We’re back at this point again, wondering what the hell the Celtic board is actually there for? Other than to stockpile cash, that is
Eric Knott 
Craig Foy - SNS Group/SNS Group/Getty Images
If the Celtic board has left itself wide open for attacks from everywhere after this abomination of a transfer window, well, that’s on them.
Nobody else.
After a brief glimmer of hope last summer, and the thought that there might actually be a shift in mentality, we’re back in that old dark place again.
That place where we wonder what the f*** they are playing at?
That place where we desperately try to figure out what this board’s strategy is.
If there actually is one there at all.
Besides stock piling millions upon millions of pounds.
For that rainy day, you know?
When it all comes crashing down.
I’ll tell you one thing, if it does all come crashing down, it will happen because of their ineptitude.
Their inaction at a time when we needed action most.
Nobody else’s.
We have an elite level manager who has to work with a bunch of bungling imbeciles.
And believe me, there is a time limit to someone’s willingness to work with imbeciles.
That time limit has about 18 months left at Celtic to run by my reckoning.
If you think I’m being harsh with that kind of language, then you need look no further than the transfer window just closed.
It is the ultimate blueprint for imbecilic behaviour.
I’m not sure what kind of language Brendan Rodgers has to use, but when the man said we needed a striker, even the most hard of thinking clearly understood what he meant.
But somehow, our board didn’t.
I sincerely doubt that Brendan Rodgers agreed to the sale of Kyogo Furuhashi without guarantees a replacement would be forthcoming.
The person who told him a replacement would be forthcoming, well, I can only imagine how difficult Brendan Rodgers will find it to take that person seriously from here on out.
Not just take him seriously, but to actually trust him going forward.
Because this board, and the people on it eroded Brendan Rodgers’ trust once already.
I sincerely doubt he’s willing to take that kind of erosion again.
Brendan Rodgers made a commitment to us, the Celtic fans, that he would see out his 3 year contract unless he got ’emptied’ beforehand.
I suppose now it boils down to what Rdogers’ definition of ’emptied’ actually is?
Because I’d imagine his reservoir of patience with this board is certainly getting emptied.
As is his reservoir of trust.
Brendan Rodgers will sit in front of the press later on today in advance of our league game against Dundee tomorrow night.
While he will probably be mild in the way he expresses his disappointment in the machinations of the window just closed, all you’ll need to do his study his body language as he answers the questions directed to him.
That will tell you an awful lot.
Rodgers might even be totally open on his feelings about what’s just happened.
At the end of the day, this isn’t on him, so why should he care if he throws the people who are responsible under the bus?
I mean, let’s call a spade a spade here, we’ve exited this window weaker than we entered it.
We have the biggest game this club has participated in in over 12 years coming up, and this debacle of a window is repayment in kind for that achievement?
Can anyone see why Rodgers might be pissed off?
Can anyone see why he’d think, f*** this, I’ll see out my contract here, but once it’s finished, I’m out of here.
And who would blame him?
I know I wouldn’t.
I understood his reasons for leaving last time out.
To expect him to put up with the same kind of shit second time around is asking a lot of a man who prides himself on professionalism.
He is not the problem.
He wasn’t the problem in 2019 either.
We all know who is.
And if we required concrete evidence that this is the case, the window just closed is proof positive as to whonis the problem here.
I’d also question the reasons for hiring Paul Tisdale and bringing him to Celtic?
Was it for him to look good?
To have a nice office to sit in?
What was it?
Because player acquisitions it sure as hell wasn’t.
And David Pleat?
The 80 year old scout?
You’d assume he was brought in for his list of contacts in the English game, wouldn’t you?
It looks like that contact list came in very handy yesterday.
One would have to assume the name Jeffrey Schlupp was on it.
What are we paying these people for exactly?
You’d have thought it was to augment the playing squad.
Yet we’ve exited January weaker than we entered it.
That was a strange kind of squad augmentation, don’t you think?
So, here’s the reality folks.
You know?
The kind of reality that socks it to you like a headbutt straight on the nose.
We have easily in excess of £100 million sitting in the bank.
With more to come after the Bayern Munich double header.
We made a £2 million profit in the January transfer window, all while depriving the manager of the striker he so badly needed in said window.
We offloaded 8 players in the window.
One who was our top striker, three others were important squad players.
We brought in Felipe Jota and Jeffrey Schlupp.
Yes we needed a winger, and we needed a left back.
But it is abundantly clear that we also needed a striker.
Because we now only have one available striker to us in Adam Idah.
We have no idea what Johnny Kenny is capable of, but I suspect we’ll find out soon enough.
Through necessity, rather than choice.
I’m sure we’ll also get to see what Daniel Cummings is capable of between now and the end of the season.
Much to the delight of West Ham.
On a side note, if West Ham thought Cummings was good enough to invest in, then why didn’t we?
Ironically, we’ll probably get to see how good he really is between now and the end of the season.
Once again through necessity, rather than choice.
That’s the strategy folks.
All of that.
That’s what encompasses strategic, long-term thinking at Celtic.
