(Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
By the time the 5th of January came around, and Wilfried Nancy was sacked as Celtic manager, most people imagined Celtic were dead and buried in this title race.
But somehow, despite all of those losses during the Nancy interregnum, we were somehow just about still in touch.
Ironically, as the team now best placed to take pole position in the Scottish Premiership, we are the side who has lost the most fixtures.
What has hurt our main contenders is the amount of draws they’ve had, especially the Ibrox side.
Our powers of recovery under Martin O’Neill have been nothing short of miraculous.
Which was epitomised in last Sunday’s epic win at Rugby Park.
For our rivals, who are smarting from that victory, and the supposed “time until Celtic scores added on” phenomenon, the signs are now getting ominous.
Sebastian Tounekti is hitting top from, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may just be the find of the season when it comes that extra bit of mettle we needed in midfield.
His impact for Celtic last Sunday and against Livingston was instantaneous.
Then we’ve seen the rise of Julian Araujo since his arrival, and his almost instant reaction to Martin O’Neill’s managerial skills.
He has definitely turned out to be a great find, and he is eager to stay at the club.
After Sunday, you can understand why.
I think both Hearts and the Ibrox side really believed that we were down and out in this title race a few weeks ago.
But as I’ve discussed a few times recently, the Ibrox side definitely stands to lose the most if they cannot win this title.
Simply because they’ve ploughed £43 million into that particular endeavour.
Hearts – on the other hand – have started to suffer from vertigo as a result of hitting the dizzying heights of the top of the table.
That’s what happens when being in that position is completely new to you.
Celtic are the team with the most experience when it comes to this.

We know what it takes.
If we do manage to pull it off, there is going to be a meltdown of epic proportions over at Ibrox.
Think about it.
They’ve ploughed £43 million into this, we’re in disarray as a club, with our board acting against us in every way they can.
Yet Sunday showed that if we do this, it will be the unity between the team and the fans that will drive it on.
The emotional investment in this team is off the scale, and that was there for all to see last Sunday.
That kind of synergy is hard to come by.
They certainly don’t have it at Ibrox.
Although they’d like you to think they have with their best supported team in the UK patter of late.
The minute the shit hits the fan over there, they’ll turn on their team like rabid dogs.

That’s the difference between us and them.
We’ll get right behind ours till the bitter end.
They’ll put theirs under so much pressure that the players wilt and become bags of nerves, just like they did at Fir Park this day a week ago.
It also seems that today there is progress in the talks between the club and the Green Brigade, according to Martin O’Neill, who has once again called for unity at the club.
Even he recognised the contribution the fans made to Sunday’s epic 3-2 win with these comments:
But as I’ve been saying, the sooner there is unity at Celtic Park, the better for all concerned. I have no doubt that the crowd behind the goal on Sunday contributed greatly to us fighting back. No question.
A full house here is something special. Every European night that I’ve had in the past was just full of special moments.
Major sides were very, very concerned about coming here. The passion, the drive and the noise that’s made.
I remember the game against Liverpool in our UEFA run and John Robertson, my old friend, was standing beside me speaking to me.
I couldn’t hear a word he was saying for the first 10 or 15 minutes, it was so, so loud. Little bits have been lost from that. That’s regrettable.
And it is regrettable.
The board should regret their actions and how much they’ve set the club back this season.
At this point, and especially after Sunday, even they can’t be so stupid as to not recognise what the fans in full voice mean to Celtic?
We need the Green Brigade for this run in.
And we need full houses to drive Martin and his boys on.
Because believe me, there is a meltdown of epic proportions incoming at Ibrox if we pull this off.
Which would be so sweet to savour.
I know we’ve talked about the fact that our ambition should be a hell of a lot more than to just stay one step ahead of them.
But to fall behind them would be unforgiveable.
So that’s why winning this title will be all the sweeter.
Then, and only then, can Celtic begin the road to recovery after all the damage this board has inflicted on it.
That’s the starting point.
Along with the majority of them calling it a day.
The least they can do is give us the best fighting chance we can get in this title fight.
If they do that much, they might get a modicum of respect in return.
That’s the most they deserve…
Key Takeaways
- Celtic’s title hopes remained alive despite setbacks, with miraculous recovery under Martin O’Neill.
- The team’s key players, like Sebastian Tounekti and Julian Araujo, have made significant impacts recently.
- Celtic’s experience in high-pressure situations may give them an edge over rivals, particularly the Ibrox side.
- Unity between the fans and the team has been crucial, contrasting sharply with rival fan behaviours.
