I get some wonderful stuff in the inbox, I really do.
This fine day, there’s a cracker.
An ill-tempered, foul rant from a Sevco fan who claims to be an “in the know” person, and the knowledge he has imparted to me was supposed to be shocking to the core. We will sell Dembele in this window. The manager will get none of the money.
The cash will not be going on players or a new hotel or infrastructure. It will not be salted away for a spending spree this summer. It is for saving the club itself, by paying for enormous, and immediate, stadium repairs without which we’re effectively shut.
“Celtic Park is falling down. It’s a well-known fact.”
That’s what he said.
Apparently, although Celtic has been trying to cover it up this information is … everywhere.
Well, did you know that? I certainly didn’t, and I try to keep abreast of all this stuff.
I thought I would scan social media to see if there was any sign that other people know it. And what I found was not really terribly surprising. There has been some chit-chat about this in various places, the sub-basement of the Sevco fan sites and such like.
And it seems they believe it.
Celtic Park probably has more annual maintenance done to it than any other stadium in the country. This is both necessary and worth examining.
Our ground was built to a high standard, but we didn’t go overboard with the mod-cons and spent the kind of money Hampden did on a single stand. Our ground was done, if you want to put it like this, on the cheap. And that means a higher ratio of repairs and replacements than you’d get with something built out of iron and concrete.
It’s modern stadium design. It is perfectly viable and perfectly safe. We take this stuff seriously. In all the years New Celtic Park has been open there was one incident – the guttering from the roof – which caused us a problem and that saw a game called off. We know which one, and we know what happened in the replay. Those facts aren’t relevant here or to the wider point. Celtic Park has an annual repair and replacement schedule.
There is no imminent problem with the stadium, primarily because we do keep up with these things and we do fix problems when they appear. We don’t simply tape them up and forget about them for five and ten year spells, which was, and is, the problem with Ibrox.
Ibrox’ problems are a matter of public record. They have been admitted to by the club. They have been spoken about in a courtroom. They have been the subject of freedom of information requests. They are not based on rumour and conjecture. They are a fact.
Celtic Park is not “falling down.”
The number of times I’ve heard this over the last five years, it’s incredible. Not this specific story, which is a peculiarly new one, but a variation on the same theme; Celtic stands on the brink of a major catastrophe which will wipe out all our work at a stroke.
Here are the Best of The Rest.