The Americans have taken one look at Celtic Park and said,’We want a piece of that’. Easier said than done…

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, or so they say anyway. At Ibrox, their desperate need to imitate Celtic is not flattering, its just plain boring.

If we thought the Americans were going to bring something new to the table, then we were sorely mistaken.

They’ve taken one look at Celtic Park and said, ‘We want a piece of that’.

Their business template is going to be based on the poster boy of Scottish football.

The reality is, it was ever thus.

Nothing has changed in terms of the way they WANT to operate over there, because they want everything we have.

On the agenda at their EGM yesterday was the expansion of Ibrox.

Since the day Celtic Park’s revamp was completed in August of 1998, they have consistently looked our direction in desperation.

Desperation for a stadium with a similar or bigger capacity.

Hence the reason, almost 27 years later, they’re still asking the same question, when will we get a stadium revamp?

Talk about jumping the gun.

These guys are only in the door, they have apparently ploughed £100 million into the club, and one of the first questions they’re asked is when will the stadium be expanded.

To put that into context, the recent expansion of the Anfield Road stand at Liverpool cost £120 million.

Taking that into account, anybody with half a brain knows that stadium expansion at Ibrox – considering how old and dilapidated the ground is – would be in the hundreds of millions.

It’s a pipe dream, yet they still desperately cling to it.

Nonetheless, its clear the Americans see Celtic as the template for success.

Therefore its understandable why they’d want to emulate what we’ve achieved.

Why wouldn’t they?

But the fixation on being like us, so that they can overtake us, is why they never will be.

Like us, that is.

The whole concept is easier said than done.

It is amusing that as soon as they are in the door, and fully in control, the first soundbites they make about how things are going to progress are eerily similar to the way we as a club operate.

These guys are not stupid.

They look at us and they see a club that is entirely self sustainable.

And they want to be the same.

As they said, ‘they want to sustain winning and to win sustainably’.

Fluffy soundbites, with a hidden sting in the tail.

But the Ibrox fans will lap that up.

The sting in the tail?

Becoming sustainable.

That, as I discussed in yesterday’s article, is something that has not been achieved at Ibrox since the new club came into existence in 2012.

Its a tall order.

But if these guys are determined, they might achieve it.

Although I said yesterday that in order to do that, they would need to take some short-term pain for a long term gain.

In an ideal world, throughout the duration of that short-term pain, Celtic would be pulling further ahead.

I guess that’s dependant on how our board behaves throughout all of this.

So, there is no doubting they see us as the poster boys of Scottish football, and they want to BE us.

By that I mean, at the top of Scottish football, and winning titles season after season.

Easier said than done.

In order to achieve such a level of dominance, they need to sweep us completely aside.

For that to happen, Celtic would need to experience a collapse of monumental proportions.

We all know that this is not going to happen.

Realistically, the best they can hope for at Ibrox is to become reasonably competitive with us, resulting in a share of the spoils.

But with us ultimately remaining dominant.

To be able to dominate in Scotland, which is what they boldly claim as their stated ambition, then they would have to expand Ibrox to a capacity larger than ours, i.e. circa 65k to 70k.

To achieve that at Ibrox, you’re talking about a quarter of a billion – taking into account the age and condition of the stadium – to renovate it to that level.

As we witnessed last year, there are parts of the stadium they do not want to touch due to their age.

So, to commit to such an undertaking would cost huge sums of money.

Once again, I refer to the cost of the Anfield Road stand.

That is one stand, a goal end stand at that, which cost £120 million, and only increased the Anfield capacity to 61,276.

Celtic fans consistently ask why the board keep stockpiling vast amounts of cash at the club?

Many wonder if its for expanding the main stand?

But I think realistically we know that it’s not.

The board knows this kind of undertaking would cost similar to that of the Anfield Road stand.

That would entail spending all of our stockpiled cash, and then probably having to secure finance from a financial institute on top of that.

The idea of that is anathema to the Celtic board.

They are smart enough to know they are a million miles away from stadium expansion at Ibrox.

Despite the kind of soundbites Paraag Marathe made on the subject yesterday.

As a result, our board know they can comfortably continue to operate with a 9k+ seating advantage over Ibrox for the foreseeable future.

Wanting to have a stadium as big as Celtic Park, and actually having one are two completely different things.

But make no mistake, the Americans are looking our direction, and they DO want a piece of what we have.

However, one fundamental difference between us and them is that they are commencing their reign from a standing start.

By that I mean they want to make a club that has been utterly unsustainable for 13 years, sustainable.

That will take time, and a whole lot of cost cutting.

Cost cutting that will become more and more evident the deeper into their tenure we get.

They have stated openly that they are not going to throw money at problems to fix them.

The last few regimes did that, and it achieved nothing.

It didn’t fix the problems, it just kept the wolf from the door.

It was wholly unsustainable.

The Americans want to stop the rot.

They want a player trading model like Celtic’s.

They want a stadium as big or bigger than Celtic’s.

And they want to be as dominantly self-sustainable as Celtic are.

In effect, they want to be us.

But to be us took 30+ years.

They stated yesterday that they don’t have an exit plan, they have a growth plan.

Based on that statement, in order to achieve growth, they will need to be in this for the long haul.

How long that haul turns out to be depends on how their relationship with a fanbase that expects to dominate Celtic yesterday, develops.

Because patience and time they will not be afforded.

I would say I admire their bravado, but I can’t.

For obvious reasons.

In my view, they have taken on an impossible task.

To be like Celtic is impossible for the reasons outlined in this article.

And to satisfy a delusional fanbase that believes they should be dominating Scottish football – with zero plausible grounds for that belief – is also impossible.

The new Ibrox owners may want a piece of what we have, but they are a million miles away from that at this moment in time.

Both structurally and financially.

Yesterday they made all the right soundbites for a gullible Ibrox fanbase.

Talking about stadium expansion has soothed the hoards for now.

But as we said on the podcast last night, they have no idea of what they’ve take on here.

They’re about to find out though.

I, for one, can’t wait for the fun and games of season 2025/26.

Bring it on, I say.

https://thecelticblog.com/2025/06/podcast/the-trinity-tims-episode-31-the-things-we-need-to-focus-on/

Above is a link to last night’s Trinity Tims podcast. In it you’ll find much of the points discussed in this article.