“Asset strippers” and “Vulture Capitalists”. This is what the Celtic board might as well be called now, and Lawwell oversees it all…
Eric Knott 
Craig Williamson - SNS Group/SNS Group/Getty Images
This morning, I read with great interest an article by James Forrest, over on The Celtic Blog.
For me, it put a lot of the pieces I’ve been trying to put together over the course of many articles when it comes to the most divisive figure at our club, Peter Lawwell.
Before reading James’s article, I was never in any doubt that Lawwell was still wielding his influence over the club.
But James’s forensic analysis makes it irrefutable.
If his article does not wake up those who blindly protest, and defend Lawwell every time we point out the obvious, I doubt anything will.
It is plain to see.
It is laid out black and white for even the most hard of thinking to be able to understand what has beeg going on at our club since January 2023.
Yet I have no doubt that once I post this article, I will still get board apologists defending Peter Lawwell.
Telling me we’re entitled, and that we should consider ourselves lucky to have a man like Lawwell in charge of our club.
The “Great Leader”.
“Generalissimus Peter Lawwell”.
“Peter the Great”.
Some people revere the man, like he is some sort of genius who has taken Celtic to the pinnacle of the game.
Top dog in Scotland.
Wow!
Glasgow Celtic FC is a global brand.
But it is controlled by a group of individuals who do not see beyond a parochial rivalry in Glasgow, let alone see a presence for the club beyond Scotland itself.
Why is this?
Why is it that they cannot see the potential for Celtic on a European, and global stage?
I’ve thought long and hard about this.
And just as James Forrest came to the conclusion that Peter Lawwell is 100% calling the shots at Celtic, I have come to the conclusion that there is a more sinister reason for holding our great club back.
Greed.
Pure unadulterated greed.
Let’s call a spade, a spade here.
Celtic as a club does not benefit from the control the board currently has over it.
They do.
Well, them and the bank balance.
Pejoratively speaking, they are asset strippers.
To all intents and purposes, vulture capitalists.
And while you might think I’m being extreme in saying that, hear me out, and you’ll understand why.
Asset stripping is the practice of selling off a company’s assets to improve returns for equity investors, or stock holders.
For the purpose of simplifying this, Dermot Desmond is the main stock holder at Celtic.
Now sometimes, asset stripping happens to companies that are in distress.
It cannot be said that Celtic is in distress in any way financially.
However, we tend to act like a business that is.
It is for that very reason that we never move forward as a club in any meaningful way.
Our board’s conservative approach to asset and finance management very much restricts that.
For example, I’ll go back to the record sale of Kieran Tierney to explain this.
Peter Lawwell sanctioned the sale of Kieran Tierney from Celtic to Arsenal for £25 million in 2019.
Tierney was a prime asset at that time.
Under normal circumstances, you would expect that the sale of a player for such a substantial amount would be reinvested in the playing squad, wouldn’t you?
But that did not happen.
We got Boli Bolingoli, and Greg Taylor.
For about £5 million combined.
We are still looking for a decent left-back since 2019.
While we did spend £7 million on Christopher Julien in that window, we came out of it with a net profit of around £6 million.
Who do you think benefits from a net profit in a transfer window?
In fact, it is rare that Celtic ever spends more than it brings in a transfer window, with summer 2020 being an exception.
You also have to bear in mind that there is always a healthy balance in the bank before player trading.
The fact that the club comes out with a net profit most of the time after player trading is an added bonus.
For the board, and it’s equity investors.
The beneficiaries of conservative spending, and asset stripping.
Neither you, nor I, the fans benefit from it in any way.
In fact, year on year, we just pay more and more.
This board continuously asset strips the club, even though there really shouldn’t be any need to.
They even asset strip Champions League qualification, they take everything they can from what it provides, and put nothing into it.
All while charging extortionate prices for Champions League match packages.
It is inevitable that Matt O’Riley will be sold, if not in this window, then almost certainly in the next.
He is now the current prime asset at the club, with a value of £30 million, and to have any hope of competing in the Champions League, we need him.
If he is sold for the amount the club is looking for, do you think that money will be reinvested in the playing squad?
You already know the answer.
So who benefits from hoarding the majority of what the board makes out of asset stripping?
