Newcastle United will travel to Scotland to play Celtic in a pre-season friendly next summer, according to reports. The game has been pencilled in for Saturday, July 19, and will be played at Celtic Park, with the Scottish Sun reporting an agreement is in place.
The sides last met in a friendly match back in July 2007, where Obafemi Martins, Albert Luque (2) and James Milner scored in a 4-1 win at St James’ Park. Newcastle last made the journey to Celtic in 2004 as they lost a friendly 2-1, with Craig Bellamy scoring the only goal.
It will see Eddie Howe take to the dugout at Celtic Park for the first time, after he almost became Celtic manager in May 2021. Howe, who was in the middle of hiatus after leaving AFC Bournemouth, was set to take the job at the 54-time Scottish champions after Neil Lennon resigned in February of the same year. However, he withdrew from the process before Celtic eventually appointed Ange Postecoglou.
Celtic released a club statement after talks broke down and stated that they had ‘allowed time for the process’. They also said that he was not joining the club due to ‘reasons outwith both his and Celtic’s control’. The Scottish Premier League winners won five trophies in the two years he spent in Glasgow. Howe, on the other hand, was appointed as manager of Newcastle in November 2021.
Speaking on the Up Front Podcast with Simon Jordan, Howe discussed almost joining Celtic. He also confirmed his reasoning behind not taking the job.
“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 [Tindall] 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.”
Neither club have confirmed the game as yet, with the 2025 pre-season schedule likely to be announced much nearer the time.
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