As the Celtic board becomes utterly detached from reality, they should choose their battles wisely from here on out…
Eric Knott 
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
When most dictatorial regimes are close to the end of their reigns, the leaders involved become totally detached from reality.
Not only do they become detached from reality, they become totally paranoid, lashing out at everyone around them, fully in the belief everyone is out to get them.
Deep down, they know their time is coming to an end, but they just cannot let go of the power they hold.
It is like a drug to them.
But its not just the power, its the wealth and the luxuries power affords them that they are loathe to let go of.
Peter Lawwell ruled Celtic with an iron hand from 2003 to 2021.
If we had not experienced a collapse as monumental as we did in 2021, and we secured 10IAR, there is zero doubt in my mind that he would still be CEO at Celtic today.
Peter Lawwell does not strike me as the kind of person who would have rode off into the sunset, accepting the 10IAR as his ultimate legacy, and retiring safe in the knowledge he oversaw Celtic’s greatest ever domestic achievement.
No, he would want to stay around to continue to lap up the plaudits for that achievement.
Why wouldn’t he?
If Celtic had won 10IAR, nobody would ever have questioned his judgement again.
We all know that.
That achievement would have most likely bestowed upon him the position of honorary CEO for life.
And who would have begrudged him that?
Would any of us?
10IAR would have gifted Peter Lawwell an immortality he might have seen as similar to that of Billy McNeill.
Make no mistake, he craved that.
He still craves it.
But he and his board are fast starting to lose sight of what really matters at Celtic Football Club.
They are starting to put their own self interests before the best interests of the football club.
These are the results of egotism, nepotism and a hubris that now threatens to consume itself.
The Celtic board does not care about the collateral damage their actions cause.
And that collateral damage impacts us, the fanbase.
They firmly believe that they are all powerful now.
That it is they (not Celtic, not the footballing operation, and certainly not the fanbase) that matter most now.
The infamous interview after the Dubai debacle in 2021 presented Peter Lawwell as a character similar to that of the Wizard of Oz.
Behind the green curtain, there was just a frail old man.
Tired out from it all and quite ready to call it a day.
Back then, after what unfolded during that shitshow of a season, Lawwell knew his position as CEO was untenable.
There really was no recovery from such a shambles.
So he gave us all the pretence that he was doing the honourable thing.
That he was handing the reins over to a young, progressive and forward thinking mind.
Dom McKay was, in reality, just a patsy.
A front for what was really going to happen, he was doomed from the first day he put his foot inside the door of Celtic Park.
His ethos and progressive views immediately clashed with 18+ years of culture deeply embedded within the remaining Celtic hierarchy.
His legacy has long since been sold for vast profits in the ensuing 4 year period.
I have no doubt that during his short stay at Celtic Park he heard the line, “Well, Peter wouldn’t have done it that way” many times.
In fact, I’d wager he also heard the line, “Peter isn’t happy with that.”
Peter Lawwell might have left the building, but he certainly didn’t leave the organisation.
For posterity, and considering it was during the back end of the Covid 19 pandemic, let’s just say he was “working from home”.
Its my firm belief that this was a big part of the reason for Dom McKay’s departure after just 72 days in his position.
It is no coincidence that slowly but surely, Celtic in the almost four years since McKay’s departure has morphed back into exactly what it was before Dom McKay’s appointment.
And that somewhere in the middle of all that, Peter Lawwell skulked back into the building, not unnoticed, but with little fanfare.
Not long after that, Ange Postecoglou left the building.
I think its fair to say he got a whiff of what was coming down the tracks.
In the end, despite what happened to him at Tottenham, it was a wise move.
We were told don’t worry about Peter Lawwell’s return.
He’s just the tea and biscuits guy.
He’s only on a small salary.
£40k or so.
He has nothing to do with the day to day dealings of the club.
That’s all Michael Nicholson.
Yet here we are just two and a half years later, Peter Lawwell’s salary has trebled, and the club is a mirror image of what it was in the summer of 2018.
A MIRROR IMAGE.
