Nothing shows up the shambles at the heart of Sevco than the colossal mess they have made over the launch of their new replica kit.
Yesterday, news broke that Celtic are about to launch their third strip of the summer.
Whatever you think of that, whatever you think of the strip itself, this is how it works these days.
I have bought a new shirt every year for a long time; it’s usually a matter of choosing a favourite of those released. This year I will buy two, including the home strip. I will choose carefully between the away kid and the “European strip”.
I know some people will buy all three, and perhaps more than once. Because kids like to have the new shirts as they come out, and as cynical as the marketing process is we can’t deny that it’s part of what enabled our club to grow. The New Balance strips are also excellent, including the new home strip which I like in spite of the “broken hoops.”
Sevco fans have had a dreadful summer in that regard. They cannot yet purchase a home kit. They have no idea what the away strips actually look like, although numerous online leaks suggest that at least one of them will be a ghastly sectarian orange.
I have never seen a more shambolic launch from a new manufacturer. It’s the second summer in a row that their fans haven’t been able to get their hands on a new shirt, and although they will certainly be able to buy Hummel shirts at some point this season it’s still not even clear from which outlet they will be able to get them.
The state of that club. Wow.
Not only did they not do a proper launch but right now they have no means of selling the shirts when they do go on sale, apart from their own website. To even store the shirts would require warehouse space, and unless they are renting it themselves and hiring professional pickers and distributers there’s no way of shipping them to supporters.
The mess they have made of this is monumental.
By the time the second and third shirt designs are public – and remember, they were supposed to have been in the hands of the SFA two months ago – they will be looking at launching all three simultaneously and that will assure that they sell far less of them than they otherwise would.
And that, of course, eats into the bottom line.
On top of that, they will need to find a distributor – it will almost certainly be Sports Direct, when the club runs begging to them and offers them a stonking contract – and that too will cause delays and cost money.
It is an absolute shambles which the media would be all over if it was happening at Celtic Park.
And in the meantime, the machine rolls on. Celtic continues to be a marketing juggernaut, doing things smoothly with precision. The contrast between the clubs is even greater off the pitch than it is on it, and there the gulf is already causing Gerrard sleepless nights.