What does the Ibrox takeover mean for Celtic? In reality, it should mean nothing at all

At the moment, all the talk in the Scottish sports media is focused on the super duper Ibrox takeover by 49er Enterprises.

Keith Jackson is beside himself, with excitement levels akin to that of the Bellshill billionaire’s takeover back in 2011.

But what does it really mean to Celtic?

Ibrox fans are under the impression that we’re terrified of this takeover.

That we’re having sleepless nights at the thoughts of them ‘coming’ again.

Well, I’m a Celtic fan, albeit a Celtic blogger too, and personally, I welcome it.

It doesn’t frighten me in the slightest.

As many of my readers will know, I’m one of our board’s harshest critics.

Put simply, I believe our club can do a hell of a lot better than it’s doing.

Some people find that hard to grasp.

And yes, it’s a story for another day, it’s not my focus in this article.

But the behavioural attitudes of our board are key to what I’m going to discuss in this article.

For a long time now, my podcast colleagues, Joe McHugh, James Forrest and I, have discussed the modus operandi of our board.

We’ve discussed the things that they could do better, and there are many, but we’ve also discussed one main behavioural attitude in detail.

The one where their only ambition, up until recently anyway, is to keep the Ibrox club at arm’s length.

Or to remain just one or two steps ahead of them.

Now, this hasn’t been a hard task by any stretch of the imagination.

In fact, the board has had to put very little Imagination into it at all.

The Ibrox club has made it easy for them due to their self-harming nature.

Our board relies on the fact that we can sell 10,000 more seats than them every season, and we have a far superior shirt deal with Adidas than they have with Castore.

In fact, we have some of the best merchandising sales in Europe, so this is a key factor in our ability to stay ahead of them.

However, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to generate revenue out of these two income streams.

If and when the takeover happens at Ibrox, then our board is going to have to start using that imagination, which has been quite dormant, to start thinking about how they ensure we stay ahead of our closest rivals.

Because if 49ers Enterprises are serious about turning that club into a force in Scottish football, then the old reliables that keep us one or two steps ahead of them might not be enough anymore.

This is why I believe this is a good thing for our club.

It might just be the thing that stirs our board into action.

It might just be the thing that makes them realise that they will have to spend more than they currently do to stay well ahead of the Ibrox club.

Now, we all know that our board has always wanted a healthy Ibrox club, and a healthy challenge from them.

It looks like their wish might be about to come true.

How they react to this will show us what they’re really made of.

There is no doubting we have a distinct advantage over them.

We have an excellent squad, which is starting to fire on all cylinders.

Most notably, we are currently generating the highest turn over we’ve ever generated.

We have the ability to make money at a much higher level than they do.

You would assume if 49ers Enterprises take over that they will ditch the Castore jersey deal and go for one of the tried and trusted American sportswear brands, like Nike or New Balance.

They will know this is one area where they can generate serious revenue.

But the reality is, success is not going to come over night.

And these guys don’t strike you as the kind of people whose expectations are like that.

They will play the long game, something that the klanbase isn’t going to like.

They seem to think this is going to be their Fergus McCann moment.

But they neglect to accept the amount of time it will take to turn things around.

I wrote an article about that last week, highlighting the timelines and how long it took us to get where we are now.

49ers Enterprises will implement the long game.

Just look at Leeds United.

Their investment there has not been off the scale.

If anything, it’s the opposite.

It’s slow and steady, with talk of stadium expansion in the pipeline.

At Ibrox, that kind of investment will be off the scale in terms of cost due to the age of the stadium.

So again, if that’s in their plans, it will be part of the long game.

As for Celtic, I imagine the board will do one of two things.

They will observe closely what’s going on and base their strategy on what they observe.

Or they will make the decision to pull away while they can.

They would be fools not to invest in going deeper into Europe next season, especially knowing the kind of revenue streams it generates after this season’s campaign.

That investment alone would keep them well ahead of the Ibrox side, regardless of the level of investment that happens over there in the short term.

As we’re acutely aware, winning a treble in Scotland only generates prize money of about £3.5 million.

It doesn’t exactly amount to a lot, does it?

However, in order to gain access to the Champions League, then it is imperative we win our league.

So, while the strategy of staying ahead of the Ibrox side to achieve that goal is a sound one, to jeopardise it in any way would be unacceptable.

The only way we jeopardise it is through complacency.

We got a stark reminder of the results of complacency in the 2020/21 campaign.

A lot of the current heads in our board room should have rolled then.

The fact that one fell on his sword in an act of faux self sacrifice, and was back in the building just over a year later, tells us all we need to know about the attitudes in our boardroom.

They now have the chance to show us how they can react to the Ibrox takeover, should it happen.

As I stated in the headline, for Celtic, this takeover should mean nothing at all.

Our strategy should be geared towards Europe.

Ensuring focus in this area, will keep us ahead of the Ibrox side regardless of what they do.

But since our board’s strategy in the past has been to just keep them at arms length, then one would assume that is part of their thought process.

It shouldn’t be.

Europe, and progress there should be our main goal.

Having a squad that is strong enough to contend in Europe will ensure we continue to dominate domestically.

The two go hand in hand.

This is why the summer window, and the “lessons learned” from the January transfer window debacle, should be used to augment and strengthen our squad to a level that is untouchable.

Start by making Jeffrey Schlupp’s move a permanent one.

Then the left back position will be fully secure for the 2025/26 season, with Schlupp and Kieran Tierney the excellent options available there.

Follow that up with another striker, another winger and possibly a central midfielder, and then we’ll be very well set up for the next campaign.

The Ibrox takeover, in reality, should influence very little of what we do.

What we do in Europe should be our entire focus.

As I said, I welcome the takeover.

Because it should only serve to make us stronger.

Rest assured, it certainly doesn’t terrify us.

The only thing we ever need fear is the complacency of our board.

Because that’s the only thing that has ever undone us.

We’ll be live again at 18.30 for this evening’s Trinty Tims podcast, so be sure to tune in and get your comments in, see you all then!