The Board

I know mate. I agree with all that, feel the exact same but I don’t know.

Just got this horrible feeling that they genuinely think all the problems we have are actually because of Covid and they believe the pish they’re peddling about us being the ‘most affected club in the world’ *.

If they were that worried about fans holding money back then I feel they’d have got Lennon out the door a while ago.

In our ‘restructure’ I think they’re going to bullshit us, again, and sell it as us giving Lennon some support to do his job in unforeseen circumstances etc.

 

There is a precedent, scarily enough. Rangers did not sack Gerrard last season. Someone on this forum had mentioned how a defeat to Hamilton was Gerrard being close to axing, and then COVID saved him.

 

Reading between the lines, that statement this morning confirms that we will not be looking to bounce back and reassert our dominance of Scottish football. It will be cost cutting, downsizing and sticking with a failure of a manager in order to facilitate it all. Feeling so detached as a fan right now

 

Agreed. Their thought process is completely different to ours.

If there was a single working class Celtic supporter on that board, it would be a massive improvement.

Bankier, Alison, Lawwell are Tory *. Celtic is the vehicle that lines their pockets. They have no emotional attachment to the club like we do.

 

See the concern around downsizing that doesn’t really bother me that much, as long as it’s done correctly.

Our wage bill is far too high when you compare it to teams like Porto, Ajax, etc. There was a stat floating around that we had the biggest wage bill out with the top 4 leagues. That’s not sustainable and there’s plenty evidence to show that a large wage bill is not required to be successful.

We must be shelling out 80k a week on loan players at the minute. Then we are paying 20k to players like Bitton to play out of position.

If we had a proper transfer guru / DOF I’m sure we could get a lot more bang for our buck.

 

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It's entirely achievable if supporters get behind a united supporter shareholder vehicle.

19% of the PLC's shares are owned by the ordinary Celtic supporter, which if proxied behind the 1 banner, would give us a voice that could not be ignored.

Whether everyone can come together to get on board and remain I don't know. Maybe it's fanciful. A lot have already voiced their opinions on David Low of the Celtic Trust and how he doesn't represent them. The truth is no single figure is going to represent 10s of thousands of supporters views simultaneously but if there's a mechanism to hold the figurehead accountable regularly such as an annual member vote, then that at least allows a majority consensus.

If we don't mobilise at this point to get fan representation on the board then I fear we never will.

 

A few weeks back I posted some theories as to why the manager hadn't been sacked yet. One of them was that the club simply couldn't afford to in the current covid-induced financial climate and from what I've read today it seems likely that is the case. Lennon will be in charge at the start of next season, I have no doubt about that now, and any so-called squad rebuild will depend entirely on players being sold first. Ajer and Eddy will certainly be for the off and I reckon the club will settle for £10M and anything over £15M respectively. Christie may go also, probably for £7/8M. Expect lots of attempts to sign youth-team players from the bigger clubs in England and a lot of offers to out-of-contract players from the Championship and lower leagues there too. Not forgetting loan deals of course. European group-stage qualification will help but with this coaching set-up and general lack of confidence around the club I wouldn't put money on that.

 

Celtic are downsizing ( no doubt about that whatsoever ) if you listened to Frimpong when he left he said “it will all come out” you will know why I left.

Celtic could no longer fulfill his ambitions as a player. It’s the same with Ajer Edouard, Christie etc...they all want to leave!

 

I get where you're coming from, but there's no chance Lennon is here next season, zero.

For me, the worry is replacing him with someone like Kennedy, Keane or Jack ross, which is just as bad and very possible.

 

Spot on here for me mate. Most of those other clubs you mention have adjusted to the unfortunate footballing market of these days where they realise you bring in young hungry players with something to prove, develop them and move them on before they get to the point of demanding big wages. This supported with a few senior players being bought or kept to help hold the first team together whilst players are bought and sold each season.

They also tend to have a number of their future prospects out playing in the league they play in to assess them and either integrate them the next season to replace those they lose or sell them on if they are not good enough.

Over the last couple of seasons we have been paying big wages to Gordon, Sinclair, Bitton, Rogic, Ajeti (this season) amongst others and they have played very little game time and contributed very little. That’s not including all our loan flops like Bauer, Duffy, Laxalt and even Moi who has been good in patches but never really a regular in the team.

A proper footballing set up and we could actually come out of this nightmare in good shape. We will naturally lose around 13-17 players this year when you include Elhamed and Frimpong with Edouard, Ntcham, Christie, Ajer, Bitton, Rogic, Harper, Hendry, Shved, Bayo, Bolingoli, as well as Duffy, Moi, Laxalt and Kenny.

This should generate £50-60m which will more than cover the £13m spent in the summer, keep a positive position financially and be able to completely refresh the squad with a number of new players particularly in defence and attack as we have a decent midfield core in McGregor, Turnbull and Soro all be it we could do with a bit more physicality to support Soro. We properly utilise the bosman market and £20-25m, reduced our wage bill and would rebuild a team with a renewed hunger and capable of winning the league and have the basis to move forward.

Don’t get me wrong it will be difficult but with the right DoF and head coaching set up in it will be possible. It would have been made much easier if we actually acted when we should have.

 

What gets me is the ammount of players we have in youth ranks that never see game time or are out on loan elsewhere.
OConnel should have been retained this season connell should get gametine imo the scary thing was Jack Atkinsons interview where he stated there is no path upwards currently at celtic

 

I agree we will downsize, but * me Frimpong can go and * himself if that's the * he's coming out with.

Not meeting his expectations.....the * done * all in the game so far and his biggest claims to fame is an interview and being too scared to ride some rough American slapper he smuggled into his gaff.

 

The quote was clearly alot of *. No proof of him saying it whatsoever.

 

Not sure how you have confirmed that theory, when (as far as I made out) there is still money at the bank, we are still in the good financially.

Plenty of clubs in worse financial postions than us have changed managers this season.

I'm more inclined it's all entirely to do with lawwells ego not to admit he got it wrong combined with knowing the new guy is coming in as CEO and to let him deal with the major changes needed.

Would be dumb to let lawwell go through that process, specially when he has clearly got a bad rep now

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Says 6m loss but if you add in the money for frimpong it’s not really


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People seem to shrug the youth issue off by effectively shifting the blame on the player, for having a perceived attitude problem, or for not signing a new contract.

There’s a massive issue at youth level just now and the sooner we recognise that the sooner we can address it.

 

Frimpong was sold after 31st December so will be included in the next accounts.

 

That’s my point it wasn’t included


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Got to agree here our full approach to our squad management at all levels is shockingly poor.

We bring through all these boys and for the last few seasons even pre pandemic don’t even have a proper league for them to play in. We seem to mismanage the loans we send a lot of them on, putting them to levels way below where we need them to get too.

As mentioned above we rarely see players get a chance and when they do most seem miles of it so are seen once and disappear.

There was a post on Ewen Henderson I saw which was incredible he got man of the match vs Motherwell under Rodgers in his last game, then was barely seen again. Done fine against Lille again never seen again. That’s just one example, guys like Connell looked to have something in his one appearance preseason never seen again so has spent the full year playing no football. There is clearly no development plan for any of these guys and they have all had enough hence why they are leaving on mass if they have any hint of potential.

Given how restricted we are in spending this should be a massive part of our strategy and it is basically a sunk cost at the moment.

 

Legend has it, on the 31st of October at midnight (the date of Rangers liquidation and Halloween)...
if you say his name in the mirror three times whilst holding your wallet, he will appear behind you in the mirror, screaming that your a spoiled *. The money in your wallet...



....



... is gone.