Eddie Howe is still the red hot favourite to take over at Celtic this summer.

So what’s the hold up?

We’ve gone over plenty of theories about what’s going on, and for the record, we believe Howe is the Celtic manager in waiting.

The massive sticking point we believe is going on pertains to Eddie’s contract with Bournemouth.

It was the end of last season when the manager and club mutually parted ways after five years in charge. However, Eddie’s deal with the Cherries runs until the end of the 2021 season as reported by the Daily Echo back in 2019.

It’s not uncommon for a club to put a former manager on gardening leave and pay him until his deal is done. Contracts are complicated, many clubs will do this because they know if the manager lands a new club, they could be off the hook financially for the remainder of the contract.

We have no personal insight into Eddie’s contract and the clauses within it, BUT it remains the obvious reason why this deal hasn’t been done yet.

I would guess, Eddie’s deal would cease at the end of the 2021 season; meaning when the final whistle goes on Bournemouth’s season, he will be a free man. Again, this is just an educated guess.

Bournemouth have a playoff to contest and that kicks off on Monday against Brentford. The second leg is on May 22nd – if the Cherries beat Brentford, their final game of the season will come on May 29th. I reckon we will see movement around these dates.

It begs the question if the contract with Bournemouth is holding this up, who is being stubborn?

Are Celtic refusing to pay an amount to get Eddie when he’s free this summer? Or are Bournemouth refusing to cut a deal and playing hardball with the Hoops over Eddie’s contract release?

Given the dates are so close now, surely there’s a deal to be cut to make this appointment happen sooner than the aforementioned dates.

ACSOM podcast were touting Wednesday as announcement day on their podcast this afternoon. Could the deal be closer than we think?