Celtic is acting like a club that is financially distressed. Which begs the question, IS Celtic financially distressed??
With each passing day, Celtic acts more and more like a club in financial distress...
Eric Knott 
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 16: A general stadium view before a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park, on May 16, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Right now, the entire Scottish footballing world is looking on at Celtic as if the biggest club in Scottish football is a lame duck.
Floundering and flailing around, with no strategic plan, or semblance of direction of any kind.
Our fiercest rivals firmly believe we are there for the taking.
They believe that this coming season is as good a chance as they’ll ever get to halt our domination in the Scottish game.
They have good reason to believe that.
Because the custodians of our club aren’t exactly doing anything to counter those beliefs.
With each passing day, the Celtic board fills our rivals with the renewed hope that Celtic is on the verge of a spectacular collapse.
The strange thing about all of this is that it isn’t a possible collapse driven by external pressures, because nothing externally is pressuring Celtic.
The club is apparently in the rudest financial health it has ever been in for quite some time now.
Or is it?
All of the pressure this club finds itself under comes from the top down.
Internally.
The pressure and disarray Celtic finds itself under, and in, is entirely of our own creation.
Or more to the point, the creation of a small cabal of people entrusted with the care and well being of this famous old institute.
A few days ago, I discussed the level of incompetence at Celtic.
I highlighted that it is ‘engineered incompetence’.
Today, I will go one further and label it as ‘instructed incompetence’.
And by that I mean that the people in charge of our club are following instruction.
They believe that the instructions they are receiving are for the betterment of this club.
The instructions are clearly being received from one individual, and carried out according to his wishes.
Dermot Desmond is in complete control of Celtic.
The state that the club finds itself in right now is a result of his instructions.
It has been clearly established that he calls the shots at our club.
His cabal of minions carry out these instructions to the letter.
But why do these instructions lead to us looking like a club that is in dire financial stress?
If you were to place yourself outside our club as a neutral observer, this is exactly the impression you would get.
There is a morbid fear of spending any kind of money at Celtic now.
Which begs the question, if Celtic is acting like a club in financial distress, is Celtic a club in financial distress?
Is there something we’re missing here?
For example, is the club about to spend a huge amount of money on something unforeseen?
And if it was, what is that something unforeseen?
There is no point in me saying that I have any idea what this might be, because I don’t.
But the club is acting like it is a club in financial distress.
Why is that?
Why are we afraid to speculate to accumulate?
And by that, I mean why are we always afraid to invest in the return Champions League qualification brings us?
It guarantees revenues of £40 million.
In turn, it allows our players to display their ability on Europe’s elite stage.
Thus increasing the value of players who perform well in this competition.
No matter what way you look at it, qualification for this tournament is a financial winner for any club that qualifies.
Especially clubs from smaller Leagues like ours.
So why do your utmost NOT to qualify for the Champions League?
Because almost every season, this is what Celtic does.
We refuse to invest in players that will guarantee our passage to this tournament.
We’d rather gamble, and wait until we’ve qualified – which now rarely happens – before we even think about purchasing any players.
It makes no sense.
Last season, we took the ultimate gamble against Kairat Almaty….and lost.
Yet then, we still went out and spent over £10 million on two players in Michel-Ange Balikwisha and Sebastian Tounekti, who had very little impact on our season overall.
Another gamble that we lost.
Balikwisha has turned out to be a complete waste of £5 million, and on occasion, Tounekti showed us flashes of what he could do, but with very little consistency.
I could go on and on here.
But the simple reality here is that we act like a club that is on the verge of bankruptcy.
We probably have the guts of £100 million sitting in the club bank account now when you take into account we already had £77 million, and then 95.5% of supporters renewed their season books.
That brought in at least another £30 million in revenue.
Yet here we are, 8 weeks into the transfer window, with one solitary player purchase over the line.
£6 million spent, we’re told anyway, and pretty much already re-couped as a result of the sales of Maik Nawrocki and Luis Palma.
Net spend – zero.
