The board

Oops * hh. Small ones

 

Superb hh

 

They’ve sucked the life out of this season before it’s barely started.

I’m completely numb when it comes to Celtic now.

Totally and utterly dejected. It’s such a shame when you consider the potential we have.

 

Article from Graham McGarry


Celtic's failure has many fathers, lack of ambition daddy of them all



Well, what a fine mess Celtic made of that. The board, chiefly, yes, but also the manager and the players, who cannot escape criticism for their dismal defeat to Kairat Almaty that ended their hopes of Champions League football.

The saying goes that success has many fathers while failure is an orphan, but when it comes to Celtic’s disastrous attempt to reach this season’s Champions League, there is plenty of blame to go around.


That being said, while the manager, in this case Brendan Rodgers, will deservedly take some flak, it is the board who are firmly in the crosshairs of the Celtic support.

Is this fair? Well, taken in isolation, this Celtic squad, for all its faults and glaring gaps, should be able to navigate a tie against the team currently sitting third in the Kazakhstan Premier League. The truly inept level of their performance, particularly from some of those who have cost the club many millions of pounds, cannot be ignored. The manager and the players must accept their part in this shambles.


This calamity though didn’t occur in a vacuum. Rodgers has been flashing the warning signs that this could be in the post for months now.

The most frustrating part of this exit for Celtic fans and for their manager will surely be that it was all so avoidable. The reluctance to spend any significant money in this transfer window until after these matches confounds logic.



Anyone with a passing interest in the team knows they have long had a pressing need to replace Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn, at the very least, and at a push, the injured Jota too. Without even denting the vast reserves of cash that Celtic have, recycling just a decent amount of the £27m they brought in for that pair alone into those positions would almost certainly have been enough to get a goal or two against Kairat, and guarantee the club another £40m in revenue.

Without that quality in those areas, a hugely limited but well organised side in Kairat were able to sit in, repel Celtic’s attacks with relative ease, and take their chances on penalties.

So, while the argument that Celtic should have had enough in their squad as it is to defeat the Kazakhs isn’t without merit, it also begs the question as to why the people charged with guiding the club wouldn’t want to make absolutely sure? Was a relatively modest outlay on a striker and a winger to all-but guarantee they got over the line too much to ask?

If, as some argue, the board are skittish after their sizeable investment in Adam Idah, Arne Engelsand Auston Trusty last summer, then they are missing the point. You need a squad to compete at the top level and these players were all part of the one that performed so admirably in the Champions League last season, augmenting the team with some impressive performances – Idah against Young Boys and Aston Villa, Engels in Munich, Trusty against Atalanta, for example.

No matter how much they cost, and whether they were on the bench or not against Kairat Almaty, none of them would have been able to compensate for the loss of the attacking threat of Kuhn and Kyogo from that squad.

When you zoom out further and view the lamentable overall record of Celtic in these Champions League qualifiers, then it becomes clear that this is a failure of strategy. How does a club of such resource fail to come through the qualification process seven times from their last nine attempts? And in their last five in succession?

How do they lose to clubs like Maribor, Malmo, CFR Cluj, Ferencvaros, AEK Athens and Midtjylland, none of whom can come close to matching their turnover or level of support?

Complacency, at best? Arrogance, at worst? It seems there is not, in fact, a ‘world class’ culture embedded in the club after all, as chief executive Michael Nicholson once promised there would be, but one seeping from the boardroom down that just doing enough is acceptable. That it’s ok just to be a little bit better than your opponents, or your chief domestic rivals, in Rangers.

To go from the highs of their performance in the Allianz Arena in February to this embarrassing low can only be explained by gross negligence from on high. For all that Rodgers should and will take his portion of the blame for it, the same fate has befallen many a Celtic manager.




The common denominator is the cautious, conservative approach of the board.

Nicholson infamously likes to keeps his counsel, but without a public acknowledgment of these strategic errors, the bubbling enmity towards the current chief executive will only grow. Much in the same way as it did towards Peter Lawwell before him, who still now as chairman inspires songs of derision from sections of the Celtic Park crowd.

Principal shareholder Dermot Desmond is the main man at the club, but he too is largely unaccountable. There is only one real chance of seeing him in Scotland this autumn, and it won’t be at the Celtic AGM, but at the Alfred Dunhill up at St Andrews.

What can angry fans really do, then? Vote with their feet? Stop buying the seemingly relentless stream of merchandise? Maybe that would grab the attention of the club's leadership. Then again, from their position of comfort, maybe not.

Celtic had a chance after the relative success of last season’s Champions League campaign to really push on, investing in the squad to give their manager the best possible chance of repeating the feat, or even taking the next step. Instead, the club’s hierarchy got the jitters, and they have regressed at an alarming rate.

Ironically, signings are now imminent, with the board’s long-standing policy of waiting until the last week of the window in the hope of shaving a million or two off transfer fees having cost them the chance to trouser another £40m.

Still, Rangers are a bit of a shambles currently under Russell Martin, and Celtic will probably win the league again, which seems to be enough for some.

And in 12 months or so, we’ll likely be having this conversation again.

 

I've seen you say this a few times mate and there's been times I'm like nah i can't relate. Obsessed with all things Celtic..

I know what you mean though. Everyone ive spoken to is in disbelief and completely numb as well. Was talking in our group chat then to my brother earlier and we just stopped early doors and were like don't even know what to say..

I try and be positive but they've drained everything out of me this month and with that final nail in the coffin last night..

 

Rodgers complained to Desmond at some point after that first transfer window when he returned that the Lawwells were sabotaging him. Desmond took his side, and thus M. Lawwell got the boot, and Rodgers got 2 big signings, even Trusty. However, in the meantime, as fans cast doubt over these 2 signings, P. Lawwell used this discontent to convince the board and DD that Rodgers can't be trusted with big money, since all those pricy signings haven't exactly justified their arrival.

