The Celtic board wants you to get ready for downsizing. They will try to weaponise the withdrawal of monetary support to justify this…

Late on Friday evening, as we all know, the Celtic board released the club’s annual statement.

Some happy clappers were rejoicing with glee that there wasn’t £100 million in the club’s coffers, but instead, just a paltry £77.3 million.

This was celebrated as a kick in the teeth to the fans who are now protesting against the board.

In a sort of a “quit your bitching, we don’t have as much money as you think” way.

Apparently, Brendan Rodgers is the problem, and his inability to find players with resale value.

The fact that our manager wants some first team ready players is considered counter productive to the bank balance, and as a result, downsizing is the only path forward.

We have also been told that the record spends in last season’s summer transfer window have had a crippling effect on the bank balance.

You will note that there is no self accountability here.

Nobody on the Celtic board will admit that the snail’s pace that we do business at was one of the root causes for us overpaying for both Adam Idah and Arne Engels.

The only issue is how much they cost, and what effect this had on the bank balance.

I was recently invited to join the Celtic Fans Collective.

All of us who are involved in the fan media side of things were invited to join a group chat.

And as is the case with a very diverse and interesting group, quite a few differing opinions have appeared on the group.

One was the below dissection and analysis of the annual statement, I’d suggest you take the time to read it.

Simply put, it offers the perspective of the board:

Now, it would appear to me that The Gombeen man, whoever he might be, is of a pro-board persuasion.

His analysis of the annual statement has an almost gleeful slant to it.

This forms part of my opinion that we are being groomed for downsizing, and that there is a kind of smug satisfaction because £100 million is not sitting in the club’s bank account.

This feeds into the narrative that we would have used such a bank balance to “attack” Celtic employees, and use them as handy punchbags.

I could fully dissect this commentary, but that would take quite some time.

I don’t think I need to because you can clearly see the angle of approach in it.

After yesterday, I think it is clear to see that nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to change our opinion of the current Celtic board and it’s members.

It is irrelevant if there is £100 million in the club’s account, or £1 million.

The fact that we are as cash rich as we are, and recorded record turnover and record profits, speaks for itself.

No amount of negative spin will change the fact that this annual statement was exceptionally good.

And while The Gombeen man is very quick to paint a negative future picture, he neglects to mention that the people behind all of this are all stuck in a 20 year loop of eat, sleep and repeat.

There are no forward thinkers amongst the board.

None.

There are only followers, and one leader.

And what he says goes.

The gospel according to Peter will always be the way for Celtic as long as Peter is in the building.

This method of operating does nothing but serve to suspend us in stasis.

In fact, if there is any threat to this method, the counter attack is to put the club in reverse.

And that is the managed decline that we have continually discussed since Peter Lawwell re-entered the building and the last man to defy that method left, Ange Postecoglou.

The Celtic board are not forward thinkers.

They cannot think beyond the way they have operated for the past 20 years.

There are no fresh new ideas.

Nor will there be as long as they are in the Celtic boardroom.

This is why we are demanding change at the club.

I’ll put it this way, if they were to resign and hand the club over to a new board of young, fresh, forward thinking individuals, there is no doubting they would be handing it over in rude financial health.

But if that were to happen, we would hope they would be handing the club over to men who could take it to the next level.

The aptly named Gombeen man states that this current movement, now named the Celtic Fans Collective, has been created out of “hysteria” and “un-Celtic like behaviour”.

So therefore, treating your loyal customer base with contempt can only be classed as proper, decent, Celtic like behaviour?

Is that it?

The Celtic board exemplifies top notch Celtic like behaviour, yes?

Integrity, honesty, and respect, with ethos of Celtic at the forefront of everything they do?

The only thing I have seen the Celtic board exemplify over the last few weeks is cowardice.

Cowardice when it came to briefing against Brendan Rodgers in a red top rag the fanbase absolutely despises.

Total cowardice when it comes to addressing the seven questions that were submitted to them on September 3rd.

We still await the answers to those questions, which along with cowardice, displays a complete lack of respect for an extremely loyal fanbase.

Then yesterday, rather than face the protest in the stands at Firhill, the board members (minus Peter Lawwell once again) decided to feign examining important messages on their mobile phones.

Chris McKay and Michael Nicholson were obviously texting each other at the time.

“Don’t look up, whatever you do.”

“I’m not, but how are we going to know when it’s gone?”

“Just listen for the ref’s whistle at kick-off, we should be in the clear then.”

You get the general gist.

Gutless beyond belief.

With each passing day, their credibility continues to wither.

Peter Lawwell is proving his cowardice through an unwillingness to attend any fixture since the last Glasgow Derby.

Nicholson and McKay have taken the inner boardroom mantra of ignore it and it will go away to the outer world of football matches.

Pretending that nothing was going on at Firhill yesterday was pathetic.

If these men had any balls, they would stare their aggressors down, wouldn’t they?

We are, after all, the hysterical ones displaying un-Celtic like behaviour.

Well, according to The Gombeen man, at least.

I said earlier on that The Gombeen man was aptly named, there was a reason for that.

For those of you who don’t know what a Gombeen is, I’ll enlighten you.

In Ireland, a Gombeen man is a shady, small-time “wheeler-dealer” businessman.

He is always looking to make a quick and shady profit.

He generally does this at someone else’s expense.

Or, in the case of politicians, through the acceptance or demanding of bribes.

A man who uses this moniker, ironically thinks its acceptable to call the majority of the Celtic fanbase hysterical, and of course, un-Celtic like.

You can see the irony in all of this, can’t you?

So I’ll finish with this.

The Gombeen man felt it important that he delivered the following two messages:

– Boycotts of the EL and merchandise will lead to downsizing.

– The club faces significant challenges.

Now what kind, or more to the point, who’s kind of language is that?

If I wasn’t wise to the board’s tricks, I might not have recognised that as a thinly veiled threat.

But I did recognise it.

This is somebody speaking in board-speak.

Delivering a message stating that if we don’t continue to spend, spend, spend, they will weaponise that against us.

In the form of downsizing.

The Gombeen man is a part of the Gombeen man mentality that runs our club.

This displays in technicolour why we want this board gone.

It is not “hysteria” or “un-Celtic Like behaviour”, rather the need to get rid of cowardice, nepotism, and narcissism from our beloved institute.

The Gombeen men are showing their true colours.

It’s time for them to go.

#Sack the board

#Renewal is coming