Eddie Howe has explained his reasoning for rejecting the opportunity to become Celtic manager as he clamped Simon Jordan over his "bottled it" claim.
The Newcastle manager was the frontrunner to take over at Celtic before Ange Postecoglou was appointed by Parkhead chiefs.
Howe has stated a move to Celtic wasn't right for himself or for the club as he revealed his struggles to bring together his preferred backroom team for the move to Glasgow.
On the Up Front podcast, Howe said of the Celtic discussions: "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.
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“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.”
Pundit Jordan had previously claimed Howe had bottled the chance to move to Glasgow and become Celtic manager.
Howe, though, insisted the statement was completely unfair.
Jordan said: “So it’s grotesquely unfair, my observation?”
Howe clamped the pundit stating: “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.”
