The fact that the Celtic board even considered offering Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham ‘take it or leave it’ deals reeks of total disrespect in light of their achievements…
The behaviour from the board towards Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham is astounding, but then again, this is the Celtic board we're talking about.
Eric Knott 
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 10: Celtic Manager Martin O'Neill alongside Mark Fotheringham and Shaun Maloney during a Celtic training session at the Lennoxtown Training Centre, on April 10, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
A “take it or leave it” offer.
To Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham.
The same Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham who, six months ago, were part of the backroom set-up that hauled this club out of a smouldering pile of rubble alongside St. Martin himself and delivered a Double.
A Double.
Both domestic trophies, on the bounce, in a season that had every right to end with us in third place behind the Ibrox side and Hearts.
And Silent Mike and the absent golfing meddler think the appropriate response to that, when it comes to handing them new deals, is a “take it or leave it”??
Are they for real??
Are they actually for real???
Let me get this straight.
Michael Gannon in the Daily Record dropped this little tit-bit in his piece yesterday, and it has been stuck in my head ever since:
“There was no mention of O’Neill’s backroom staff in the announcement amid talk of a breakdown in negotiations between the club and Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham.”
A breakdown in negotiations.
Read that again.
A. Breakdown. In. Negotiations.
With the two men Martin O’Neill himself credited, in public, as being absolutely central to the salvage job from January onwards.
Make no mistake, these two should have been in a position to walk into Celtic Park and name their price.
Walk out with a fountain pen tucked behind their ear.
Do you think for one second that is what happened??
Instead, they’ve been served the sort of deal you get when the wee man at the Asda checkout finds a dented tin in the bottom of the trolley and asks if you still want it.
A “take it or leave it”.
For the men who helped deliver our 56th title and the cup??
Are we f*****g serious??
Apparently so.
Let’s be honest here, this is exactly what we should have come to expect from this board.
Because over and over and over again, the response of Silent Mike and the puppet master golfer in Barbados to genuine achievement has been to insult it.
It was the same with Brendan Rodgers.
Brendan Rodgers delivered a Treble, a Double, then walked because he was being asked to win Champions League qualifiers on Asda money.
It was the same with Ange Postecoglou.
Ange Postecoglou turned us round, won everything in sight, and was waved off without so much as a Waitrose-budget transfer kitty in the Champions League market.
And now it’s the same with the two men who stood beside St. Martin in the dugout while the team clawed its way to a Double after the Brendan Rodgers shambles.
Convenient, isn’t it??
That the board only ever gets out the chequebook when they’re cleaning up a mess they themselves have caused.
But when the time comes to reward the people who actually did the cleaning up?
Suddenly the cupboard is bare.
The Casio calculator from 2000 comes out of the drawer.
Suddenly Silent Mike is “in negotiations”.
“Gie us yer money, an’ we’ll pay yer staff the bare minimum, wull ya?”
That has been the mantra at this club since the puppet master golfer started phoning the shots from his villa in Barbados.
Make the punters pay top dollar for their season books.
Pay the staff who actually deliver the trophies as little as we can possibly get away with.
And if they don’t like it, well, they can leave.
Because we are Celtic.
And they are lucky we even let them through the front door.
That, in a nutshell, is the boardroom mindset at our club.
It’s the mindset that lost us Brendan, and it’s the very same mindset that lost us Ange.
It’s the mindset that now risks losing us the two men Martin O’Neill specifically wants by his side as he tries to rebuild this squad in about six weeks.
Six weeks!!
If Maloney and Fotheringham walk over this, the only people to blame will be the men sitting in the boardroom.
Not Maloney.
Not Fotheringham.
The board.
The f*****g board.
Indeed.
The bottom line is, you cannot keep treating the people who win you trophies as if they’re an inconvenience.
You just can’t, not in 2026.
Not when the Ibrox side, for all their faults, are walking around handing out three-year deals like party bags at a school fete.
Not when “Cavenagh and the 49ers boys” – the molecular level chairman and the rest of them – are quite happily binning who they want, paying off who they want, and signing who they want.
That is what serious club ownership looks like.
