Why do some people continue to indulge the idea that Frank McAvennie has the first clue what’s going on inside Celtic Park? This guy is so far removed from events and individuals at the top end of our club that he might as well be on the moon.
His comments that as “far as he knows” that “nothing is close at the moment” in terms of our pursuit of a manager are no different than those which you or I would make. None of us knows because none of us is close enough to the action inside the club to say.
There are a handful of people at Celtic Park who know precisely where we are in this pursuit and I can tell you that that handful of people aren’t talking.
I know one or two people with close connections to the Celtic operation and I can tell you right now that they don’t have the first clue where things stand at the moment.
Because the handful of people who are involved in negotiations are keeping the details of those talks a closely guarded secret, from almost everyone.
A handful of journalists do seem to have access to the club’s thinking on this … I understand exactly why someone thinks keeping them briefed is a good idea. It’s the one way the club has of talking to us in an indirect fashion whilst this rumbles on.
From the outside, it looks a mess. From the outside it looks as if we’re hopeless at getting deals over the line.
I have heard things about the internal state of the club which don’t fill me with a lot of confidence but for me to write that we’re “nowhere close” to an appointment would be nonsensical because it may well be that we’re right on the verge of one.
When you do this for a living you have to be careful that you don’t say more than you intend to say.
I think it’ll be Eddie Howe, but I don’t know that for a fact.
The one thing we should have learned from all this is that the “in the know” claims of a lot of people have been completely shot.
This blog has never claimed to be “in the know” – we state our opinions and only when we do know, with cast iron certainty, that something is a fact will we go further than that.
The two major leaks which we’ve definitely had about this, both in the mainstream press, were about Keane and Howe and the press was pretty well briefed that it was Howe we wanted and that the deal was some ways down the line towards complete.
The continued line on Howe is that we’re not panicking.
Does that mean he’s already signed a contract? Does it mean that his verbal assurances are strong enough that we consider his word to be as good as a signed contract?
I don’t know … what I do know is that the only word we can say for sure has come from Celtic on this is that those inside the club are fairly relaxed about getting the deal done.
We may flap from time to time about the length it’s taking … but until we know different the operating theory is that Eddie Howe will be the next manager of Celtic.
Would I put money on it? Yes. Would I put a lot of money on it? No.
But I would put even less money on Frank McAvennie knowing what’s happening at Celtic Park before the newspapers tell him.
He is, as I’ve said before, our version of Kris Boyd.
His scattershot articles about Celtic are absolutely bonkers most of the time, and the rest of the time are pig-ignorant nonsense. He is a shameless self-promoter whose opinions ought not to be taken seriously because he knows as much about what’s going in inside the club as the average fan does and I’d wager at times a lot less.
I am as frustrated as anyone about where we stand at the moment.
I am pissed off with the club for its silence, because in that silence people like McAvennie are free to pitch in with this kind of thing.
The very tone of his remarks is spiteful; “I’m not happy with it but that’s Celtic, we shouldn’t expect anything else from them,” he said at one point.
And I’m moved to wonder, if he feels that way about the club maybe he should just stop claiming to speak for them.
Maybe he should find another team to pledge his alleged allegiances to, one that doesn’t fill him with anger every time he thinks about them.
I always get the impression reading his comments that we did something terrible to him at some point in the distant past, something he holds against us and which has never been explored or explained.
I get the same feeling from other people; Charlie Nicholas doesn’t just give off that vibe, he practically screams it at you.
What did we do to these guys?
You know, in truth I really don’t care.
Because Neil Lennon scorned all these people when he was manager and he wasn’t the first to do so.
Rodgers did exactly the same thing, and so did O’Neill and Strachan before him.
All have said what I’ve spent this article saying; these guys have no idea at all what goes on behind the scenes at Celtic Park.
I really don’t know why any of us treat them as if they do.