8 weeks into the summer transfer window.
Does any of this make sense to you?
What is it that makes the board act this way?
Or more to the point, who is it that makes them act this way?
One man.
Who wouldn’t know the meaning of financial distress if it decked him.
There are two possible reasons for this.
One, Dermot Desmond does this because he craves being in control.
He loves the fact he can play with the emotions of an entire fanbase.
Tens of thousands of people.
It gives him some sort of sadistic pleasure to have that kind of control.
Two, Celtic is in serious trouble.
Some sort of cataclysmic event is imminent for the club.
And serious financial problems are just around the corner.
Personally, I believe it is the former.
Because if it was the latter, the man who is a double billionaire could fix it in the morning.
What it would cost would be a bare drop in the ocean to his finances.
Which means he does this for his own sadistic pleasure.
No other reason.
And if that’s the case?
We are in big, big trouble.
Key Takeaways
- Celtic appears to be in disarray and lacks a strategic plan, leading rivals to believe the club is vulnerable.
- The club’s current situation stems from internal mismanagement, particularly under Dermot Desmond’s control.
- Despite being financially healthy, Celtic acts as if it is under distress, avoiding spending in crucial areas.
- Qualification for the Champions League is a priority that Celtic fails to secure due to hesitation in investing in key players.
- The club has significant funds available but has only made one player purchase, showing a lack of decisive action in the transfer market.
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Aodhán Ó Conchobhair 
Phillip Cooney 
Bhoycie 
If the point of this article was for you to get over a wee fever dream, I’m hoping it had that effect for you. Beyond that, it was silly and pointless
No Martin, the author is spot-on with his article. What appears to be insane behavior by the board or DD alone, has no logical answer. The only rational answer is exactly what is contained in the article, namely that Celtic F.C. is heading for disaster because of what, until now, remains unknown. The one thing that keeps coming to my mind is that we may be witnessing a Robert Maxwell Person Fund scenario but in our case, it isn’t club pension money but club bank money.
I said it last season Eric ….there must be something else that we are ALL missing going on at board level for Celtic FC that is holding us all in disgust and disdain causing the lack of new recruits and a horrendous lack of adequate communication and information ? I’ve still no idea as to what it is hidden from us . But it must be a friggin’ DOOZIE ! A battered in the kisser with a wooden bat DOOZIE ! So well hidden from us that not a single hint or indication of what this could be that not one single SMSM scoop has ever asked the same question as you or I have suggested Eric ? Not a whiff of a ‘story ‘ from any of them . Because they would be all over it like wild dogs disemboweling an unlucky animal for breakfast ! Or maybe they are all as thick as two toilet doors after all ….
No it isn’t silly or pointless, look at the unsinkable Titanic, it sunk , if a club behave in this way then it is reasonable to ask the question is there a financial crisis in the pipeline , if you don’t ask this question, then just doth your cap to your betters ,or you could probe the clubs action and try to defend the club , do you trust the odious Desmond if you do then stay on board and give the multi billionaire absentee landlord your hard earned cash ,or you could defend the club and stop giving them your money or you are complicit in the destruction of our club
Maybe dd is planing to sell and wants as much in the bank to get his shares to sell for as much as possible. – we can only hope
There’s something else none of us want to believe but others are always ready to offer their views on ad nauseum coming down the pipe
A theory that could cause bigger problems than the board are already causing. If there was something in the pipeline then why not speculate to accumulate, like entry to the CL group stages. Back this £40m up with a share issue and it’s problem solved. If the house is falling down phone the insurance company. DD is a control freak but he is not in full control of the finances so not really in a position to rob us, only run us into the ground by bad decision making and game playing that he’s been doing with us for years. I think Trainer and Keane must be in league with him or scared of him or surely as businessmen and supporters they would act, as would people like Willie Haughey. There is of course the scenario where Desmond is personally compromised and Celtic are the leverage. If we’re going for a mad one did anyone see Epstein and Trump in the Kerrydale suite.