Dermot Desmond is a vulture capitalist.
Look at how he conducts his business, and how he amassed his fortune of over €2 billion over the years.
He didn’t accumulate it by being a nice guy.
He did it by being absolutely ruthless.
Desmond displayed that ruthlessness towards the Celtic fans when they protested in the 2020/21 season.
He does not care a jot for the Celtic fanbase.
Celtic for him is just another business, run to benefit him, the major shareholder, in a vulture capitalist way.
It is consistently asset stripped to benefit him, and a small cabal of men.
Peter Lawwell, as pretty much confirmed in James Forrest’s article earlier today, is his consigliere.
It was not by chance that he was reinstalled in the club in January 2023.
In fact, I would go so far as to say his exit left in 2021 was stage managed.
Fall on your sword to assuage fan anger, Pete, and when the dust settles, we’ll bring you back again.
As for his replacement, Dom McKay, we’ll never know the real story there.
But I think its fair to say, his spending and attitude towards transfer dealings was considered a tad gung-ho for the Desmond and the consigliere’s liking.
Young, forward thinking, non-venture capitalistic people do not fit in at Celtic.
It is also a salient point to consider that the majority of his acquisitions in the transfer market have been asset stripped.
Carl Starfelt, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Josip Juranovic, and Liel Abada have all been sold.
It is also important to consider they were never adequately replaced.
And that the club has been actively engaged in transfer downsizing since the return of the consigliere.
We have witnessed three of the most underwhelming transfer windows in living memory since last summer.
Culminating in the current one, which up to this point has been soul destroying.
I’m not holding out much hope for that to change between now and the end of this month.
Celtic’s current Modus Operandi does not benefit the fanbase in any way, and it most certainly does not seem to be benefitting the footballing operation.
Mark my words, this board’s only concern will be to get away unscathed with the asset stripping of Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate.
In Brendan Rodgers, they have a manager who is conducive to asset stripping.
In effect, he is their fail-safe in all of this.
He is their way of hedging, they pay him £3 million per annum to protect their profits.
In other words, to continue to develop players into saleable assets in line with a minimum of investment in the playing squad.
The £3 million they pay him to do that is the protection or premium it provides.
Either Brendan Rodgers is fully aware of this and on board with it, or he isn’t, and we will find out very soon if that’s the case.
So how do we escape the vice-like death grip Dermot Desmond holds our club in?
How do escape this never ending cycle of eat, sleep, and repeat season after season?
For those who are happy to come out on top of the parochial rivalry we have with the Ibrox club, then what more could they want?
They’re happy, they express as much in my comments section on a regular basis.
But for those of us who want more for the club, what can we do?
In reality, there is not much we can do, but live in hope that this way of operating will self-destruct.
That would mean the unthinkable happening.
That complacency, greed, asset stripping, and vulture capitalism will result in us conceding a title to Ibrox.
We came damn close to it last season.
The board hedged that Brendan Rodgers would save us from that ignominy, and he did.
Sane people would expect him to be rewarded for that with the players he requires to take the club further in Europe.
Yet here we are, with Celtic starting the new season weaker than we finished it last season.
With only the negative outlook of Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate possibly being sold, and no positive outlook so far when it comes to incomings.
Just more asset stripping.
I lost faith in the hope that Adam Idah was coming a few days ago, and I’m not at all excited by the purchase of Paulo Bernardo.
The addition of Bernardo still does not revert us to the strength we had finishing last season.
But I’m sure the board was delighted with pulling that one off, in or around the maximum £3 million spend.
Well done to them.
I’m sure there’s plenty of back slapping going on after that.
At Ibrox, they’ve now brought nine new additions in.
Robin Propper looks like a decent acquisition.
If Clement can get a tune out the latest rebuild, then they might just pose a challenge to Celtic.
If the unthinkable happened and they somehow pulled off a title win, then I don’t think the board survives that.
Personally, I don’t see that happening.
But that folks, is the unfortunate reality, our only route of escape from this board would be the concession of a title to Ibrox.
As ugly as that sounds, its the only thing that might force change.
It almost did last time, until Dom McKay was unceremoniously dumped, and before we knew it the consigliere was back in the buliding.
