Eddie’s cold feet may have saved Hoops the bullet I wish I had stayed at Celtic longer. We went to Oz after I signed and I thought ‘This is perfect, other side of the world, no pressure, no one will be watching.’ Then in our first game 24,000 fans turned
SAYS KELVIN WILSON
Celtic fans have a lot to deal with right now but they shouldn’t get hung up on the chat about whoever becomes boss will know he wasn’t the first choice.
This is not a new wife we’re talking about. There’s no need for the best man trying to avoid gags about sloppy seconds.
New managers are rarely the first choice. More often than not they are not even the second or third pick. It works the other way as well.
Every club would love to have Pep Guardiola at the helm and likewise every gaffer would rather be walking out at the Nou Camp.
Every other deal is a marriage of convenience based on availability, affordability and mutually beneficial circumstances.
It doesn’t really matter where they were in the pecking order.
Don’t forget, Celtic were on a wild Guus chase trying to get Hiddink 21 years ago before they ended up with Martin O’Neill.
The trick for the Parkhead club now is to make sure the next on the list is on the mark.
Celtic could do with a time machine to go back to July 2020 and start over again but since that’s out of their price range, they need to take a step back and try to blow away some of the crazy fog that has engulfed the place. They must stop making bad decisions then compounding them with worse.
The Great Eddie Howe Debacle will take a while to get over.
If he was the man in February, Celtic should have stuck a bit of paper under his nose and got him to sign it there and then.
By all means start in the summer but here’s the pre-contract and if you break it you’ll be in front of a judge.
The delay always seemed weird. Who takes a year’s break from football at 43?
He’s a manager, not a Chilean miner.
There would have been money involved but any guy who’d rather keep the cash coming in while he has the feet up is a flight risk.
Waiting for his backroom team doesn’t wash.
I’m sure the Bournemouth boys are good operators but you don’t hang your entire career on the lads who put out the balls, bibs and cones.
Howe has clearly taken cold feet and that might even mean Celtic have dodged a bullet after all.
This gig ain’t for the faint of heart. But it does leave Celts scooping yolk off their faces and in a tight spot.
They say they are at “advanced stages” with another candidate but who knows what that might mean. There are supertankers that move quicker than this lot.
It’s nearly 100 days since Neil Lennon left. That’s about three times as long as the First Gulf War.
The scramble is on and it’s Ange Postecoglou who has now shot to the top of list.
There will be plenty of hipsters who’ll tell you he has been a smash hit in Australia and Asia, how he gets his teams to play attacking, high pressing football in a revolutionary 2-3-1-2-2 formation or whatever.
That could be true. But going for Postecoglou would still be a colossal gamble. We know the famous headline about Wim Jansen being the worst thing to hit Hiroshima or the other saying “Dr Who?” when Jo Venglos pitched up.
And those two had bossed at the top level in Holland and England.
Postecoglou’s star turn in Australia and Japan might be impressive but don’t be fooled into thinking this wouldn’t be a bold move for even the likes of an Aberdeen or Hibs, never mind a Celtic side needing a major rebuild.
The Aussies love this guy and have been expecting him to smash into Europe way before now. It could be an inspired appointment or a wild gamble.
Perhaps it’s more like both. Either way, whoever on the list gets the gig, Celtic need it to work.
are re rs The nke erta e sup mov tha tr cke qui
It’s the only thing Kelvin Wilson would change about his career.
He’s not one for regrets but the former defender knows he should have stayed at Celtic longer.
After two years under Neil Lennon, when he featured in the Champions League for the Hoops, he returned to Nottingham Forest for family reasons in 2013.
But the former Parkhead centre-back now admits he rushed into a move he didn’t have to make.
And that’s why he’s warning current Hoops star Kristoffer Ajer to take his time before deciding to leave Celtic Park.
The Norwegian has been constantly linked with a big-money transfer this summer, with the likes of Newcastle, Leicester, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid all credited with interest. But despite the huge cloud of uncertainty hanging over the club after their pursuit of Eddie Howe as manager failed spectacularly last week, Wilson has urged Ajer to stay.
