When the final whistle went on Tuesday night, my initial feelings were not despair or anger but a numbed kind of acceptance.
“This is where we are now,” I thought. “Time to start getting used to that fact.”
It’s that idea that makes me feel angry, not the performance as abject as it was.
This notion that we now need to narrow our horizons and think small.
That we have to “adapt” to being Champions League also-rans.
Yet it’s an inescapable conclusion to have to reach.
We’ve failed to get to the Groups Stages two years in a row now, and we’ve never looked entirely comfortable in our skin trying to reach them.
In hindsight, this was coming, as sure as Glasgow rain.
Signs of life from Celtic Park are rare enough at the best of times, but had we gone through Peter Lawwell’s smug face would be everywhere as he sought to take credit for the latest piece of brilliance in “the strategy.”
That strategy is a shambles.
It has been for years, and all the excuses – and I consider them just that; about being based in Scotland, about being “unable to compete with the big sides”, about “living within our means” – do little to hide that simple fact.
I know it won’t change as long as the present incumbents are at Celtic Park.
I know too that there’s no appetite amongst the supporters for seeing them removed.
We are, in the eyes of many, a “well run club.”
I agree, if that means a healthy balance sheet and no fireworks behind the scenes.
If it means competently run and professional then I cannot argue.
We are most certainly all of those things.
Our directors and senior staff are exactly the kind of people you want to see working down at your local credit union.
Safe pairs of hands.
But we’re a football club, not a corporate entity.
The team sheet ought to take precedence over the balance sheet.
We are supporters, not stock analysts and although some of us are shareholders too the notion that this board is maximising income on our behalf is ludicrous.
The last two years, we’ve lost an estimated £30 million out of failures which can be traced all the way from the boot-room to the boardroom.
If we were an EPL club a hit like that would hurt like Hell.
As a club playing in Scotland that’s money we certainly cannot afford to lose.
In strictly business terms, think of it like twice failing to land a major contract.
When this happened the first time, a company in any other field would have conducted a business review.
Things would have changed behind the scenes, perhaps even radically.
For that not to have happened, and for us to be back here as a result of that is an abrogation of responsibility at the top so staggering it would have resulted in a proposed shareholder vote of confidence in the CEO and others in any company of comparable size.
Last season, on or about the exact same date, Peter Lawwell told the media that he would give them some insight into what Celtic’s long term strategy was going to be.
He didn’t, and he had not intended to, although he was happy to give that impression.
What he did, instead, was give an interview to CelticTV, where he was asked softball questions by one of his own employees.
He then distributed the video to the media, who accepted it without question.
That was a shameful thing for them to have done and it was an appallingly brazen, Murray-Lite thing for Lawwell to have done.
That interview haunts me a year on and should haunt us all.
In it he made the spurious claim that the absence of a team called Rangers in the top flight had cost our club £10 million.
He actually, at one point, suggested that they had been “sent down” to the lowest tier of the game instead of actually stating the simple truth that Sevco are a liquidated club that started where all football clubs should start.
And he defended the strategy, the one that sees him out on his own as the highest paid person at Celtic Park, which limits our transfer policy to “projects” and loanees. The one that saw us suffer a shattering series of defeats and reversals the last time we did make it to the Groups because the side from the previous year had been dismantled and the proceeds banked. The one that saw Lennon leave in disgust.
All of this seems to have been forgotten now, by those who’re telling us that our club is hamstrung by circumstances and geography.
It’s nonsense.
We are here because of decision made inside our own walls, and a policy that will not allow us to grow.
Is it too much that we ask, now, facing another year in the second tier of European football, for some kind of honesty out of Celtic Park?
If Lawwell has a vision, then let him get in front of the actual press – lets face it, we know they won’t make it easy for him – and articulate what that is.
Why aren’t they clamouring for it?
Why aren’t more of us clamouring for it?
Where is our club going?
Where does its ambition now lie?
Are the board satisfied with the performance of the manager?
Do they think they’ve done enough to support his ambitions? What are those?
Does he see us a Champions League team or does he think the Europa League is the level at which we ought to be competing?