When the power struggle between Lawwell and Brendan Rodgers was there for all to see.
The summer of 2018 sowed the seeds for the collapse of 2021.
Everything that happened thereafter spiraled uncontrollably towards that.
But when I said earlier on that Peter Lawwell would have become immortal if we had achieved 10IAR, I forgot to mention one thing.
Ironically, Peter Lawwell denied himself his immortality by shafting Brendan Rodgers the way he did in the summer of 2018 and in the following 6 months.
Because if he had worked with him and given Rodgers what he wanted that summer, there is no doubt the Irishman would have landed 10IAR for Celtic.
No doubt.
When the Celtic fans displayed a banner at Tynecastle aimed at Rodgers after his departure stating, “You traded immortality for mediocrity“, that was just as applicable to Peter Lawwell as it was to him.
In fact, more so to Lawwell.
Because hindsight, and current circumstances now tell us why Rodgers was forced to do what he did in February 2019.
People may have been mad with Rodgers when he left the way he did in 2019, but today, everybody is beginning to understand exactly why he did.
Unfortunately for him, Brendan Rodgers’ commitment to us the fans, will now tie him to Celtic until the end of the season at the very least.
He will not extend his time at Celtic Park beyond that, and who would blame him?
The current board, led by Peter Lawwell (we know it is), is not working with Brendan Rodgers.
They’re working against him.
So why would he want to hang around to be dominated by a board which has zero ambition for Celtic in comparison to him?
In the title to this article, I stated the board should choose their battles wisely from here on out.
I also stated that they are becoming utterly detached from reality.
Their current behaviour is mirroring that of a regime that is on it’s last legs.
They are circling the wagons.
They have stealthily, or at least they think they’re doing it stealthily, picked a battle with the manager.
This is one they think they can win easily.
They imagine this because they think the fans will turn easily on the manager if things start to go pear shaped.
That would be a serious error of judgement.
Celtic fans are wise to their behaviour.
They know by not supporting the manager in the transfer market, they are attempting to set him up for a fall.
But make no mistake, we all know they will be the architects of that fall.
Not Brendan Rodgers.
If his team gets riddled with injuries and he does not have the back up players he requires available to him, that will be entirely on those who failed to supply him with them.
Granted, there is still time to rectify all of this.
But listening to Brendan Rodgers in yesterday’s press conference, he really didn’t sound overtly enthusiastic about it.
The line where he said, ‘It’s my responsibility to convince the club we really need them (incoming transfers), clearly I’m not doing that as well as maybe what I can, but I will continue to pursue that because its really important for us”, was a major concern for me.
It rang so many alarm bells in my head.
Brendan Rodgers should not have to convince a board that has stripped his squad of some of his best players that he needs replacements for them.
That is patently absurd.
And he knows that, that’s why he vocalised that way.
This is why this is a battle the board cannot win.
Their behaviour is bordering on farcical.
That it forces the manager to come out with statements like that one is proof positive of that.
What kind of organisation behaves like that?
What kind of organisation reduces an elite level manager, who has landed the amount of silverware Brendan Rodgers has, to begging for players to replace those they took from him?
How can they even imagine that they look good in all of this?
I repeat, this is a battle they cannot win.
Another battle they cannot win is a battle with the fans.
We ARE Celtic.
We finance Celtic, and they are as wealthy as they are because of our support.
And it appears they feel the need to start a battle with the fans.
In addition to their current behaviour, going down this path is utter folly.
It is the behaviour of a regime that feels the walls closing in on it.
James’s article yesterday over on The Celtic Blog, highlights their needless 3 match suspended ban of the Green Brigade for their ‘support of Palestine’.
The optics of this are brutal.
What in God’s name do they think they’re going to achieve by doing this?
They’re already pissing the fans off to levels unheard of prior to now, and then this?
I really am gob smacked at how detached they’ve become from reality.
And I firmly believe all of this is being engineered from the top by one individual.
How could it not be?
The behaviours are identical to those of the past, especially those of 2018.
If Peter Lawwell wants to convince us he has nothing to do with any of this, then retire, leave Celtic, and I mean leave when I say leave.