So, now we're back to Lawwell calling the shots, despite last season being very good in Europe and all of Rodgers' signings playing their part, although not being the biggest contributors. Nicholson is just a rubber-stamper of deals.

 

they based the whole thing on probabilities after that draw. 90+% probability we would be in CL and they gambled on it. As much as I think they penny pinch a lot of the time i think they based this year solely on a gamble based on probabilities that blew up in their face. even when odds wer stacked in their favour the 10% risk was catastrophic

 

All im gonna say is. Shame on the board

 

Unfortunately that piece is absolutely spot on. Yes we should have had enough to get over the line in this tie anyway but why chance it at all especially given our poor record in these ties. Yes the players and the coaching staff should and will shoulder blame for our failure last night but the facts are the people who should and need to go are Dermot Desmond, Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay. They have all been at Celtic a long time some over 20 years and happened last night has happened again and again. Manger after manger, different players but the same board. Credit where it is due they build on the foundation's Fergus McCann built and gave us a financially secure club and domestic dominance. But it has been abundantly clear that they have been an utter failure beyond that. They all claim to be Celtic fans. But while I will give them credit for the job they have done in building the club financially out of such a small market and thus helping to establish an incredible period of domestic dominance it has been clear for some time that they have no capability to take Celtic further. If there is a plan it is clearly to stay one step ahead of sevco and thats it. Our transfer strategy sums them up perfectly. Credit where its due we do a really good job of selling players and making pretty good profits for the most part but in terms of buying players their strategy clearly holds us back and actively prevents us pushing on beyond domestic dominance.
I have said it before we clearly need new leadership and I would say new ownership now too. We need a new board with fresh ideas and a clear plan to take Celtic beyond where we are both on and off the field. It's clear that we are a club that has significant room for growth on and off the field but its equally clear we need a clear out at board level and for Desmond to go as well for us to have any chance at realizing that potential. I am just a fan and I see little prospect that we ourselves can make the changes necessary. At this point in a different circumstance we need a new Fergus McCann type to emerge. I have been a Celtic fan my whole life going back to the 1980 Cup Final when I was a kid. Only once before have I been so disillusioned by Celtic in my whole life as a supporter and that was in the dark days in the early 1990's that led to us almost going under and being saved by Fergus McCann. Now obviously is a very different circumstance. We are pretty well off financially especially considering where we are league wise. But nonetheless I feel disillusioned by the Club and the abject failure of our ownership and our board at a similar level to how I felt during the early 1990's. In those days it was an existential threat the board posed to the club today the threat is an abject failure to take Celtic forward and a parochial mindset that staying 1 step ahead of sevco and banking cash is all that matters. But for me the feelings are the same and its devastating given how much and how important Celtic has been for me my whole life. Just as the Kellys and the Grants were a disgrace in their day so is the current ownership and board.
I apologize for rambling so much and so long but I am that gutted about where we are at as a club and that for me this is the early 90's again in terms of the board and ownership.

 

Aye we’ve seen this story countless times before


* all is going to change with them

 

I went home and away for around 7 years mate, barely missing a game domestically.

If someone had told me back then that this would be the way I feel about the club now, I wouldn’t have just laughed, I’d have felt personally insulted.

My energy and enthusiasm has just been gradually whittled away over the years, so much so that I can take or leave the games when they are on. The way this club operates, not just in a footballing sense, and the people that run it, I find just completely unrelatable.

I’ll always want the club to succeed and obviously I still care as I’m * furious, but it’s the fact we’re so powerless to do anything about it, I genuinely think it’s just easier for me to be completely desensitised to it all.

 

I think this one is the worst of the lot to be honest.

It should be the tipping point. Really it shouldnt need fan action. A failure of this kind should automatically trigger internal top to bottom review with action on the back of it.

Doubt there will be even be a statement though

 

Which other top 10 league can you guarantee a win domestically nearly every year. Scotland. Our league should effectively have been a competitive training match every week for a push on a European game midweek.

And with that said all the last 15 years should of focused on was building sides for the deep end of European competition.

 

I hear you mate. The * at the top have a lot to answer for.....but don't give two * about any of us..

 

Manager and captain calling them out again. At what point does Desmond feel embarrassed? Ever?

 

Can’t get over board throwing away 40 thousand guaranteed money and letting us been left with Yang and Forrest and meada as front 3.
Be no big transfer out Celtic for awhile
None off players would make over 15 million.
They all brutal and going be long season.
We soon start dropping points in league too.

 

I’m glad its not just me that feels like this, i have sat at every game with anger at the back of my mind with the running of the club and just praying we make the CL and bring some quality in.

Now I know we are going to scrape a last 32 EL place and get put out by one of the 21 English clubs in it and Rodgers will be away. Then we start from scratch as usual with someone new and either a recruitment staff not upto standard or a table of money men seemingly happier to pay a tax bill on the cash in the bank than spend any of it.

What is the * point?

 

It’s the Auld Golfer that needs to go….

PL & co from the plc will be away with him.

He is the one who needs targeted….

Just an absentee landlord…

Our Mike Ashley..

Good for the plc … terrible for the club.

He needs to sell up… and asap.

 

For sure he needs to go. Unfortunately I don't see how we get that done but as long as Dermot Desmond and his cronies on the board control Celtic we will never realize the huge potential we have. What's worse is their approach which they in their arrogance think is what makes sense is so ultra conservative that IMHO it will now maybe even endanger our domestic dominance going forward.

 

I hear you. Its all so deflating really and I am as I said above so disillusioned with Celtic to a level I haven't felt since the early 1990's.