If Dermot Desmond Can Do This There, Why Not at Celtic?
Dermot Desmond helped build a resort obsessed with world-class standards. Celtic supporters are entitled to ask why the same philosophy isn't evident throughout their club.
Phillip Cooney 
Dermot Desmond clearly knows how to pursue world-class standards.
That is what makes the comparison between Celtic and Sandy Lane in Barbados so fascinating.
Desmond is one of five owners of the luxury resort. When the consortium took control, it didn’t simply give the place a lick of paint.
The existing hotel was demolished and rebuilt. Sandy Lane says hundreds of millions of dollars were invested, with the explicit ambition of creating a luxury brand with global prestige.
So Celtic supporters should ask one simple question.
If Desmond can pursue that standard there, why shouldn’t we expect it at Celtic?
Nothing but the best
Look at Sandy Lane.
There is a 47,000-square-foot spa, state-of-the-art technology, specialist infrastructure and three championship golfing experiences.
The resort has seven floodlit tennis courts, four padel courts, five restaurants and seven bars.
Its Green Monkey course was designed by internationally renowned golf architect Tom Fazio.
Then look at the people running individual departments.
Sandy Lane publicly showcases experienced specialists across its operation. Its golf turf and landscapes director, for example, has more than 30 years of international industry experience.
Everything screams premium.
The ambition is obvious: find excellent people, provide outstanding facilities and maintain an elite reputation.
Celtic deserve exactly that mentality
To be fair, Celtic have invested in facilities.
Lennoxtown has been improved, while the redevelopment of Barrowfield delivered a full-size indoor pitch, performance gym and other facilities.
So this isn’t an argument that Celtic spend nothing.
My problem is the difference in philosophy I perceive.
Where is the same obsession with having the very best throughout Celtic’s football operation?
Where is the genuinely elite succession planning?
Why have Neil Lennon, Brendan Rodgers and Martin O’Neill all been brought back as managers?
Their achievements aren’t the issue.
The repetition is.
A football club with Celtic’s enormous support should be searching the world for exceptional people in recruitment, coaching, analysis and executive leadership.
Why accept anything less?
Sandy Lane’s own history says its owners wanted to establish a brand worthy of global prestige.
That’s exactly the ambition I want for Celtic.
Not necessarily hundreds of millions spent recklessly.
Not gold taps in Lennoxtown.
Standards.
Expertise.
Innovation.
Planning.
An insistence that every important position is occupied by the strongest person Celtic can realistically attract.
Desmond has demonstrated that he understands those principles in business.
That’s what makes Celtic supporters’ frustration so understandable.
Celtic isn’t some small provincial football operation.
It is an institution with an enormous worldwide support and European history.
If world-class is the target at Sandy Lane, why shouldn’t world-class be the target everywhere at Celtic?
After more than three decades of Desmond’s influence, supporters have every right to demand it.
And if the current people cannot deliver those standards, Celtic should find people who can.
