Last night, Desmond and the entire board showed up at Celtic Park. A show of unity, or a show of defiance in the face of last night’s fan protest?

So, to finish off October’s look at the happenings at Celtic this time a year ago, I’ve decided to go with a story I wrote about Dermot Desmond’s visit to Celtic Park as a show of defiance after his flaying alive of Brendan Rodgers.

Ironically, it was for Martin O’Neill’s first game in charge upon his return.

Who were we playing?

Well, I’m sure you know it was tomorrow’s opponents, Falkirk.

A year and 2 days later, Martin O’Neill heads to the Falkirk stadium knowing we cannot afford to drop points for a second game in a row.

In fact, dropping points tomorrow, and then losing to Besiktas on Thursday night should, in theory, put Martin O’Neill in a very precarious position as Celtic manager.

The big question is, will it?

If that happens, that would equate to 3 wins in 11 games, and no wins in the Europa League.

That’s simply not good enough.

Take a trip back a year to where it all began in this article, and ask yourself, when Martin O’Neill took control of the game against Falkirk last year, did you really imagine he’d still be the Celtic Manager a year later?

I know the answer already….

It has been quite a long time since we’ve seen Dermot Desmond and the entire Celtic board seated in their soft seats at Celtic Park.

One wonders if they showed up in support of their new managerial choice?

Or should I say, Dermot Desmond’s choice, the non-executive director who seems to call the shots at Celtic Park.

The rest of the directors are just nodding dogs, there to do his bidding.

Did Desmond decide he was rallying the troops in a show of defiance in the face of what turned out to be a pretty large fan protest outside Celtic Park?

Proof that they were all unified in the common cause of ensuring Celtic is run as Desmond’s personal fiefdom?

The addition of Susan Whelan, the former Leicester City CEO, was interesting.

Was she there because she’s being groomed as the next Celtic CEO?

I guess time will tell.

A new CEO isn’t going to be enough to enact the changes required at Celtic Park for the club to really move forward.

If Michael Nicholson is going to be stepping down as CEO, then knowing this board, they will probably find another role for him at the club.

It won’t be a case of him leaving the building anyway.

These guys will always look after each other.

That is, after all, what nepotism and cronyism is about, isn’t it?

Which is why it can’t be just one of them replaced.

All of them need to be replaced.

As for the actual game of football last night, which was a bit of a sideshow in the midst of all that has happened over the last few days, it was the most refreshing and fast paced game of football I’ve seen in quite some time at Celtic Park.

It seemed to me that the shackles were off.

The players were allowed to play with a level of freedom that hasn’t been witnessed over the course of this season so far.

It looked like the kind of Celtic we’d grown used to seeing, but had been on sabbatical for a while.

O’Neill stuck with the 4-3-3 formation, but he instructed the players to be far more direct.

Gone was the slow build up, and the side to side passing and backward passing.

Instead, it was all attack, attack, attack.

Indeed, it was a joy to behold.

And for a while there, we were able to forget our troubles and our strife as Celtic supporters.

We were able to do what we always want to do, enjoy the football, instead of dreading it.

But don’t be fooled for one second that last night’s temporary reprieve changes anything.

Don’t think that the nostalgia of Martin O’Neill standing on the touchline again suddenly makes this all feel right again.

One good win changes nothing.

It changes nothing because Celtic is built around a season filled with good wins, and up to this point, they have been few and far between.

So yes, I’m happy that Martin O’Neill’s return to Celtic Park was a victorious one.

I’m happy that the side he sent out to stop the rot, put on a show for us.

And if Martin O’Neill turns this season around for us, starting with a victory over the Ibrox side next Sunday, nobody will be happier than me.

Nobody.

The dreamer in me hopes that he lands us a treble, and takes us deep into Europe.

The realist in me, though, thinks a little differently.

Because of the PTSD that is ingrained in us due to the past behaviours of the board, some of us worry what could happen if Martin O’Neill does have a successful season.

We worry that something similar to what happened at the Scottish Cup final in 2019 could happen.

Because when the board says ‘interim manager’, we now find it hard to trust the word interim.

When Neil Lennon finished off the treble that Brendan Rodgers began in 2019, he had the opportunity to walk away with massive respect, and huge applause ringing in his ears.

He could have been forever remembered as the man who stepped into the breach for Celtic in their hour of need, and completed the job that Brendan Rodgers left unfinished.

We all know what happened thereafter.

We’re all aware of the circumstances in which he departed the club.

To this day, he takes no accountability for the mess he left the club in.

No apology has ever been forthcoming.

Compare and contrast his departure to Brendan Rodgers’ last Monday night.

There was no damning, character assassinating, statement from Dermot Desmond.

Yet Lennon’s offences were far more egregious than anything Rodgers had done up to his departure last Monday evening.

Far more toxic, in fact.

Yet that toxicity was allowed to fester at Celtic.

It was allowed to fester so much that it corroded everything around it during that ill-fated season.

What’s worse, is that corrosion was fully endorsed by Dermot Desmond.

He kept Neil Lennon in situ to spite the Celtic fans, and allowed him to destroy any chance we had of winning the ten in a row.

And when he and the board realised it had gone too far, it was far too late.

Here is what Dermot Desmond had to say on the day of Lennon’s departure:

Celtic’s principal shareholder Dermot Desmond commented: “Neil is a Celtic legend both as a player and manager. He has given so much to the Club, and with his success over the last number of years – including winning a Treble in his own right – he will be very difficult to replace.

We thank Neil sincerely for all he has done for the club and we wish him every success going forward.

Lennon threw his players under the bus at every opportunity.

Threw tantrums on the sideline, kicking water bottles, and raging at his players for any errors they made.

He took no accountability for anything that went wrong and never has.

Peter Lawwell’s ringing endorsement of him in the club statement made out that he was being relieved of his duties much to their dismay.

Yet Brendan Rodgers, during his two stints at Celtic, delivered 11 out of 13 available trophies.

He dared to dream after Munich last season, and he only wanted the very best for Celtic.

Rodgers rarely, if ever, threw his players under the bus.

Even the Honda Civic statement was aimed at the board, and not his players.

Do you think Rodgers was deserving of the character assassination he received from Dermot Desmond?

Genuinely?

When you compare how Neil Lennon was treated in comparison to him?

When you compare what his alleged offences were in comparison to Lennon’s?

Rodgers wanted Celtic to be the best it could be, and he was made a pariah for that.

Yes, I’ll never deny that the football left an awful lot to be desired up until last Sunday.

But he did not deserve to be treated the way he was upon his departure.

I’ll leave you with one of the most damning paragraphs from Desmond’s evisceration of him:

Regrettably, his words and actions since then have been divisive, misleading, and self-serving. They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the Board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable.

I have no doubt in my mind that Peter Lawwell played his part in that statement too.

I’ll leave it at that.

Martin O’Neill has an opportunity to further galvanise his legendary status at Celtic, but I believe he will be smart enough to walk away when the time is right.

Despite an overtures that might be forthcoming from the board.

At 73, I doubt he’ll need all of the stress that goes with managing Celtic in his life on a permanent basis.

He may be there until the end of the season, he might not.

Either way, we’ll be 100% behind him.

If he continues to bring us football like we witnessed last night, then I will enjoy every second of it while I can.

But it will not change my attitude towards Desmond and his board.

Until they are gone, this club will never be at peace.

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