The Celtic board and our majority shareholder are so opaque when it comes to the running of our club, it’s maddening!
Dermot especially thinks he’s accountable to nobody. A famous article in the business Post over the summer proved the type of percieved arrogance we’re dealing with.
Barry J Whyte of the Business Post rang the Irishman up to talk about Celtic – he was met with a wall of resistance.
Whyte stated: “When I rang him (Desmond) last week, he made it abundantly clear within seconds that he was not inclined to even entertain the questions, let alone answer them.
“When I asked him if he had a few minutes to talk about the club he replied with a flat ‘No’, adding: ‘I’m not going to talk about Celtic.’
“When I asked him why, he answered with another question: ‘Why do I need to talk about Celtic?’”
The journalist was then asked to provide answers to Celtic questions made up by Dermot in order to take the conversation further.
“His first (question) was: ‘how many trophies have Celtic won in the last 20 years?’ I knew there were 16 league titles, but I had to concede that off the top of my head I couldn’t say how many other cups they might have won.
“He went on: ‘When did I first take a shareholding in Celtic?’ I answered 1994, which is of course wrong. It was 1995.
“‘When did I become the largest shareholder in Celtic?’ I answered 1998. It was 1999.
“I also fluffed the question of when Peter Lawwell first became chief executive and, by this stage, it was clear that Desmond had enough information to come to his own conclusions.
“‘You’ve failed the test,’ he said. ‘You have to know enough about Celtic to talk to me about Celtic. I’m not a great fan of journalists, as you well know.”
This phone call took place in June when Celtic were still looking to appoint a manager after the shambles of the failed attempt at ten in a row.
Desmond didn’t feel compelled to talk about Celtic or put his perspective out there for the wider Celtic support.
The Business Post journalist in question was no hack and would have delivered something tangible to the Celtic support if the majority shareholder had played ball.
Celtic have been mismanaged for quite some time – even when we were winning. It’s why we’ve not just allowed our rivals to catch up with us but overtake us significantly.
The way Celtic went about appointing a manager was cringeworthy, the way they dealt with the Neil Lennon saga was embarrassing and our new Chief Executive who came in with the promise of modernisation quit after 72 days! There’s something not right within the club.
Celtic Shared put out a communication after the Dundee Utd draw to hammer home the point.
Despite last year’s capitulation and covid uncertainty, the Celtic support backed the club in the summer by renewing in their tens of thousands. We were promised a new era, as the incoming CEO spoke of delivering a “world class” football club across all departments.
The fans got behind the new manager, buoyed by his charisma and enthusiasm. Ange however made it known that he felt he was being let down by the board in their failure to deliver signings quickly enough, leading to a makeshift team being eliminated from the first CL qualifier.
Some new signings arrived and some impressive home performances gave cause for optimism, but it was becoming clear all was not right behind the scenes. The transfer window closed with our squad threadbare, and the CEO who promised the world had resigned his position.
An official club statement claimed that Dom McKay left for “personal reasons”, whilst sources within the club briefed journalists, fan media and supporters groups that this was untrue, claiming he was let go because he was performing abysmally within his new role.
We sit just before October, mid-table in the league without a permanent CEO or Director of Football, with a squad seriously struggling to cope with a series of injuries. For several games in a row, the manager has had no attacking options on the bench at all to turn to.
The manager bears responsibility for getting the best out of the players, but the truth is that the Celtic support is being badly let down by those who run our club. They have refused to learn the lessons of last season and refused to make the structural changes required.
There is a lot of football left to play and we desperately hope that Ange can turn things around. It is clear however that the Celtic support must do all that it can to hold our board to account to ensure that we do not see another season written off by their incompetence.
If you read the below and are nodding along then please check out what Celtic Shared are doing.
I totally understand they are best putting these messages out after a poor result, because we still see so many fans defending the board on a regular basis. When we’re winning, if we moan our board has failed us, we’re told to be quiet. When we’re losing, we’re told we need to stick together.
If you’re a Celtic fan who just turns up to the games and watches what’s in front of you then more power to you. If you’re involved, if Celtic is intrinsically part of your day to day life like it is with so many of us, we should not be accepting what’s happened over the past 18 months and move on.
People need to be held accountable, the club still desperately needs modernised and the closed shop board must be continually pushed to provide answers and be accountable to the support who has backed the club financially through a pandemic when their own funds have been depleted.
Step up or move out!