These are only some of the questions that need to be asked.
Who the Hell is asking them?
Most of the Celtic blogs in the last 24 hours have suggested that this is a time for rallying around the flag.
Seriously.
For the third year in a row those of us who’ve been asking just what in the Hell is going on at Celtic Park have been told the time is not right for that conversation.
When will it be right?
What, exactly, are we waiting for?
What are the circumstances under which some of our supporters will snap out of the lethargy and start asking questions of those who are running us at the moment?
Even if those people are right – and this is all nothing more than a consequence of being stuck in Scottish football – where are the moves to change that?
What’s happening behind the scenes?
Are we lobbying?
Are we building alliances across Europe?
Are we considering legal avenues?
Or are people at Celtic Park sitting staring at the phone, waiting for the call from the EPL to tell us, a club that has spent less than £3 million trying to build a team to challenge for a Champions League place, that our presence is required in their league to make it whole?
I’m fully prepared for the inbox of vitriol for this article.
For all the stick I get from Sevco fans, the worst abuse that comes my way is always strictly reserved for those times I write negative stuff about my own club.
So, I’ll keep it simple.
This “faithful through and through” stuff is for mugs.
It’s a free ride to the people who are taking us backwards.
It’s dangerous and damaging to Celtic.
It’s the same mentality that had Rangers fans sleeping at the wheel when their club was speeding towards the abyss.
Unquestioning. Uncritical.
Accepting of any nonsense that comes through the official club channels.
And before someone starts foaming at the mouth, I’m not suggesting Celtic is heading that way.
I’m saying that real and lasting harm is being done to us and our reputation.
I know nothing will change.
I know this article is a waste of my time and energy.
I know the board considers us nothing more than customers who are entitled only to the answers they think we should have, and I know a lot of our fans are comfortable with where we are.
But silence isn’t an option here.
We deserve a vision.
We deserve those answers.
Celtic is something we love, and that we might be so cavalier in watching it lose its way appals me.
I’m damned if I’m sitting through it and keeping my mouth shut.
There’s an old aphorism that comes to mind today.
“It’s better to have tried and failed than to have failed to try.”
If only that mentality were alive inside Celtic Park, this article wouldn’t be necessary.
(I published my feelings in a longer article for On Fields of Green. You can read it here.)
James, are you advocating a Celt’s for change again as off pre Mc Cann
Your right James blind faith is fatal as has been proved recently. How Lawell gets it so easy is beyond me it really is I cannot get my head around it the guy should have been chased years ago instead he’s chased thousands of us away in disgust. Are the media giving him an easy ride because they can see the end game of the strategy the same as us & it wont end well for us & the realisation of every wet dream for them is coming true, we’re self destructing too only in a different, slower way than their beloved Rangers & are quietly letting Lawell get on with the job!!
Spot on
Agree wholeheartedly. A very honest article that says what many of us are thinking.
And also One thing I absolutely hate is hearing “over and over” . You know we’ve just had another embarrassing result when u hear it sung.
If they had gave Neil Lennon, more transfer money he maybe would have stayed as manager, losing 30million is a false economy.
I totally agree with everything this article says. Lawwell and Desmond need to go. We should be an aspirational club. We must aim higher. The shambolic dilution of quality in the squad over the last ten years has damaged our reputation in Europe, our UEFA co-efficient and even numbers willing to turn up at home games. This is the board’s true achievement. We are football fans, and we want to see the best Celtic team possible playing the best football they are capable of under the guidance of a great manager and a boardroom who want European success. The low ambition risk-free approach of the current board is endangering our position as one of Europe’s great clubs. I’m sick of it, and something needs to change…preferably the people who run the club!
We are going nowhere, stumbling from year to year picking up the easiest league trophy in Europe, a fate we will share with another club in a few short years time. No bigger picture. ‘Well run club’..yes, but we need new ideas if we want to see progress. Like so many Ihave long since accepted our place in the game, I expected to lose to Malmo, I expected to lose to Legia and Maribor..tbh I expected to lose to Quarabag.
