Celtic fans will want to quickly forget about that Glasgow derby defeat to Rangers on Sunday.
What probably helps matters, from the perspective of the outside media, is that Newcastle United have stolen the main headlines from the weekend.
That’s because Eddie Howe’s side beat Liverpool 2-1 in the League Cup final at Wembley and lifted their first major trophy in 70 years.
Newcastle have a huge fan base in England, but for decades and decades, the club has been starved of silverware, up until Howe walked through the doors, but it could have been very different.
The 47-year-old took charge of the Magpies in 2021, but he probably wouldn’t have been in the St James’ Park hotseat had he accepted the job offer from the powers that be at Celtic Park.
Before the now-struggling Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou became Celtic manager, a job was vacant in Glasgow after Steven Gerrard had guided Rangers to the title and stopped the 10IAR.
Howe was linked to the Celtic job, but he ‘declined the offer’.
Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images
Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images
Why Eddie Howe declined the Celtic job as Newcastle United win their first major trophy in 70 years
It’s funny how things can work in football because Celtic were blessed to have Postecoglou and he ended up winning the Treble.
MORE CELTIC STORIES
Nobody of a Celtic persuasion would want to change that.
But nor would Howe want to change his destiny because he is now a Newcastle legend and the first man to lift a trophy at the club in the modern era.
It’s a remarkable and win-win situation for all, as Howe told Simon Jordan’s Up Front Podcast that he didn’t ‘bottle’ the Celtic job, he just didn’t have the tools to take it on, at the time.
“You get a big opportunity, with all due respect to Bournemouth,” said Jordan. “You get Celtic come in the door. I remember opining on, at the time, and I didn’t opine on it in a very complimentary way, because I felt that you had bottled it.
“I felt that the Celtic job is a massive job in football. It comes with its own pressure that you are in a two-horse league, and ultimately, you have to win and there is no alternative. It felt to me that you didn’t fancy it for that reason.”
Howe responded: “During that period I had out, I had a few job offers. But I said, ‘I am not considering anything until a year’. That year had passed and Celtic came up. I was immediately attracted to the job.
“I thought, ‘wow, what an opportunity and what a football club’. Great people as well. The people I met were unbelievable. So, there was no downside for me, but I had to get my staff together. If I was going into a football club, I could have gone in on my own and worked with the staff that are there.
“I felt I needed to go in at my strongest. My strongest would have been with my team, so that’s Jason Tindall, Steven Purchase, Simon Weatherstone and Dan Hodges. These are important people to me.
“So, I’d made my decision. I was really keen to go. Jason had left Bournemouth, but I couldn’t get them together. I couldn’t get the team to all agree. And it wasn’t necessarily I needed every single one of them. But of course, that’s an important dynamic.
“And I didn’t feel that was right for me to take the opportunity. In that moment would have been wrong for Celtic as well, I think. So, I declined the offer.”
Howe to face Celtic?
This is now going to galvanise Newcastle and push them to win every game possible in the Premier League until the end of the season.
As of this moment, they are sitting sixth in the table, one place outside a Champions League spot and that will be their aim.
Celtic already faced Aston Villa this season in the Champions League, and if Newcastle earn that ticket to the big time again, then don’t bet against Howe being drawn up against the club he could have managed.
At the end of the day, the Champions League format has been revamped and it does increase the chances of that happening.