Tasked with returning everything to the way it was.
And now it is back to the way it was, and then some.
An asset stripping, vulture capitalist, greed driven entity, designed to serve a small cabal of aging men.
I’ll leave you with this:
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others….
That about sums up Celtic now.
And its very hard to watch knowing there’s very little you can do.
Other than spread the word.
And live in the hope that people will eventually wake up.
We are going into the season with one striker, Kyogo! Wake up Lawwell excusers!
A silly, speculative and poorly timed article with a month left in the transfer window.
Couldn’t agree more it’s been
21 years since Celtic won a
Knockout tie in Europe
Shameful
Agreed, Eric.
What could Peter Lawwell possibly want by stopping an obviously successful transfer strategy (for two transfer windows) contrary to his own?
It couldn’t possibly be that what he was telling the fans all these years – his was the only policy that would work for the club – was systematically proven wrong in the space of just a few short months. Surely not.
Really, why would he want to put a stop to that success? A success that if allowed to continue in the same vain would likely have had us competitive in Europe and, ironically, much better off financially and with a much more valuable first team squad.
The answer is pretty simple really. He’s a narcissist. It’s all about his ego.
Simple explanation of a narcissist (for context):
A narcissist’s ego is their entire world and they can become emotionally abusive or manipulative to defend it. If a person with narcissism feels that someone is advancing on their superior status, or not giving them adequate recognition, they may engage in some negative reinforcements as punishment.
You would have thought that losing the title (and ten-in-a-row) in season 2020-21 would have shaken the Board from their parsimonious approach to player recruitment but unless they perform a minor miracle over the coming weeks of the transfer window and bring in players of established quality (not sell-on projects) we will struggle to win the domestic trophies let alone improve our European performances. If they fail to recruit the players needed this Board will “take us to the next level” – downwards.
In order to asset strip they’d need to take money out of Celtic not leave it in the bank. Realistically if you spend money on players then large wages follow, more than we can realistically afford. Selling players is never guaranteed, bums on seats, advertising, and TV revenue are in general are steady income streams, we base our spending on these not hopeful future transfer sales. Julian, Barkas, Ajeti are all recent examples of big ticket players that we’ve got nothing from on the pitch and nothing in transfers either. I’d rather see money go into youth, the stadium, and good scouting than playing transfer top trumps.
Eric your comments about lawwell will probably be removed just as James comments have disgracefully been removed for telling the truth
James Forrest HATES PETER LAWWELL
and this Hatred shall destroy Him
In every one of his blogs he mentions Lawwell
Take my advice BLOCK FORREST BEFORE HE DESTROYS YOU
JERRY WOODS
Too many brain dead supporters going along to the game with the season book that’s been in the family for years.Celtic do treble or double every year now easy.Everybodies happy dafties.Season books are the problem fans can’t do a thing to upset the board because everything’s paid in advance.Boycott today’s game,board don’t care money is in the bank.Hit them in the pocket don’t give them one pence of your money they’re all rangers supporting masons ripping the pish out of us for years .Dermot Desmond is an orange man I hate him more than any hun pumped celtic for years f off tyrant leave Celtic f.c. for the fans ya rat.
Great article that, the glaringly obvious eloquently put into words.
I do hope I’m wrong but I have been of the opinion that Brendan Rodgers is not only fully aware but part of the whole plan. It totally explains why he would come back only to stand still.
Difficult to say what’s good for the club and what’s not, I’m forever living in hope we can become decent in Europe again 🤞 we have to be careful what we wish for, enjoy reading your comments H H 🍀🍀
First up Eric..I totally agree with your article …100%…And yes…you are correct …The Board will survive. There are countless numbers of ” protesters ” who will bat their gums…then renew their ST…before applying for the CL package..Seen it all before…Can’t be arsed anymore…We get what we deserve.
Peter have you not got better things to do ?
Can you imagine if the roles were reversed and the rangers were in our financial position? They would be buying 2-3 £10-15 million players each window along with some decent prospects, and replacing quality with quality when a player was sold, and probably be making a far better shot of CL. We on the other hand, with their finances would be lucky to finish 3rd.
