STICK NOTES
Howe will be doing his homework and Turnbull and Forrest have put down permanent markers for team’s rebuild
FALKIRK MICHAEL GANNON AT CELTIC PARK
SOMEWHERE on the south coast of England there was a sought-after manager sitting with a notepad and pen, watching Premier Sports while his family tuned in to Ant and Dec.
There were a few things for Eddie Howe to take from Celtic’s win against Falkirk as he gets ready to scribble out the finer points of his contract.
The man the Hoops see as the perfect fit for the Parkhead rebuild will be doing his homework and you don’t need to peek over his shoulders to have a glance at his answers.
They are pretty clear to anyone. Celtic are planning a complete overhaul behind the scenes with a director of football and a new-look recruitment team but Howe will have his own ideas about the players he’ll want to come in.
But what about the ones already at the club? Howe’s notepad would make interesting reading.
Mind you, if he was writing down all of Celtic’s chances the other night he’d have needed another run to the stationery shop for more paper.
But there was plenty of other stuff to jot down on the guys who could play a part in the green and white revolution.
Howe should dig out the luminous pen to underline David Turnbull’s name for a start.
It’s become a bit of a gag among Hoops fans about the midfielder getting subbed but he got 90 minutes in here for only the fourth time in 29 appearances. Celtic have been careful
BACK AT YA Christie, left, hailed by Brown with the kid after he spent a year on the sidelines sorting out his knee.
But his fitness is getting there and any new gaffer couldn’t help but be impressed again at the weekend.
Turnbull makes the game look easy. He glides around the pitch like he’s wearing a pair of leather-soled slippers on a kitchen floor.
There will be a period of mourning when Scott Brown heads up the A90 to Aberdeen but Celtic – and their new boss – should take a bit of comfort in the fact they’ve got a star on the rise in the engine room.
Howe will also have taken note of James Forrest’s return.
It’s taken seven months out injured for Hoops fans to finally appreciate a guy they couldn’t afford to buy if he wasn’t already on the books.
Forrest notched on his return and could’ve set a world record for assists if Leigh Griffiths and a few others had their shooting boots on. The chances are Howe already has a Forrest file after considering a move for the winger when he was a Bournemouth.
Elsewhere Ryan Christie also slammed in a daisycutter to ram it up the Falkirk social media chaps who mocked a few of his more wayward digs earlier on.
And a delightful dink from Mohamed Elyounoussi gave Celtic three on an evening they should have hit double figures.
Elyounoussi is one of the loans who’ll be gone but Christie’s future remains uncertain, along with a few others.
Kris Ajer will have a star next to his name on Howe’s pad.
His Norway gaffer reckons it’s too easy for him in Scotland and on nights like Saturday you’d think he might be right. The big defender was like one of the dads taking on the kids up the park.
Odsonne Edouard was given a break after a busy week netting for France Under-21s but it will be interesting what Howe makes of Griffiths.
There will probably be a huge question mark. The front man missed a hatful against the Bairns and looked rustier than an old garden gate.
He badly needs games to get his sharpness back but is not nippy enough to warrant them.
This was his first start since January and he’s scored just once in 2021. It wasn’t for the lack of trying the other night but he was wearing wellies rather than shooting boots.
That might be doing a disservice to the Bairns.
Getting out of League One is their big aim and co-bosses David McCracken and Lee Miller showed where their priorities lay by chucking in a raft of players at Parkhead who will need ID for when the pubs reopen never mind a Covid passport. But
teenagers Lewis Neilson, Euan Deveney and Kyle McClelland battled brilliantly at the back while Kai Fotheringham stuck to Tom Rogic like glue and had a few sweet touches of his own.
But they could only hold back the tide for so long.
Celtic had 41 shots on goal and over 80 per cent possession.
It was only going one way but Howe might have circled another important stat – only 10 of those digs were on target.
The Hoops have either been sloppy or snatching in the final third all season.
And when you chuck in a leaky defence, it’s little wonder the Scottish
Cup represents the last chance of some silver lining in a season clouded by misery. But it could also be an opportunity for Howe to get off to a flier. There should be no talk of taking charge in the summer. The new man needs to come in now, figure out what he wants to keep and want he wants to bring in. Amd if he can get his hands on the Cup then it’s an added bonus to boost morale going into a crucial few months of transition. Howe will have a pile of notes on the players. But in the coming days Celtic need to make sure he scribbles his signature on the most important piece of paper.