Then, and only then, will we be convinced that he has no hand, act, nor part in any of this.
But he won’t do that, will he?
No, instead he’ll steadily manage the decline of our great club.
He’ll adopt the kind of scorched earth policy a failing regime would.
If he and his cronies think that we will just stand idly by and let that happen, then I would suggest they think again.
The Celtic fanbase is a mighty thing.
One of the greatest in the world.
You turn it against you at your peril.
Choose your battles wisely…..
The board will have problems this season if the don’t back Brendan. The fans are fed up with the board lining their pockets with big bonuses, they are not interested in the fan’s one bit. They seem to forget that they are nothing without us. I know of many fan’s that are waiting to see what happens this window then there maybe lots of protests against the board which is totally deserved for the way they promise the managers and the fans
We all know how this ends. There is clear strife at the club and the manager is on his way.
Also, very pertinently, there’s the perception ( or reality? ) that the Celtic owner and board are old stick in the mud dinosaurs who are reminiscent of the 1970’s Football Board of Directors types. No matter the remainder time of the elite manager they currently have in situ, who must be regretting his naïveté at believing he would be supported by the Dinosaurs, and that the chief dinosaur was not ruling the roost! The next manager will come from a board favoured Yes man or a small scale young potential who, if they have any brains at all, will know, same as Ange, best get in do what you can asap and get out before they cripple your credibility and professional reputation.
Under The Kellys and Whites, under Desmond and Lawwell, Celtic is small time small town hicks and the biscuit tin is alive and well! Twas ever thus!! 👍😁☘️
You can see Brendan is being very very tactful with his words.This board led by Lawell won’t go without a fight . It’s not going to end well cause We’ve been at this movie before . The fans just want some ambition . It’s the fans money for god sake . It’s not as if we are going into debt to buy a player
I left a comment on this blog a week or so ago that if the board didn’t back BR there would be no degree of ambiguity whatsoever where the blame would lie.
The thing I can’t get my head round is why did DD push for BR to come back only to allow Lawell to behave like a twat.
There is still time for this to be sensibly resolved and for BR to sign a new contract.
Would be great for the fans to show their support by boycotting the merchandise and over priced food on match days until the transfer window is closed and we assess what the board have spent.
Well
You would think that the board would be reluctant when Brendan pushed for a fortune for the donkey Idah……
Without Adam Idah in the 2023/24 season, its unlikely we would have won the League or the cup. His goals, in the end, were the difference in both competitions. As a result we qualified for the Champions League, thus securing £40 million. Michael Nicholson’s botched transfer dealings in the attempts to secure his signing resulted in the over inflated price. Norwich stated their price was £6 million, we lowballed them with a derisory £3.5 million offer to begin with. We fucked around thereafter until Norwich knew they could name their price. That is neither Brendan Rogers nor Adam Idah’s fault. That’s on the Celtic board. That donkey, by the way, has delivered 29 goals in 18 months with the club. Hardly the form of a donkey?
Maybe all potential signings don’t want to play for our beloved club,maybe there has been a lot of negotiations we don’t know about…
Many EPL clubs has had problems to “update” their squad
Not easy to get players to SPL…
Quite agree Eric. It was the Board in their botched negotiations for both Idah and Engels that cost the club and their transfer fees being what they were, not Brendan. The Board, and particularly Nicholson, need to show themselves more to fans and not be seen as mere sycophants to the main shareholder and family. As ceo, and in that position, Nicholson has to give himself more of a personality and front for the club in this media driven world. There needs to be better, positive interaction with the fans. They are the revenue base for the club.
Totally agree stevie stay out of the shop stop spending because its money they want more than trophy can’t fathom why they would risk champions league money but they did it before.
Lawell and his sycophantic brown nosers on the board need to go. DD needs to be more active and instigate bringing new blood into this anaemic board of number crunchers and lawyers. He also needs to bring more financial muscle in, particulatly if he remains reluctant to put in more capital of his own, or direct the freeing up of more of what we have, for recruitment and transfer purposes. Don’t risk the wrath of the fan base again. It will be unstoppable and implacable the next time.