How short-sighted is it that our board can’t see how lucrative a decent CL run would be? Perhaps they’d be frightened that decent players would want to join such a club and they’d have to splash out.
My 1:21 post is a question to Stephen M.
Refusing the CL packages would be a good start, then boycotting the LC may help as well as not spending any money on catering and merchandising.
This scum board only know one language, CASH!!!!!
Well, that article sums up my thoughts. It’s a managed decline and anyone with sense can see this. Only thing is Brendan won’t be happy standing still with Celtic – they back him or he walks I imagine AND we have till end of August to sprinkle the side with much needed quality. I think Rodgers will get his way. He’s already walked before when the powers that be didn’t back him. Don’t imagine they’ll make the same mistake twice. I fully expect more incomings in the month ahead.
I have said it many times before,we deserve to be told the truth either by the board or Rodgers,who and what were the reasons and assurances given to Rodgers to return as manager because I see no different or even worse situation as his previous tenure.All we keep hearing is 3 or4 quality players needed but nothing ever becomes of it and now we are going to be starting the season with a weaker squad than we finished last season.Beggars belief this nonchalant incompetent board who totally lack any ambition for CELTIC .
This article hits the proverbial nail on the head. That man Lawwell should never have been allowed back to Celtic under any circumstances, such was the damage he caused last time with his greed. He is definitely pulling the financial strings again, despite protestations to the contrary, and his intention is to garner great profits for Desmond, himself and a few other profiteers to the great detriment of Celtic on the European and world stage. Brendan Rodgers is the stooge who gets paid well to take what scraps they provide and sell the undercutting to the fans with his blarney. Can anyone imagine Ange Postecoglu taking on a subservient role like that for the money men? To his credit, Brendan does often send out subliminal begging messages to the Board, but ultimately buckles under when they ignore him and just continue to damage the club. It’s time he stood up as a man and demanded what he needs to succeed or else, although I doubt Desmond’s Irish pal will ever dare do that.
Opinions and the like, but I’m pretty shocked anyone would disagree with this. The Celtic board is greed-addled, cowardly, and dismissive of the fanbase. This is very likely to be our squad for the coming campaign, I’ll support them all on the field, but I fully expect the other side to be celebrating their 56th League title. They have a losing team with a board that thinks they are winners while we, paradoxically, field a team of winners with a board that has a small-time, losers’ mentality. Disgraceful. I hope Brendan walks.
James Forrest is an out of control maniac.i challenged him yesterday and got dogs abuse.He then removed my comments because he couldn’t answer them.instead of boycotting Celtic I decided to boycott his crappy blog.his ramblings about the Roman Empire in relation to Celtic is so boring.lets hope Celtic exclude him going forward.only a matter of time before the club deal with him legally.
Lawell is a disease far worse than COVID. We only lost one title due to COVID but Lawell’s trying to lose us one every season by trying to keep the fat cats happy.
I like many others think bringing back Lawell and Rodgers was Desmond’s sure fire way of keeping the money flowing in without any backlash from his yes men .
Stephen M
says:
2nd August 2024 at 12:50 pm
A silly, speculative and poorly timed article with a month left in the transfer window.
————-
Talk about deluded.
The seaso stars tomorrow, not at the end of August.
Negative,toxic,energy.Brendan has just summed on James Forrest the sub standard blogger.
jbhoy
says:
2nd August 2024 at 12:57 pm
In order to asset strip they’d need to take money out of Celtic not leave it in the bank. Realistically if you spend money on players then large wages follow, more than we can realistically afford. Selling players is never guaranteed, bums on seats, advertising, and TV revenue are in general are steady income streams, we base our spending on these not hopeful future transfer sales. Julian, Barkas, Ajeti are all recent examples of big ticket players that we’ve got nothing from on the pitch and nothing in transfers either. I’d rather see money go into youth, the stadium, and good scouting than playing transfer top trumps.
————-
We can afford to bring in 2 or 3 players on top money.
You have been brainwashed into believing that we cant.
I notice that you didn’t mention CCV and Jota regarding big money signings that worked out brilliantly.