Hav ing been through it himself, he says players don’t realise what they’ve got at Celtic until it’s gone. And that’s why he hopes Ajer doesn’t make a rash decision on his future which could backfire.
Wilson admits he left Glasgow too early. He understands the lure of bigger wages away from Celtic or the glitz and glamour of the Premier League. But he told Mai lSport : “Players probably don’t realise what they’ve got at Celtic until they’re not there. “I read a thing recently from Georgio Samaras where he said, of course, you can go to clubs elsewhere and get rich – but never win a trophy. “Or you can play at Celtic, still earn life-changing money for your family and you’re going to win trophies and play elite Champions League football. I’d definitely say to Ajer, from my own experience of leaving Celtic too early, don’t rush into anything. Have a good think before making a decision because the grass isn’t always greener.
“Ajer looks like a great player, I’ve watched him a few times now. He’s got good physique, good on the ball and aggressive too.
“I hope he stays but ultimately it’s down to what he wants. I think it’s all about timing. You have to pick the right moment if you’re going to leave Celtic. “Because if you get it wrong, like I did, it can backfire.
“I remember Gary Hooper doing it as well from my time. Hoops went to Norwich then they got relegated and he moved to Sheffield Wednesday.
“He was never quite the same after leaving Celtic. Up there, he was a superstar, amazing for us.
Hoops was scoring goals in the Champions League and his performances were frightening at times.
“He probably did go and earn more money in England but he’d still have earned well at Celtic. And he’d have won more trophies.
“You have to look at the bigger picture. With all due respect to Newcastle, who are a massive club, although they’ll pay you more, you’ll be involved in a relegation battle every year.
“But at Celtic you are going to be winning things.”
When Wilson left Parkhead he returned to old club Forest and four years later he was out of the game altogether.
To this day, it’s the one thing that still irks him about his career.
The 35-year- old is now coaching at Ilkeston Town and rates his time in Glasgow as the best.
He said: “I look back at my time at Celtic and think I should have stayed longer. I was 26 when I went up there which isn’t too young but you get wiser as you get older.
“At 36, I don’t regret much in my career. People ask about playing in the Premier League but if I did that I might not have played Champions League at Celtic.
“If there’s one thing I wish I’d have done it’s staying for a lot longer in Scotland. Those two years were the highlight of my career. Forest is my boyhood club and my first spell there before Celtic was brilliant.
“But playing in the Champions League and everything about that club was just amazing.”
Like everyone else, Wilson was convinced Howe would take over from Lennon in the Celtic hotseat before the move for the former Bournemouth gaffer collapsed.
He believed it would have been a good appointment but, after experiencing two years at Parkhead as a player, he says any boss coming from England will be taken aback by the magnitude of the job.
Wilson found that out right away when he turned up for his debut – a pre- season friendly in Australia – to discover 24,000 Celtic fans had turned up to watch.
He said: “When I first signed, we went to Australia on a pre-season tour. I thought: ‘ This is perfect. We’re on the other side of the world, no one is watching, no pressure’.
“Then I turned up at the ground to find out there were 24,000 fans there. I thought: ‘ You’ve got to be joking?’.
“Everywhere we went in Australia with Celtic, we were mobbed by supporters.
“At Celtic, it’s a waste of time looking at the fixtures. You just know you’ve got to win every game. I remember winning a game 3-2 and the players were delighted. But the manager wasn’t happy and, next day, the press absolutely hammered us.
“I thought: ‘ What?’. We had won the game, I couldn’t work out why we’d all got ratings of three and four in the papers.
“So that’s something a new manager will have to get his head around. Even when you win at Celtic, you have to win in style.
“When I looked at the candidates for Celtic, I thought Eddie was the best option.
“Celtic fans want attacking football. I played against Eddie’s teams a few times, even when he was at Burnley, and they were always a real footballing side.
“It would have suited him up there.”
At 36, I don’t regret much – but I wish I’d stayed at Celtic longer. It was the highlight of my career