Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe put Simon Jordan straight over what really happened with the Celtic job – shooting down an accusation that he ‘bottled’ taking it on.
Howe was infamously offered the reins back in 2021 when he was out of work and the Hoops were looking for Neil Lennon’s permanent replacement. He looked poised to take it, but negotiations broke down with Howe unable to secure the services of his usual backroom team, and it ended up going to Ange Postecoglou instead.
In the end it worked out for everyone, Postecoglou restoring Celtic to domestic dominance, while Howe later landed the Newcastle job and led them into the Champions League. However the close call remains a big ‘what if’ for both parties and Howe has been no stranger to speaking about it in the past. But in a revealing exchange on Simon Jordan’s Up Front podcast, Howe bit back at the broadcaster’s previous accusation that he ‘bottled’ taking on such a high-profile job.
You can read the full back and forth below.
Jordan: “So you get Celtic coming in the door. And I remember pining on at the time. I didn’t pine on in a very complimentary way because I felt that you bottled it. It’s one way of putting it.”
Howe: “Say what you really think….”
Jordan: “Absolutely. I felt that the Celtic job is a massive job in football. It comes with its own pressure that you’re in a two-horse league and ultimately you’ve got to win. There’s no alternative. And it felt to me like you didn’t fancy it for that reason. Celtic obviously thought quite highly of you and if you look at what they said at the time, they were, it looked like, alighting upon you for a big job. A job with European football attached to it, a job with scale and recognisability around the world. So put aside the baiting observation of me saying that you bottled it. What was the reason that you wouldn’t have taken on such a big job like Celtic?”
Howe: “During that period that I’d had out, I’d had a few job offers, but I’d said I’m not considering anything for a year. That year had passed and Celtic came up and I was immediately attracted to the job. I thought, ‘Wow, what an opportunity. 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. I could have gone in on my own and worked with the staff that are there. But 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.”
Jordan : “So it’s grotesquely unfair, my observation?”
Howe : “Well, it is, yeah. But that’s what happens in the media, doesn’t it? You jump to conclusions. I heard that, and you have to accept it. You can’t fight it.”