It must have slipped your mind…
Jerry Woods
says:
2nd August 2024 at 1:00 pm
James Forrest HATES PETER LAWWELL
and this Hatred shall destroy Him
In every one of his blogs he mentions Lawwell
Take my advice BLOCK FORREST BEFORE HE DESTROYS YOU
JERRY WOODS
———-
What a fud
William Kinney
says:
2nd August 2024 at 1:11 pm
Difficult to say what’s good for the club and what’s not, I’m forever living in hope we can become decent in Europe again 🤞 we have to be careful what we wish for, enjoy reading your comments H H 🍀🍀
—————-
‘be careful what you wish for’.. brainwashed and gullable.
BB
says:
2nd August 2024 at 2:00 pm
Opinions and the like, but I’m pretty shocked anyone would disagree with this. The Celtic board is greed-addled, cowardly, and dismissive of the fanbase. This is very likely to be our squad for the coming campaign, I’ll support them all on the field, but I fully expect the other side to be celebrating their 56th League title. They have a losing team with a board that thinks they are winners while we, paradoxically, field a team of winners with a board that has a small-time, losers’ mentality. Disgraceful. I hope Brendan walks.
————–
56 you say?
The new club has won 1 league in their history.
People who back Lawell are part of the problem. I wish he would just go and take those Tory rats 🐀 on the board with him. They do the square root of f all for Celtic. Leeches , every one of them.
Stevie
says:
2nd August 2024 at 2:36 pm
Negative,toxic,energy.Brendan has just summed on James Forrest the sub standard blogger.
———–
Are you one of the Lawwellite bawbags from CQN?
I agree with the article, except for the bit that we can’t do anything, if the fans take on the board, no pain no gain, an empty stadium for a while might just make the “elite “(board) think again, if the fans are not willing to put up a fight, then they should stop complaining and realise that Celtic is only a selling club, Europe is only a dream
Stevie
says:
2nd August 2024 at 2:02 pm
James Forrest is an out of control maniac.i challenged him yesterday and got dogs abuse.He then removed my comments because he couldn’t answer them.instead of boycotting Celtic I decided to boycott his crappy blog.his ramblings about the Roman Empire in relation to Celtic is so boring.lets hope Celtic exclude him going forward.only a matter of time before the club deal with him legally
——————-
Actually listen to yourself.
So James has to toe the party line eh?
Shit for brains people like yourself are content with our horrendous Euro record and happy to go along with it rather than see the club do much better in Champions League.
Agree with JF entirely, Celtic wont spend until they get transfer money in (eg O’Riley). Were in command lets press it! The Animals would!! Ziggy
Hard to disagree with a word of this article. It’s been obvious for years the Club are only interested in staying just ahead of Rangers…..and it very nearly backfired last season. Celtic certainly have NO ambition in Europe…yes,they want to qualify for the group stages but are prepared to accept the team being embarrassed year in year out as long as they pocket the £25m or whatever the prize money is for the group stages. Shame on Desmond, Lawwell and the board …they’re conning the fans who attend games.
the downsizing has been happening for two decades
What unadulterated antiboard, hyperbolic pish…
You “thought long and hard”, well that didn’t amount to much, did it?
For a start the reason we can request big fees and obtain them is due entirely to the fact we have money in the bank.
Money in the bank ensures that unforeseen expenditure, maintenance or costs outhwith squad are easily met without impacting the squad budget.
Since 2022 UEFA changed the rules so it doesn’t matter what was accrued whether 50m , 100m or 500m… it cannot be spent on the squad as it is NOT INCOME.
Seems our fans can’t comprehend this simple fact or get their tiny wee biased, antiboard minds wrapped around it…
Enjoy your season if you can…
Nope.i think our board are appalling.there must be change however i am of the opinion that better quality players will arrive.
James Forrest would love to be a modern day Matt Mcgloan though.guys a substandard mouthpiece with very little between the ears.
Chris,do one you talk shite.
You wonder if in the role PL holds he is entitled to bonuses based on profits made each year.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility and as such he would be conflicted by spending to improve the club whereby they could compete more successfully in Europe. Or curtailing his spending to an extent to just staying in front our Glasgow rivals and doing just enough to win the SPL.