The wee provincial club from across the city, must be laughing their socks off. For thanks to the puppet master sitting atop the Celtic board, they can see the internal implosion already happening at CP. They scooped up a Covid title due to the machinations of Pistol Pete, and who’s to say we’re not watching a repeat performance. I’m sure its not struck the blazers as yet, that we as fans would prefer to watch quality on the field, and would baulk at viewing Mr Scrooge bent over a spreadsheet with a candle flickering away in the background. Self-inflicted pain seems to be the order of the day, from clueless blazers who should leave en masse, and follow their pied piper like the nodding dogs they are.
The Rangers are coming.
4th place already, well ahead of moribund, going backwards Celtic.
Frank Da Raff apart from buying his shares DD has never put a penny of his own money into Celtic, this club is where we are because of us the supporters and anyone who says any different is lying to themselves or totally deluded. The board doesn’t win trophies the players and the manager and his staff do that, we supply the money plus we’re a football club first and foremost and a business is a secondary consequence of that. The board are there to acquiesce to what the manager wants for the team irrespective if they rate the player or not, the manager wants him providing the finance as long as it’s within the framework of the clubs finances, for them to hoard money and hamstring the manager is criminal. BR isn’t asking for fortunes to be spent but buying projects and bargain basement players isn’t an ideal model for any club, of course there’s a place for it and it’s worked well over the years but these projects need experienced and accomplished players to bring the best out of them. How can a board justify paying more in corporation tax than they spend on the playing side, Celtic we’re constantly told spent £26 million on 3 players last year but we didn’t because Matt O’Riley’s transfer fee paid for that, we actually had a £9 million nett profit after buying those 3 players so in essence we still made a profit despite spending a large sum which if Nicholson hadn’t lowballwed Norwich and Augsburg we could’ve shaved about £6 million off that figure. So who’s at fault it’s not the manager or the players they didn’t set the price that was set by the selling club till the CEO tried to fuck these clubs over with derisory offers and ending up getting his collar felt by forking out extra for his insulting behaviour. All three players Engels, Trusty and Idah contributed to the double because we wouldn’t have won those trophies without them and but for a penalty shootout we could’ve had another treble. This board are shysters and conmen as they’re certainly not football men. If BR went in to Nicholson’s office and started telling him how to do his job he’d hunt him and rightly so, so how can they hamstring a manager who’s won so much and tell himwhere he’s going wrong, it’s ridiculous, even Stevie Wonder could see that, don’t tell the person who’s the manager how to scout the players the same way Brendan wouldn’t pretend he knew how the CEO’s job should go. This board are living on borrowed time and when our support blows they won’t know what’s hit them, if Desmond doesn’t want the club to be all it can be he should sell his shares.
Yeah Ingo, such a pariah of a club, who in their right mind would come to Celtic. Read that and reflect on your rediculous deflection, utter poopycock.
As for the fans doing anything, that ain’t gonna happen, and the board know this. Gave up my season book in protest and have never regretted taking a principled stand, but it did make me acutely aware that the Celtic fans will do nothing. Happy to slag the Huns for letting their club die, while doing bugger all in relation to their own club.
The protests will be left to people like the Green Brigade, who will then be castigated by the media, with half our fans piling on, in the criticism.
But in the end they will do nothing, and our board are acutely aware of this.
If we don’t buy decent players I will be stopping my automatic LC SC European tickets I will also stop my Celtic pools ticket which I have had for 50 years and stop paying for a £2 ticket to pay for youth development and won’t be buy any presents from the shop for my relatives or friends as this is the only way I can choose to hit back at them Celtdavy59
Brilliant article,thanks.
You’ve wrote what we are all thinking and I’m sick of this board of penny pinchers and their horrible attitude toward our manager and the fans who pay their wages.
Get them out and get people who care about Celtic fans in.
I won’t be spending a single penny on merch or food this year after their appalling behavior.
Let’s give the board a suspended ban and not the Bhoys of the Green Brigade