Eddie Howe has transformed his career by moving to Newcastle United.
Howe, of course, was a highly-rated manager before his move to Newcastle United, albeit his stock had slightly dipped following Premier League relegation at Bournemouth back in 2020.
The Newcastle United manager has since made history at St James’ Park, ending the club’s infamously long wait for a major trophy by winning the Carabao Cup last month.
Now a leading managerial figure in the Premier League again, Howe could be handed a statue at Newcastle for all of his achievements.
Things could have been so different, however. Newcastle wanted to appoint Unai Emery before Howe, while the current Toon boss also had offers before moving to Tyneside in November 2021.
Now, he’s set to face a huge club he rejected.
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Newcastle United set for Celtic friendly
According to iNews, Newcastle are set to play Celtic in a pre-season friendly, heading up to the Scottish champions for the first time since 2004.
Back in 2021, the Glasgow giants confirmed Howe had rejected the chance to take over at Parkhead despite holding extensive talks with them.
A club statement read on Celtic’s official website read: “Following very positive and detailed discussions with Eddie Howe, with the belief that he would be an excellent candidate for the position of Celtic Manager, we allowed time for the process, given he’d previously made it clear he was not looking to return to management until this summer at the earliest.
“We can now confirm that Eddie will not be joining the Club, for reasons outwith both his and Celtic’s control.
“We wish Eddie success for the future.”
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Why did Eddie Howe reject Celtic?
It was a big call at the time. The Scottish league may not be the biggest in Europe but Celtic are a huge club, one constantly winning trophies and playing Champions League football.
Howe needed his next move to go the right way. Celtic, with all due respect to the Scottish Premiership, would have at least offered an almost guarantee of at least some trophies, which could have kept his stock high.
However, he rejected the chance to join them due to the fact he could not bring all of his backroom staff to the club.
Speaking on Simon Jordan’s ‘Up Front’ podcast back in December, Howe said: “I felt I needed to go in at my strongest. And my strongest would have been with my team, so that’s Jason Tindall, Stephen Purches, Simon Weatherstone, Dan Hodges.
“These are really important people to me.”
It’s fair to say it’s worked out for all parties since…
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