That sounds like a negative person but I am anything but that, however our club has laid the foundations via their strategy that will help create such outcomes v clubs with not much more, if any, spending power than we have.
Many fans remain deluded or in denial about where we are at . Where we are headed is even more worrying and has been a concern of some for sometime.
We are forever in transition as the play offs approach, thus hindering our chances, along with the continued fairly pathetic efforts of the rst of the nations clubs over a fair period now, this makes it harder year on tear as the coefficient diminishes.
Sure we will get the occassional break and sneak in, We will also get the occassional excellent result, particularly at home, but overall, ask yourself this..Is the club progressing?
Short of a change of board, (unlikely) or the arrival of a mad billionaire willing to speculate to shape us into CL regulars, or even less likely a change of domestic setting then I fear we are leveling out to where we belong in the new world of football.
We need radical change..I’d join the conference league in England tomorrow if the chance arose..at least that is a road to somewhere…for no we are going nowhere.
No vision other than to fatten the calf and sell him on.
Someone asked me earlier to actually name Ronnys previous club..the proper correct name, not some bastardised half arsed guess…I couldn’t. So even at managerial level we are aiming for prospects.
I dont blame Ronny or even the players , though their are questions that can be asked of them.
Look at our recent managerial hunts?
Since MoN left. We employed a then out of work WGS…that went fairly well.
Gordon leaves..we start the hunt..
Knocked back by the then managers of Burnley and Wigan. Yes BURNLEY and WIGAN.
We finally appoint Mowbray. Didnt work..again these things happen,
After that we fcuked around for months before giving NL the job. First managerial job, Celtic FC. He did as well as could be expected.
And then we repalce Lenny with the manager of an unknown small club from a tiny league.
Again things like that can work out well. My point being everything is done on ‘the cheap’.
You cut too many corners you end up going around in a circle.
Sadly I dont see any easy way out of this for us.
Therefore to go back to my earlier point, I have accepted our current predicament as being as good as its going to get…with the occasional upturn.
Couldn’t agree more .
Watch the gaps on Saturday. Survey the empty spaces. Count the seats that remain unfilled. With the Champions League gone again there is little or nothing to inspire people back. Old fogies like me will be there anyway but I wouldn’t be urging people to come along. The sense of demoralization is palpable. I’m just on the way to the airport on my way home from Malmo. What we were treated too by Ronny Delia’s team is simply unacceptable. Really, it was the pits. Like rabbits in the headlights. Spineless. Gutless. Clueless. We deserve better, but as long as nobody is held responsible nothing will change. By the way domestically I don’t think our current trajectory will lead to 10 in a row. We have been far to complacent during Sevco’s absence. They have wind in their sails and will be knocking on the door sooner than we think. We need to catch ourselves on. That means in the boardroom, in the dressing room and on the park. Otherwise more pain and misery is inevitable.
We are going nowhere, stumbling from year to year picking up the easiest league trophy in Europe, a fate we will share with another club in a few short years time. No bigger picture. ‘Well run club’..yes, but we need new ideas if we want to see progress. Like so many Ihave long since accepted our place in the game, I expected to lose to Malmo, I expected to lose to Legia and Maribor..tbh I expected to lose to Quarabag.
That sounds like a negative person but I am anything but that, however our club has laid the foundations via their strategy that will help create such outcomes v clubs with not much more, if any, spending power than we have.
Many fans remain deluded or in denial about where we are at . Where we are headed is even more worrying and has been a concern of some for sometime.
We are forever in transition as the play offs approach, thus hindering our chances, along with the continued fairly pathetic efforts of the rst of the nations clubs over a fair period now, this makes it harder year on tear as the coefficient diminishes.
Sure we will get the occassional break and sneak in, We will also get the occassional excellent result, particularly at home, but overall, ask yourself this..Is the club progressing?
Short of a change of board, (unlikely) or the arrival of a mad billionaire willing to speculate to shape us into CL regulars, or even less likely a change of domestic setting then I fear we are leveling out to where we belong in the new world of football.
We need radical change..I’d join the conference league in England tomorrow if the chance arose..at least that is a road to somewhere…for no we are going nowhere.
