Some good news for once! Or maybe, anyway.
TalkSport is reporting that Eddie Howe has taken the job and that he’s going to be unveiled soon.
They don’t say how soon that might be, but if they are right – if they are right; this is just one reporter – we are finally on the brink of the announcement.
To be honest, it can’t come quick enough. We are way down the line here, and there’s a hell of a lot to do and every day we delay makes things worse.
I also find it bizarre – and troubling – that we’ve no director of football yet.
With rumours that Lawwell intends to hang around the place still not knocked on the head I have serious concerns that we’ll have a Rodgers style stand-off before long and that can’t be allowed.
Nevertheless, I do find it slightly hard to believe that Howe – or anyone else for that matter – would be coming in unless that particular problem was no longer an issue. He is too savvy a manager to come in and work under those circumstances.
The reports suggest that he will not be bringing his assistant from Bournemouth with him; what this means we’ll have to find out, but again, I doubt he’s retaining John Kennedy so we shouldn’t even worry about that until we hear something for sure.
Will he meet the players before they head off home for the close season?
Yes, I think it would be a good idea if he did, and that means he really has to be appointed before the weekend, so that may or may not happen. Scott Brown’s night is tonight, and tomorrow will be partly his day as well.
I wonder if we might get the official word on Friday?
It’s certainly now in the pipeline if these reports are accurate, and they do tally with what we’ve been hearing in the media about how relaxed everyone was about the negotiations up until now. I’ve long been of the view that Howe was going to be the man, and as soon as that’s confirmed the whole mood around this club will be transformed.
And then we can all start to focus on the job the man does, and that first job looms large; the rebuild of the squad, which is going to be costly and difficult, and which it is, without exaggeration, the most important summer we have faced in many, many years.