Celtic went one way, Eddie Howe went the other. No-one should be bitter over that.

The news that we’re set to play Newcastle in a friendly has been billed in some quarters as an Eddie Howe grudge match. This presumes a couple of things, including that Eddie Howe will still be at Newcastle when the game takes place—and that’s far from guaranteed.

Some sections of the media seem determined to frame this as a showdown, but it’s nothing of the sort. As Celtic fans, what do we really think of Eddie Howe? For most of us, the answer is probably a shrug. Personally, I don’t feel strongly about him either way. Would he have been a good Celtic manager? Yes, he might have been. Would he have been as good as Ange Postecoglou? I doubt it. Was he as strong a choice for Celtic boss as Brendan Rodgers? Absolutely not.

The whole Eddie Howe saga was a fiasco, and at the time, I was as annoyed about it as I’ve ever been with the club. But looking back, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I wouldn’t trade the last three years under Ange and Brendan for three years under Howe. I like Howe as a manager, but he hasn’t exactly been groundbreaking at Newcastle, even with substantial resources at his disposal. At some point, the board there, who clearly expect big things, might lose patience.

Landing the Newcastle job was a massive break for Howe, and there’s no denying that the way things played out at Celtic has damaged his reputation. It’s why he keeps getting asked about it and why he reacts angrily every time. Yet it’s a fair question. Did he bottle it? That’s the implication behind much of the media scrutiny, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Even if you accept Howe’s explanation—that he didn’t want to move without his coaching staff—it still pales in comparison to Ange, who moved halfway across the world alone and got on with it. Ange demonstrated character and resilience, working with the staff already at Celtic and achieving spectacular results.

Howe might have done the same. We’ll never know. He never gave us the opportunity to find out. He never took that opportunity for himself. There are people north and south of the border who just don’t believe he had the confidence in himself to try. That’s a problem for him. It will continue to be a problem for him. That’s his own fault.

Decisions like the one Howe made come with consequences, and he’s still dealing with them. He hasn’t fully proven himself yet, not even at Newcastle. I don’t feel sorry for him, nor do I feel any lingering resentment. He made his choice, and I think it was the wrong one, made for the wrong reasons. That said, Howe is a good manager and comes across as a good person.

I like the style of football he plays, but I wouldn’t trade Ange’s attacking brilliance for Howe’s pragmatic, solid approach. Nor would I trade it for what we’re seeing now under Rodgers, which feels like the next step in Celtic’s evolution.

Howe’s managerial record is respectable, but he’s yet to win any major honours. Ange and Brendan, by contrast, are weighed down with trophies. There’s simply no comparison.

So, for me, there’s no grudge match here.

If Howe is in the away dugout for the game, Celtic fans will treat him like any other visiting manager. It’s no big deal. Howe went one way, and we went another—and our haul of seven trophies in the past nine competitions suggests we’ve done just fine without him.

It’ll certainly be an interesting encounter, though. Bring it on.