No vision other than to fatten the calf and sell him on.
Someone asked me earlier to actually name Ronnys previous club..the proper correct name, not some bastardised half arsed guess…I couldn’t. So even at managerial level we are aiming for prospects.
I dont blame Ronny or even the players , though their are questions that can be asked of them.
Look at our recent managerial hunts?
Since MoN left. We employed a then out of work WGS…that went fairly well.
Gordon leaves..we start the hunt..
Knocked back by the then managers of Burnley and Wigan. Yes BURNLEY and WIGAN.
We finally appoint Mowbray. Didnt work..again these things happen,
After that we fcuked around for months before giving NL the job. First managerial job, Celtic FC. He did as well as could be expected.
And then we repalce Lenny with the manager of an unknown small club from a tiny league.
Again things like that can work out well. My point being everything is done on ‘the cheap’.
You cut too many corners you end up going around in a circle.
Sadly I dont see any easy way out of this for us.
Therefore to go back to my earlier point, I have accepted our current predicament as being as good as its going to get…with the occasional upturn.
you hit it on the head Vincent
When people have time and money invested in something, it’s only right they get emotional especially if that thing, makes you feel bad. The reason I think PL gave RD the managers job was because all the ‘big’ clubs in Europe where chasing a 15 year old from Norway. Did RD have a helping hand in producing this wonder kid? Celtic can’t afford to buy CL players but can RD produce them, only time will tell. HH
Right on the button Chrissy Bhoy. We need to look at development even closer now as looks like big signings won’t happen as no Champs League for the foreseeable future to generate the income to do this.
Peter Lawell (CEO) Glasgow Celtic FC. Please come down of your pedestal and face the fans, We need answers now and not later, That is two years running that we have not qualified for the champions league. Chris Sutton Ex-Player has hit the nail on the head, We are a Champions League Club, But we are not a Champions League Team, Where has all the money went for the sale of, Wanyama, Forster, Hooper (etc), We the fans are being treated like mushrooms, Kept in the dark and fed a lot of “S***, Look at last season honestly expected us to win the treble under our new manager which didn’t happen, Again I expect us to win the treble this season, But only time shall tell, It looks to me if the board are willing to sit in and accept that our great club, The club that we have all grown up with and the club that we all love and support from the bottom of our hearts, You do not want to lose the fans Mr Lawell, Because as someone once said (FOOTBALL WITHOUT THE FANS IS NOTHING) & Our Shirts Don’t Shrink To Fit Inferior Players. What I am really trying to say is please pull your finger out of your backside, The Greatest Supporters In The World Have Had Enough !!!
Well said and I back you 100% in stating your opinions, I feel the same as you!
HH
It felt like me writing this piece they are the exact thoughts that ran through my mind on Tuesday while watching the game.. Well said James.
This ” Policy ” of the boards, that we will sign players IF we qualify for the Champions league is seriously flawed.
We should be signing the right quality and standard of player to ENSURE we qualify. FFS.
We need a left back ( seem to say that every year now), a central defender who is of the same level as VVD and a proven goalscorer.
I haven’t been impressed by Boyata either, in fact he looks rafael.
Can the board not see this, do they watch the game?
We sell our best players for big transfer fees then replace them with cheaper. Inferior players.
We won’t be back in the Champions league until this ” prudent policy ” is done away with.
Disgusted!
GREAT ARTICLE.
I remember reading ‘somewhere’ that the Celtic jersey does not shrink to fit inferior players, well, in my opinion, the board is making these new jerseys from elastic, made to fit the inferior player!
Very dissapointed in the way the team has gone over the last two years. I dont see any progression and with VVD on his way out the door in readineess to replace john stones, im fookin fed up with it all!
I could not agree more Its a disgrace Desmond needs to go along with the rest of his crew who have strangled our great club They should sell club to people with proper vision and a plan to move us forward and develop us into a great club once again.The standard of our squad is the worst I have ever seen our fortress at Celtic park where teams used to fear is gone Interest in young people is starting to wane crowds are dwindling our record in Europe is apalling .More players will go very soon.What does the future hold?