Can you advise if rumours of Mckay mishandling sell on amounts for JJ and GG are true? Both articles today are superb. Desmond also clearly insists on the Irish signings Scales McCarthy Kenny it’s pathetic
Is there not a legal requirement for a Chairman, CEO, Board to do their utmost to benefit the shareholders particularly over the short-term, our main problem is that we’re a PLC and therefore there is a legal duty from PL etc to maximise profits and share prices. A lot of our shareholders are not Celtic fans but purely investors in a business, hate what happens at Celtic as a fan but if you want to portion blame then Fergus is the man that set us up as a PLC
Peter Lawwell lied to the AGM in 2019, when asked about the 5WA. In any company, such behaviour is simply not tolerated. We as a club, are going nowhere, until this feckin’ clown is booted out of Celtic Park.
Hail Hail
Jota and CCV weren’t mentioned as they were hits, and the point is that without good scouting, good coaches and a bit of luck then it’s not nailed on that you can sell them, which is what happens to the other side and it is why they have so many issues, big wage bill, big transfers or marquee loans.
I’d rather see the money going into infrastructure, not headlines, which is clearly where it is going, we do need more graduates to the first team from the academy, and we still have work to do in this window, but Jota for instance was years of work, we wanted him when he was 16, nothing good has ever happened by taking a punt and splashing the cash. To suggest that the board aren’t interested in the club is clearly false, have a look at Man Utd, that’s asset stripping and a non-functioning mess, the cash they splash doesn’t relate to anything on the pitch, and how did they do in the CL last season?
I say this time and time again but as long as you keep renewing your season ticket every year before the season starts nothing will change.
The ONLY thing this board cares about is money.
The ONLY way to effect change is to withhold your season ticket money.
Stevie
says:
2nd August 2024 at 3:18 pm
Chris,do one you talk shite.
————
Stevie
So what one of those losers from CQN are you?
Idah’s Big Toe.
says:
2nd August 2024 at 3:06 pm
What unadulterated antiboard, hyperbolic pish…
You “thought long and hard”, well that didn’t amount to much, did it?
For a start the reason we can request big fees and obtain them is due entirely to the fact we have money in the bank.
Money in the bank ensures that unforeseen expenditure, maintenance or costs outhwith squad are easily met without impacting the squad budget.
Since 2022 UEFA changed the rules so it doesn’t matter what was accrued whether 50m , 100m or 500m… it cannot be spent on the squad as it is NOT INCOME.
Seems our fans can’t comprehend this simple fact or get their tiny wee biased, antiboard minds wrapped around it…
Enjoy your season if you can…
—————
What a load of shite.
Who is asking the club to spend 500 million?
Or 100 million?
However we can spend our profit as we see fit.
Its completely different for the oil rich clubs who cant suddenly spend hundreds of millions that the club hadn’t already banked as profit.
Fanny
Very good article. All the happy clappers on the rampage but can’t deny the club has zero ambition. Brendan keeps using the word ‘quality’ but the asset strippers don’t want to know. All they want is profit, profit, profit. They never put a penny of their own into the club (apart from Desmond) but my goodness they take plenty out of it. Mostly OUR money. They need to go. Every one of them.
Hear hear Stevie. Ignorant and arrogant in equal measure.
I thought James Forrest piece this morning was totally incoherent and lacked any kind of balance but I’m assuming that was its purpose. Your piece out does his in a big way. Again no balance of any sort and the obsession regarding all things Lawell is at best lazy and infantile. You speak emotively about asset stripping and vulture capitalists in a desperate attempt to kick start a conversation around change. The type of change you appear to be advocating will never happen. Never in a million years. We are not going back. The vast and silent majority of fans, supporters and shareholders are happy with how the club is managed both on the field and at executive level. For the record Peter Lawell was an outstanding CEO and is Celtic to his core.