And I don’t doubt I’ll get board apologists commenting on this article telling me to shut the f*** up.
Quit the pissing and moaning.
That I’m a glass half empty merchant.
That I’m full of shit.
And on, and on, and on.
When all I’ve done is point out the reality here.
A reality which no one seems willing to face.
Least of all the Celtic board.
And that’s the reality that they are not fit for purpose.
They are past their sell-by date.
And they are taking this club backwards.
But here’s the big question.
Just what will it take for them to outstay their welcome?
I suspect you’ll find out in 18 months time.
Honestly, I think you may be edging towards too kind in regard to the utter incompetence displayed by the staff involved at all levels of recruitment at the club.
After overpaying for Adam Idah last year because we tried to nickel and dim the selling club (clearly not learnign from the John McGinn fiasco) to selling our number 1 striker then looking for a replacement after the fact without expecting selling clubs to inflate their asking prices, there’s a level of stupidity on display that’s simply breathtaking in its scope.
I freely admit to not being a football recruitment professional, but for f*cks sake, a bit of common sense tells you what the outcome of your actions will be if you exercise even a modicum of your brain power in the above situation.
The chances are we’ll never know exactly who was involved in this complete failure to deliver the managers needs, but I’m fairly certain a certain ex CEO has his grubby fingers all over it.
This board are only interested in the balance sheet and to ” just do enough”, with us being 13 pts ahead (if we win our game in hand) and getting CL football after xmas this board was never going to spend money, anyone who though otherwise must have been sleeping for the last 20 years.
We have no ambition at board level other than boosting dividends and share prices and we will never have.
Our total strategy is based on 2 things, finishing ahead of Sevco in the league and getting into the CL, this window both boxes were ticked, so there was no incentive.
The thing that really gets me is the con trick they pull time and time again on us fans and that’s the one where we are supposedly talking to players x, y and z but nothing ever seems to come out of it because we deliberately low ball every offer.
I warned all my friends what Lawwell was like after Strachan wanted Steven Fletcher..Lawwell wouldn’t pay the cash for him and it cost us the league..This clown is dangerous..He needs removed and removed NOW.
Zero drive
Zero ambition
Zero forward thinking
Zero accountability
Zero competence
The only thing the Board are good at is counting the zeroes in the bank balance!
100% agree with your comments, there is a giant question mark hanging over tisdales recruitment, has he actually done anything? My assumption was to help Rodgers in recruitment and oversee the development of the youth system, barrowfield is months behind schedule, youth players keep leaving… the transfer window has been a sham, if we didn’t have guarantees Tierney would return in this window we should never have let valle go, if kyogo told Rodgers months ago he wanted to leave we should have had a new striker signed before the window opened!!! And for what? The prawn sandwich brigade to back clap because the turnover has risen????? Shambolic!!!
All that money sitting in a bank account gathering interest on a daily basis , yet our board are seemingly unwilling to spend any of it on vital new squad players! I can’t imagine the situation if there was no money in the Bank and an austerity blanket surrounding the club and spending in general ? The scoreline from the Bayern Munich tie will be an embarrassment …another one in a long list of the same …just you watch !
We all moan about how the board have been playing us for mugs, exploiting our passion and love for the club at the same time as we que for CL tickets and pay in advance for season books!
Nothing will change until we hit them in the only place they understand… I the pocket.
With Zero fan communication they have Zero care about what we think!
It is my hunch that all the players we were supposedly watching and bidding for were figments of Lawwell’s imagination and were spoon fed to the hacks by the same man with no intention of bringing them in.
He keeps telling us he’s just a figurehead and has no input in the day to day running of the club, or should that be ruining.
BR will be gone in 18 months, who’d blame him? Lawwell will be happy to get another yesman in like Lennon who’ll do what he’s told and told what to say.
Best fans in the world? Certainly the most gullible!!!!!
Alex, that certain ex-CEO was picture London bound with Brendan yesterday to tie up the deal with the 32 year old Crystal Palace stalwart,Sloop-JohnB.
The Chairman that the Board’s apologists leap to defend as not being responsible for the day to day running of Celtic. If so, why the need for PL on the trip, surely there was someone else available to pour the coffee and serve the biscuits.
PL doesn’t need to be hands on as the Club, over the last 20 years, has been reshaped in his own likeness. His DNA is all over the Club. It permeates every strata of the Organisation. Meritocracy has been replaced with mediocrity. Where Nepotism and Cronyism are the order of the day and loyalty is not to the Club, but to the Leader from whom all bounty flows. His way or the byways.
As long as he’s there don’t expect things to change in any meaningful fashion because there is that peculiarly Glaswegian business model to sustain.
Here’s an idea, let’s spunk all the money in a January window on over-inflated January prices – on players we can get for a lot less in the Summer!? Then those players don’t live up to the price tag (obviously), and then we can start another merry go round of bash the board for wasting the money? Sound good? Vote with your feet and your cash, go protest outside the stadium on match day, at the very least step away from your keyboards and stick to your virtues at some point. Sick of reading this p*sh here.
You spout some crap. Best board / owner in our history yet you want to force them out . Brain dead comes to mind