Agree completely. Even when THEY were still around we mostly had a policy of ‘just one step ahead of THEM will do’… and that failed often enough letting THEM in when we should have been striding on ahead.
There is a justifiable pride in ‘faithful through and through’ but its being used against us, as the ‘hand wringing poverty’ card is played again and again. Meanwhile the slide into mediocrity continues.
Lawwell and the rest wave the ‘more than a club’ flag whilst running the club as feeder club for lesser clubs and then banking the profit.
I live way down andaluce… get this as a fact, our great Celtic FC is NO LONGER A BIG CLUB in people’s eyes…we are now a relic with a history that we are rightly proud of but a history that few if any other people know or care about – we are now ‘more than a club’ in our own eyes only.
We can kid ourselves all we like (and before the bile is launched – aye, my ma n da n my grand folks all tims, Dungannon roots if that matters)- we now support a club, a culture that binds us across the globe – BUT – it is increasingly a ‘history’ that we support as we fade away from the top tier of the game.
Its this inflated delusion of our place in the world game that Lawwell and his friends exploit to keep the happy clappers happy clapping -but i feel that more and more are now seeing through this and, hopefully, change is going to come – but it won’t come as long as the bulk of the support blithely accept our place in the second division of the game.
Yes, of course the TV $$$ generated elsewhere makes it tough, but its not impossible- other clubs prove this year in year out with less income than Celtic.
We need a new board that can match the vision and enthusiasm of the support, we need a new board that no longer patronise the support at every turn. We need a new leader.
I’m afraid that without serious change at the top, the mediocrity will continue apace – the 19,000 gates will return – some of us do remember those days.
So, the pretence is over – ‘more than a club’ for us now rings dreadfully hollow and in fact makes me embarrassed.
A change has gotta come and i think only the support can make that happen… happy clappers, when you going to see it like it is- we ain’t a museum, we’re supposed to be a football club, a sporting club – alive and bursting with energy at the challenges ahead … aye someday.
I will always have faith, faith in the Celtic support… HH.
Totally agree with your article James. I felt so frustrated watching that performance on Tuesday. Out fought and out thought. No real quality investment to help us reach the group stages. Will be there on Saturday but don’t expect a big crowd.
Nothing to add except perfectly written article as always James. I listened to 2fm last night were the discussion on Game On amounted to an unbelievable misinformation that was CELTIC don’t have money??? Oh they do and that’s the problem. It’s like being poor and winning the lotto.. Afraid to spend it incase you get poor again but that’s not happening with the club. They aren’t spending full stop. If I was one of the ST holders I’d want to know why???
An amazing club with fantastic facilities so why can’t that safe be broken open to buy decent players? There’s 4 days left until the end of the transfer window and a blind man could see we are crying out for defenders and a possible striker.. I defended why Lennon left and am glad I did because when Roy Keane turned down the job and revealed why he too was slated as Lenny was accused of walking away!! He had a vision for the club but sadly the board didn’t.. Xx
When teams like Malmo can dump us ..EASILY … in the end .. then something is FAR wrong. THAT is the truth. … this is not a one -off and most of us, if honest, know it. There are several teams right here in Scotland that have just about got us sussed also. To “Play Football the Glasgow Celtic Way” which was everything we stood for, seems to have been forgotten. I have been a supporter for over 60 years and have seen the good with the bad come and go. However the apathy and empty rhetoric coming from the Boardroom has finally made me turn my back, until they remember that THEY are there for the fans, NOT the other way round. as always COYBIG … we DESERVE better than this.
I agree with you 100% James, I was totally embarrassed with the performance on Wednesday night and I never thought I would ever be saying that, if I’m honest I’ve seen this coming for a few years now, something needs done to address this and I urge all the fans to take a stand for change and fast, we are to big a club to be embarrassed in Europe the way we are…HH
My unconditional respect and admiration good sir.
You have articulated what has been swilling around in my head for years about Mr Liewell and his chums.
First class article for those who truly love Celtic and it’s very fabric!!