Very strange that James Forrest has taken down the post you refer to, never seen that before, something spooked him? I agree with everything you say and more. The club is in no financial danger, we have a quality manager and great potential. We have just won a double and gained automatic qualification to the Champions League, but yet I am the most depressed about the club as I have ever been in 60 years as a Celtic supporter. Very sad really
Didnt think much of this piece. We are waiting on the ins and outs, quality players dont grow on trees unless your the rangers and get them as soon as the window opens ahead of real madrid for buttons 🤣🤣 Our club is financially secure can take the hit when qualifying for the CL becomes difficult as a precaution and we have articles like this? Can we reserve our judgement till the window closes please? The squad is strong enough to cope till then and I would gladly wait for quality additions. Love KT but injury prone unfortunately so correct decision to bank the massive cash and I like GT and think he gets it tight. isnt the scottish media better at this? Cash rich serial champions, with a good squad just now but of course we want better. To finish off get Adam up the road even for 8 million, the guys class, loves the club and would run through a brick wall to score
Brian Fitzsimmons
You are either completely deluded or at the wind up.
Tony
The season starts tomorrow with us having 1 centre forward and 1 left back.
It’s pointless having money in the bank if we have a situation like that.
Jim
Take the blinkers off.
The article was spot on. How anyone can praise the Celtic board while they preside over our pathetic European record is laughable.
Lawwell waited until ange was successful then sneaked back into the building,we are not disputing that they have done a great job financially for Celtic,but there comes a time when every company needs fresh ideas and younger forward thinking people to take us forward.
Brian Fitzsimmons
How do you know what the majority are happy or unhappy with?
You don’t speak for anyone except yourself.
Personally I’m sick of this penny pinching by the board,so I’m going to do some myself and not buy any merch at all until they do their job by buying in many top quality 1st team ready players asap.
Ps Excellent article Eric & J.Forrest is a fantastic writer who has my backing 100%
We feed their greed with every penny spent.
ST, UCL package, LC, official merchandise, Celtic TV, and they keep shovelling the money where? Where’s the money gone?
Player trading model, 100% of the profit should be recycled for quality players, no excuses.
“Oh but what about the wages” … FFS Ajeti was on £20k a week. Players get wages whether they play or not, it’s an inevitable overhead and why FFP exists; gate money pays wages.
Player trading model should be strengthening the team and incremental improvements.
BR fawked up, we beat Chelsea and Man City – he’s getting nothing further. Freewheeling now “after a positive start to the season we felt that the squad was strong enough to cope with the upcoming season while longer term plans were being mobilised in the background” or words to that effect.
BR would have been better getting bounced 10 or 15 nil each game, but he didn’t and now he will be punished.
No further signings. Jamesie will retire. O’Reilly and Hatate will be sold, but but but we beat Chelsea and Man City and we felt our longer term strategy would be better for the future of Celtic.
Money grabbing sewer rats, all of them.
Every penny you give them reinforces their beliefs about them being “the best stewards for the club”
Give them nothing, let them walk away with empty pockets
Brian Fitzsimmons
says:
2nd August 2024 at 9:13 pm
I thought James Forrest piece this morning was totally incoherent and lacked any kind of balance but I’m assuming that was its purpose. Your piece out does his in a big way. Again no balance of any sort and the obsession regarding all things Lawell is at best lazy and infantile. You speak emotively about asset stripping and vulture capitalists in a desperate attempt to kick start a conversation around change. The type of change you appear to be advocating will never happen. Never in a million years. We are not going back. The vast and silent majority of fans, supporters and shareholders are happy with how the club is managed both on the field and at executive level. For the record Peter Lawell was an outstanding CEO and is Celtic to his core.
Brian, who are you to speak for “most” supporters?
You certainly do not speak for me, nor the members of my supporters club, the people I have chatted to at games, in pubs and at work or out in the world who are all of the opposite opinion to yours! I have literally never met any supporter of our club that is happy with how things are run at a board level. Not to say there aren’t some out there that are, but my personal experience is that I have yet to meet one. I feel you are in a tiny minority in your views towards the handling of our club and I have definitely never met anyone who wants PL running our club or who is even content to have him in such an influential role! I feel you and I share very different values and also very different hopes for the success of Celtic FC.
Man deserves his Statue. Not
I’m beginning to wonder if BR is complicit in this.I don’t understand his attitude lately. He refuses to get involved in ” toxic rumours regarding transfers ” he says…and also makes no noise about the unacceptable time span re. Bernardo and Idah. He’s not the sweetness and light he likes to project…We shall see what he accepts at close of business.
Hi Jim,
As I predicted Celtic threatened legal action on one of his articles.hes a coward when he gets called out.