I was on the bóithrín today, enjoying a break in the tsunami that’s been coming off the hill recently.
Oceanic climate and all that.
The phone jumped in the pocket, and it was a call I had to take from a man I’ve known from back in the day.
We first met when Rangers were still alive, and the world was younger.
He had some serious scéal for me.
While protecting his identity, what he told me is worth passing on, as the transfer window shambles at Celtic appears incurable.
I have complete faith in the integrity of this source, and he was phoning me with a degree of exasperation in his voice.
He told me he had taken FORTY player names to Celtic so far this window.
At the time of writing, this has resulted in zero signings or loans from his suggestions.
For the avoidance of doubt, this guy knows his business and is strongly oriented towards the green half of Glasgow.
However, let’s say I don’t think the recruitment operation at Celtic wows him.
I don’t doubt that Michael Nicholson is a thoroughly decent person, but he is self-evidently out of his depth at this CEO lark.
Not his fault, of course, it’s just how it is.
For all his convivial bonhomie at pressers, I can’t imagine Martin O’Neill is happy with this terrible state o’ chassis.
This is what I put on X before yer man called.
If this window closes with no major additions to the squad, then there will be storm clouds over Paradise.
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I won’t be renewing my seasonticket next season if that lot are still running the club and I stand with not a penny more campaign. Disgusted is an understatement.
First things first. I am NOT sticking up for the Board here! Change is long overdue.
However, let’s all take a deep breath, a wee step back, and look at some facts here.
The January transfer window IS a notoriously hard time to bring in quality players.
Loans, with an option to buy, have served us well in the past. Both Jota, CCV and Bernardo being examples. We have also discarded a few who didn’t make the grade.
A very high percentage of the ‘Big’ deals, ARE completed in the last 24-48 hours of the window. Those are generally the deals that cost most, often over the odds. BECAUSE the selling club is reluctant to part with the player at all, or won’t entertain the move until they have a replacement in the door.
These are also the most difficult deals to get over the line, because they often, usually, involve multiple clubs. Because club A won’t sell, unless they can get a player from club B, who won’t sell their player unless they can get a player from club C, and so on.
It only takes one sticking point in the chain and the whole thing goes tits up for everyone!! A player can have second thoughts at the last minute!! A player’s WIFE can change his mind! International clearance for any one player can take five minutes too long!
The list of reasons why a deal can collapse is long and varied, and a club can put hundreds of hours into trying to get a deal over the line for everything to blow up at, literally, the last minute. The fans don’t see that part. They just see no arrivals as laziness or incompetence!
It’s easy to bring players in early, to look efficient and well run, when the reality is that you’re bringing in players whose selling clubs are glad to see the back of. There can be umpteen reasons for this, and none of them point to the guy you’ve just bought being a brilliant footballer.
The last high quality player we bought in early in January was Maeda. The reason for that was that the Japanese season had finished and the deal was already in place.
The way we have been playing is remanisent to the way we played in last seasons Scottish Cup Final.
Hate to say but this transfer window is Dermot’s own response to the Not Another Penny campaign, the Board are now showing that by not doing the basics and bare minimum of signing players that We need to get to the end of the season, the way they are treating a Celtic Legend like Martin O’Neill is absolutely disgraceful.
We are not winning the league with this team and will be very lucky to get to the Semi’s of the Scottish Cup.
When there’s been interest reported in a Norwegian player for over a week, and then a Danish club is reported to have put in a club record bid of around only 2.5 million, then you know they’re pissing about and extracting it from us. Although, a list of 80 players is probably mind boggling…… unless you’re just looking at it.
This league was always going to be decided by what WE do. Unfortunately, We are doing nothing.
The board would appear to have written off this season in favour of appointing a new manager in the summer. A company man. A man who’s on board.
Next season won’t be much better…unless something drastic happens?
This board are taking the piss out of a thoroughly brilliant person that is Martin O’ Neil, two loan signings, what a joke!
We will be lucky to finish 4th at this rate!
The perfect person for the board to hide behind.
I think, that they think, that having Martin O’Neill up front will deflect the flack from them for yet another disastrous transfer window.
They should think again!
The Board are Desmond’s lackeys.
None of them has a clue about football.
It doesn’t matter what way you look at things.
There is no escaping the absolute fact that the Celtic Board have a settled and stable business model that protects the Clubs bank balance above everything else.
This is where their talents and skills lie and where they are most adept.
Unfortunately, for the Clubs supporters and football division, none of the Board have any noticable skills with regard to football management and, therefore, do not treat these areas of the Club with any great diligence or foresight.
The overall outcome is that the Board actually believe that they are doing a great job and that the supporters are simply over reacting to the fact that the team on the field are not performing quite as well as they might.
Fifteen to twenty years of Celtic hegemony in Scotland have made them blase and over confident to a reckless degree.
Reaping the whirlwind of their own failure to act, when the true strength of the Celtic fan bases disillusion becomes obvious with a huge drop in Season Ticket sales for next season, just might be the time when reality finally bites for our football ignorant Board.
I really, really hope so.
This model relies on the previous financial backing of the fans which is
now significantly diminishing. Let them explain that at the next AGM.
They have already cost the football club £50m this season, forget about next season. zHeads must roll
Absolutely agree in principle, but any competent manager (who wasn’t actively undermining his own players, and seemingly telling non-truths about his employers, every time he had a microphone placed in front of him) ought to have been able to overcome Kairat. An easier qualifying opponent cannot be found.
There speaks the truth and reality.
Why is Rodgers deliberate actions to cause defeats and divisions with the fans, players and the board ignored by most people who are supposed to love the club.
Look what MON has done withe same group of players.
Shine a light on Rodgers and question his actions and words.
to bring the board to their senses it could take an entire season ticket boycott force celtic to go back to a pay as you go per game which would create more expenditure in admin costs and no season book money up front in their bank account
You know things are bad when the happy clappers go quiet. There’s usually tons of them falling over themselves to tell you not to worry, they will tell you that Celtic know what they’re doing and there is still plenty of time in the window.
Meanwhile in the real world Celtic are showing that they DONT know what they are doing and there is NOT plenty of time left in the window. It really beggars belief how incompetent things have become at the club.
Hearts are miles ahead of Celtic in the recruitment of players. My god, even the rangers are getting players in whilst we are getting fed nothing but garbage regarding how “difficult” it is to recruit in the January window. No, they are not fooling the majority of the fanbase with that line.
Supporters can see that clubs up and down the country are doing the business, and they are right to question the way things are going at Celtic right now. The manager is only capable of doing so much, he has stated quite clearly that the team needs strengthening. The rest is up to the board. And that is the problem in a nutshell HH
I am now absolutely convinced that we are being trolled and punished by a very vengeful megalomaniac.
If this window closes without the signings Celtic need very badly, it cannot be put down to, ‘The winter window always being a difficult time to buy decent players’. There has been millions of pounds spent on players so far this window. It can only go down as ignorance, arrogance and an intentional malfeasance act by the Celtic Board.
It’s not the yes-men board. It’s DD, loud and clear.