next season in order to let this current squad know what’s needed of them if they want to survive and be part of it. And if not, then he can start to rip up the team sheet and rebuild it over the summer.”
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With the league title more or less out of reach for Celtic this season, the plan has to be to start looking ahead to next year, so Jones makes a very good point about how early they need to start planning for something like this.
And the sooner that Howe, or indeed any head coach that they decide to appoint can come along and get things set up the way they want, then the readier they will be to attack next season without having to rush around and do things within a much smaller time frame.