Are the Celtic board sleepwalking into another crisis? Put simply, the fans cannot allow it to happen again.
Eric Knott 
Craig Foy - SNS Group/SNS Group/Getty Images
Last Sunday, in the article I wrote in the aftermath of our defeat to Kilmarnock, I stated that Celtic’s season was starting to unravel.
I said there was an air of inevitability about what happened that day.
I received many comments, both on the blog and the Read Celtic Facebook page, telling me I was jumping the gun.
That my article was a knee jerk reaction.
People told me to calm down, and to stop over-reacting.
Some people told me I was an alarmist, just stirring it to have a go at the Celtic board.
Clearly, none of those individuals have been paying attention to what we are now seeing unfold at Celtic Park.
I have.
The bloggers have seen this coming for a long time.
We have our fingers on the pulse because we pay close attention, every day, to what goes on at Celtic Park.
We have been consistently warning our readers that a crisis has been coming.
Whether we accept if or not, that crisis is now upon us.
The Celtic board is once again sleepwalking to disaster.
Their arrogance, and complacency is the reason we find ourselves at this juncture.
After winning the League Cup yesterday, the momentum is now well and truly with the Ibrox club.
They are in Europe after Christmas, they have the first domestic trophy in the bag, and they now have the opportunity to overtake us in the League.
They are a club that operates at a loss, they do not have the level of cash in the bank that we have, nor will they ever.
Apparently, Beale’s recruitment in the summer was horrendous.
So was ours.
Yet, funnily enough, Philippe Clement seems to be able to a get tune out of the misfits Beale signed.
We are a cash rich club, with an apparently “world class” manager on a huge salary.
Our recruitment was just as horrendous, if not worse.
Our “world class” manager cannot seem to get a tune out of the team he inherited.
See anything wrong with this picture?
Of course you do.
The fact that we now find ourselves in this position is nothing short of disgraceful.
Peter Lawwell likes to think we are one of the best run football clubs in world football.
I’m not sure what planet he lives on, but a club that allows itself to be beaten by far inferior opposition, thus giving up an unbeaten home run spanning 52 games, which then allows a club that operates at a loss into the ascendancy, is a far cry from being one of the best run clubs in world football.
That reeks of utter incompetence.
I don’t think you can argue with that kind of evidence.
But that’s where we find ourselves today.
Personally, I see this getting a lot worse before it gets any better.
I don’t see us beating Livingston on Saturday.
Nor do I see us beating the Ibrox side when they come to Celtic Park on the 30th.
I’m basing this on what I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, which stems from the club’s actions before the season started, or inaction, whatever way you want to spin it.
The steady decline in performances.
Blowing a 7 point lead.
The persistence in using players like Mikey Johnston and James Forrest.
The dismantling of a treble winning side, and then replacing it with dross.
Because make no mistake, that treble winning team has been pretty much dismantled, by the board, by the tactics introduced by Brendan Rodgers, and his team selections.
Recruiting 10 players and then hoping to get a tune out of maybe 3 of them?
So far, we’ve managed to get a tune out of one.
Allowing £72 million to sit in the bank.
Allowing Mark Lawwell to spend millions of the club’s money on projects, the majority of which have failed to make the grade at Celtic.
The blatantly obvious disconnect between the manager and the board.
The critical disconnect between the fans and the players on the field as a result of the banning of the Green Brigade.
Do you want me to keep going on?
Because I can if you want?
All you Lawwell lovers out there, are you ready to face reality?
Because this reality isn’t pretty.
It’s as ugly as the Covid season, from the on field performances, to the total incompetence of the Celtic board.
I’m going to be blunt here.
And you know I don’t mince my words.
It’s time this Celtic board f*****d off!
They are a bunch of grey old men in suits, who are so out of touch with the needs and requirements of this club and it’s fanbase, it’s staggering.
They think they can run this club like some sort of Stalinist regime, by banning fan groups, banning fan media, and removing disatisfied paying customers from Celtic Park because they dared to express their disatisfaction at what they saw on the field last Saturday.
Anybody who displays any kind of dissent toward the board, ban them.
No dialogue, no engagement, ignore it, and it will go away.
Well, it’s not going to go away this time.
It isn’t just going to disappear into the annals of history like the Covid pandemic, and the empty stadiums where our fans had no voice.
We have a voice now.
On Saturday last, that voice suddenly became audible.
What started as a chant from a few supporters, began to gather unexpected momentum, and before long the stadium was in full voice.
Peter Lawwell has no where to hide now, nor do the rest of the Celtic board.
However, you couldn’t mark the necks of these cronies with a blow torch, so they’re going to hunker down in the Fuhrerbunker for as long as they can in the hopes they’ll ride this storm out.
But the million dollar question is this, who will be the first to fall on their sword?
Brendan Rodgers or the board?
If the results on the pitch don’t start to improve, Rodgers will start to find himself under pressure.
All of a sudden, the Glasgow Derby has now turned into a must win game.
That should never have been the case.
Lose that one, and the heat will be turned up on the manager big time, and then by default, the board.