It looks ruthless when it needs to be ruthless.
And it looks generous when it needs to be generous.
It does not look like a “take it or leave it” to the two men who saved your bacon five months ago.
Because make no mistake, if Maloney and Fotheringham had not done what they did, January through May, then Martin O’Neill is not the manager today.
The Double is not won.
The title is not delivered.
And the conversation right now is not about which name we slap on the deal in front of them.
It is about whether we even kick a ball in the Champions League qualifiers.
Never mind win one.
That is the reality.
And this board, somehow, has managed to look at all of that and decide that the appropriate financial response is a “take it or leave it”.
Jesus wept.
You reap what you sow.
If this is how you treat the men who saved your season, do not be surprised when the next set of coaches takes a long, hard look at the offer in front of them and walks straight past Celtic Park to anywhere that actually values them.
As I’ve said on the Trinity Tims podcast more times than I care to remember, the word gets around.
People in football talk.
And that is what’s coming.
Sad, but true.
Maloney and Fotheringham deserved to name their price.
Instead, they’ve been told the price.
And whatever happens next, the board – categorically – has only itself to blame.
Get it f***ing sorted.
Pay the men.
End of.
Key Takeaways
- The board’s ‘take it or leave it’ approach to Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham is unacceptable given their role in winning a Double.
- Frequent undercompensation of key personnel has been a recurring issue, with previous managers like Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou also underappreciated.
- If Maloney and Fotheringham leave over contract disputes, the blame squarely rests with the board’s failure to reward success.
- Celtic’s board needs to recognise the value of coaches and commit to fair compensation to retain their talent.
- Ignoring the contributions of successful staff could lead to a talent exodus, damaging the club’s reputation in the long run.
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Bhoycie 
Phillip Cooney 
I cant see that this story is “fact”, as per the daily record fairytales,negotiation going on probably. Im sure Martin would not accept this, without his trusted lieutenants this season we would have won he haw. Lets wait and see.
In response to your first sentence,Bill…….REALLY !!!!
This is exactly what we have all(well,most of us) have come to expect from these Shylocks.
They are an absolute cancer in our club and I honestly think they trying to antagonise everyone who is invested in Celtic Football Club.
I think it’s really time to up the ante on these assholes.
A few demonstrations at golf events that the Paddy golfer is attending,sponsoring,participating in might not hurt financially but the rage he will feel at us plebs(in his eyes) might just be enough for him to take a stroke off the course rather than on it.
Either that or we can hope we sign another player from Japan who moonlights as a kamikaze helicopter pilot.
These bastards will shave as much as they possibly can,cost wize ……Except for their own bloated salaries and bonuses.
It really is time the Celtic Fans Collective took off the kid gloves and got serious with this bunch of parasites.
I cannoteven believe but I am typing this but I am now seriously considering my options on my next decision regarding being emotionally invested in the club while these bastards preside over us.
A pox on all their houses !
That’s terrible that they could even think of them taking a pay cut is outrageous they guide us to double they should get a bonus for winning the double Cochise Hail Hail
Is there anyone who is the least bit surprised that corporate greed and austerity fc lowball Maloney and Fotheringham , surely we must be learning surely. Stop giving them your money or you are complicit
Agree with che stop with money or you are complicit
Surely Martin O’Neil, should be banging on doors and demanding his coaching staff get treated with respect, and at least on the same deal as last season. And if not he’s should tell them to stick the Job. back them to the hilt. And there isn’t much time before it all starts. They are his chosen staff, who he relies on and know his way of working. They are crucial to the training ground, time is ticking.
That was my 1st thought mate.
St Martin holds ALL the Trump cards.
He should be whipping these bastards into his way of thinking.
YOU SIMPLY CAN NOT BE SERIOUS FFS. Quoting the fekin daily hun as your source. Were they privy to the discussions? You can bet your fekin boots they most definitely not but you are willing to take it as true as it suits your agenda. It is fekin tiresome.
You are. Quite tiresome now and negative. You take every thing coming out of Celtic and put it into a context that you can slaughter them with.
THE FEKIN DAILY HUN LOL