- Winning the title is essential for Celtic to begin healing from recent challenges and board issues.
There ain’t no way the huns have spent £43 million assembling that team.
Still not had a look at Celtic’s outrageously high Operating Expenses yet, Eric?p, despite the fact the answers to all your questions a bit why the club is a mess are in there?
If I give you a little taster as a head start will you, as the supposed ‘journalist’ here, follow the inquiries up?
Ok, let’s give it a go …
Celtic Operating Expenses
2019-20 = £41 Million
2020-21 = £45.8 Million
2021-22 = £74.4 Million
2022-23 = £91.7 Million
2023-24 = £113.4 Million
2024-25 = £117.1 Million
OE Total = £483 Million, 400,000
That’s £484 Million, or nearly Half A Billion Quid (UK Billion) of the Celtic supports’ money gone in the past 7 years!
And the biggest problem is that all of it completely unitemised in the accounts, so no one knows where it has gone nor will ever know where it has gone, since the Celtic accounts will never be open to public scrutiny.
So all we can do is speculate as to where this Half A Billion Pounds Sterling of the Celtic support’s money might have gone and then we can examine the accounts all the way back to when Dermot Desmond took over and again, by simply adding up the bottom line in the Operating Expenses, we’ll notice that there’s well over another One and A Half Billion Pounds (UK Billion), gone from the club, yet no one has ever lost their job over these outrageously high running costs, nor does anyone seem interested or concerned in any way in either stopping these ever spiralling costs nor even questioning them, Celtic bloggers included.
So, Eric, in your professional opinion, what do you think the board have done with the nearly Two Billion Pounds of the Celtic support’s money lost over the oat 20 years and why do you think they don’t need to tell us what they’ve done with it?
For comparison, Hearts’ TOTAL TURNOVER for 2024-25 was only £24.4 Million.
That’s every penny on and out of the club and they lost 400 grand due to their investment in the playing squad.
Yet Celtic have a record turnover of £140 Million and no one even thinks to ask how it can cost £117 Million of that on running a parochial West of Scotland fitba club who don’t have a manager, the stadium’s falling apart and there’s still no hot water in the toilets?
Do you think Eric, as Peter shrugged last year, that the Celtic fans are ‘getting what they pay for’?
Or do you think these parasites have been robbing the club blind since the day and hour they arrived in the door?
Indeed can anyone, financier, accountant, or any other professional number cruncher here explain why Celtic’s Operating Expenses have TREBLED in a mere 6 or 7 years when the product on the park has been whittled down to practically nothing?
When we’re relying on desperate last minute goals to Bea the three worst teams in the league?
Half a Billion Pounds is an awful lot of money to have been mislaid, is it not, and Two Billion Pounds is just sheer carelessness …
So where could all that money have gone and why don’t they have to explain themselves?
Btw, Eric, it took me a mere 5 minutes or less to find all those OE figures in the Celtic accounts and less than half an hour to total them all up (over 20 years worth) so claiming you ‘don’t have time’ to do it yourself is as lame as Lawwell & Nicholson blaming FSR and European tax laws for them not buying any players last summer.
That is, it just won’t wash.
You should give it a go.
I’m pretty certain that if it’s readers you’re after your page will be swamped if you’ve the balls to take a dive into the books and show the support how much these parasites have taken from the club in 20 odd years wholly unchallenged.
For those are EPL levels of running costs, as Hearts’ total turnover of a puny £24 Million proves to us.
So where has all the money gone?
Eric , love your blog and input . Could we Celtic fans not not club together to have these figures investigated , forensically?
Fergus isle , thankyou .
Thanks, Martin.
Shame that Eric’s not interested as one would normally think that the unearthing of a conspiracy involving the Celtic PLC making Two Billion Pounds of the Celtic support’s money disappear would be front page news.
Yet even that great seeker of truth and integrity, Phil himself, could not be less interested in breaking this story.
Which makes me wonder why not one Celtic blogger will go public and expose this craven conspiracy of theft from our club for what it is, a bloody criminal racket.
Anyone any ideas?
Eric ..?
You’ve been asking the question of what’s going on for months and now I’ve provided you with the answer you just ignore it, as though it’s not there in black & white in the Celtic accounts for anyone to check at their leisure?
Remember, It’s no longer a theory when there’s a proven conspiracy.
And conspiracies don’t come much bigger than this.
So I can safely leave this in your hands now, Eric, as you did say a few weeks back that you’re a determined researcher once you set your mind to it?
Now it’s time to prove your boast to us all.
HH