What we have brewing here is the perfect storm.
The pressure is now mounting on the board, so in turn, they’re going to have to turn the up heat on Rodgers.
Because if you think they’re going to do anything other than that, you haven’t been paying attention.
This board will always look to serve their own selfish best interests.
They’ll need a scapegoat.
And they’ll want to blame the poor results on Rodgers.
God forbid that Lawwell Jnr. might be held in any way responsible for the current shitshow we’re witnessing.
His father certainly won’t have his judgement called into question.
But if the board decide to make Rodgers fall on his sword, then in essence, they are throwing the towel in for this season.
The disruption caused by such action would be detrimental to any hopes of retaining our title.
You know exactly what the board would do?
They would put John Kennedy in charge for the remainder of the season.
Thus killing off any hope at all of winning the title.
Outside of that, just look at the season Tony Mowbray was sacked and the disruption that caused.
They tried to placate the support by bringing in Robbie Keane.
It was too little, too late.
But rest assured, regardless of what happens, this board will fight to the bitter end.
They will quite happily fiddle while Rome burns.
If we lose substantial ground in this title race, they may try to placate the support again with some big name signings.
It will be too little, too late, and only reactive.
This board never changes it’s modus operandi.
They do not understand the meaning of being proactive.
They are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
As long as they are in place at our club, things will never change.
It is up to us to make them realise they are no longer welcome, and that they have outstayed their welcome.
That started on Saturday.
Over the coming weeks, it will gather momentum.
One way or another, the winds of change are headed down the Celtic way.
What they change remains to be seen….
Aodhán Ó Conchobhair 
Good article, Eric. Can’t argue with any of that. Here’s a few observations of my own:
1. Quite obviously, the very presence of Peter Lawwell is toxic. This Ibrox loving criminal should be nowhere near Celtic Park. The immediate termination of this clown-and his equally incompetent offspring-would give a massive lift to everyone who loves our club dearly. Over to you, Desmondo. Assuming that he can tear himself away from the golfing, for a moment.
2. BR needs to get tough on his charges. Read them the riot act every so often… but in the privacy of the dressing room.
3. Some of the players look as if they couldn’t GAF. They themselves have to take more responsibility on the field of play. Calmac really needs to step up here, and get stuck into teammates not putting in the required effort. Ange would not have stood for this nonsense. Neither should BR.
4. The Green Brigade. These guys know what they have to do to be reinstated. Behave. It’s not feckin’ rocket science. So, no more pyro. No more sectarian crap…RITG, Soon there’ll be no protestants at all etc. Shameful behaviour from anyone professing love for Celtic FC. Perhaps these guys should study the history of the club.
Hail Hail.
No and we have never had a crisis. Covid season was a freak. Too many idiots follow Celtic.
We know what the issues with the team are, the main issue is lack of goals. Brendan had to assess the team before major changes were required. There is nothing we can do until January regarding that.
Kyogo has been misfiring this season, we miss the goals from Jota and Abada scored 28 goals between them and assisted 21 times. They are a massive miss this season. Hatate and Mooy scored crucial goals and had Giokoumakis up until January.
This season less are contributing with the goals Matt O’Riley our top scorer on 9 then Kyogo on 8, Turnbull & Palma on 7 then Oh on 5.
We need Abada back, we miss Hatate, we need Kyogo to find his Mojo again, we need a better left back, we need and better back up striker.
We will improve
I said from the start that Lawell getting back in the door would be a shambles, he is a number cruncher who played Football Manager at the weekends, but unfortunately for Celtic and it’s supporters this idiot is using real players and real money and it’s not his!!! He’s David Murray without the chair, thinks he knows about football when he doesn’t!!! When he was retired and Ange came back everything was done Ange’s way, he identified the players , they were approached immediately and in the door, minimum of fuss, go forward we get lumbered with Pistol Pete as chairman and allofasudden it back to fuckin snails pace, junior players, players with potential and very little else, were supposed to believe promises were made to BR and he accepted the task of taking us to a next level in Europe, for that we need guys at the peak of their powers, players with skill, dig and attitude and we get a few kids and a couple of centre backs who can’t get in the team, and that falls the feet of Lawell Junior, How can we get to be financially strong and the opposite on the pitch, Rangers may go on and take everything this year if 20 to 30 million isn’t spent on that team and not on Lawell’s say so’s or his selections because he has not got a single clue about what Celtic need, what we need is the board all gone and people who really want what’s right for Celtic’s team, not what’s right for the fat bank books they bragged about at the AGM!!!
Spot on magua, greedy Pete is a poisonous slippery bastard who should have been run out of the club for lying through his teeth at the famous email AGM. But in true serpent style he manages to slither back in to paradise and everything falls apart. I suspect he’s the reason big ange jump ship at the first opportunity.
Cheers, Liam.
Hail Hail.
You are right in everything you have said Eric, but just one thing, if The Rangers do win the league they will get about 60 million for being in the CL and that will be enough to get them in the black and with VAR and the cheating officials they will take over from where we have been since the original Rangers were liquidated.