Celtic has “reminded” fans that they have until Friday next week, at 5pm, to get their season tickets renewed, in the latest attempt to bully folk who are seriously underwhelmed by present goings on at the club.
Today there’s been a flurry of announcements, from the signing of some young kid few of us have ever heard of to the contract renewal of a reserve keeper.
None of it is going to plug the glaring holes in our team-sheet.
None of it is going to offer the appearance that our club takes at all seriously the awesome size of the job the new manager has embarked on.
The long and short of it is that we have wasted another week which we didn’t have.
We are now four weeks away from the only deadline that matters; the Champions League player registration deadline for the Second Qualifying Round.
That falls on 15 July. The first game is on 20 July.
We are less prepared for that game than for any match of such significance in my living memory.
This entire club is dragging its feet, on everything from getting the manager over here to getting signings in the door.
What a brass neck they have to make demands of the fans, especially with so much uncertainty surrounding the club and whether or not fans will even be able to get into games.
For the club to be trying to force people to adhere to such a deadline at a time like this is frankly shocking and reeks of arrogance inside the walls. It also reeks of panic.
Celtic claims to be “unable” to extend the deadline this year; this is presumably because they intend to ballot for physical attendance at games based on a 1 July deadline.
They are trying to rush you into making a decision because after 1 July you will almost certainly not be able to attend games at Celtic Park until the current restrictions limiting attendance are completely removed and everyone is allowed back in.
(The SLO is doing a sterling job, as ever, trying to get clarification on that.)
I strongly suspect that this club will suffer an enormous loss of numbers from the way we’ve been run this summer.
The incompetence of this board has resulted in a vast disconnect between them and ordinary supporters. Nothing that has happened this past week has reversed that damage in any way, shape or form.
It is now almost certain they will not reach the renewals threshold.
For that failure they will punish fans who for whatever reason haven’t renewed.
This is what the club thinks of the people who literally keep its lights on.