The clock continues to tick down, and another day has almost gotten away from us.
Celtic fans have been bemused at the lack of activity.
Now they are just growing angry again.
Promises were made to the supporters. Nobody can argue that they have been kept yet.
In a mere eight days’ time, we begin competitive football.
Before then – in just four days’ time – the transfer deadline for the second qualifying round of the Champions League is upon us. For many months this site carried a countdown clock for this very match … when that clock started to tick there were over 150 days to go.
We’ve been in single digits since yesterday.
We have no way of knowing what is happening inside Celtic Park, of course, but from the outside looking in it seems as if the board has no interest whatsoever in whether we go through this round or not.
They’ve certainly done nothing to help the manager navigate the tie successfully.
In fact, at a time when he’s called for strengthening we’ve been busy negotiating sales.
Perhaps Dominic McKay has failed to realise a couple of things. The first of them is this; he will not be spared scrutiny and criticism and even damnation just because his name isn’t Peter Lawwell.
Fans had nothing personal against Lawwell.
Our issues were in how he ran the show, and this qualifying round is McKay’s first major test as chief executive.
And right now he’s grading an F for Failure.
Not by a little bit either, but by a lot. A whole lot. McKay is failing to even inspire confidence that deals can be done.
Whilst not wishing to accept what’s in the papers at face value, so many attempts to sign players have apparently begun but none has been completed save the Bosman signings already announced.
Simply put, if McKay can’t do this stuff better, and quicker, than Lawwell then he’s just as useless to Celtic as a club and the next time he appears in front of the fan media he’s going to be asked hard questions that will quickly wipe the smile off his face.
Right now it looks a lot like Celtic has given up on even trying to qualify.
What else have people inside the club given up on? A league title? Silverware? Hell, why not just call this a “year of transition” and concede that we might not even get second place?
In case it hasn’t dawned on those inside Parkhead already, Celtic fans are not prepared to accept a year of settling for second best. We aren’t interested in a title challenge but a league title.
We won’t accept less than the maximum effort expended to get that job done, and right now those running the club at the executive level are not delivering a damned thing.
There are just days left until the deadline for registering players for the Copenhagen game, and we’re going into it scandalously weaker than we were this time last year when we were preparing to face Ferencvaros, which was the night that started the collapse of our whole campaign. Aside from a manager who seems to know his business, where is the leadership and the action from the rest of those inside the club?
If we meekly surrender our Champions League place, and end up in the Europa League instead then fans back inside the grounds are the least of this board’s worries.
In fact, they will pretty soon wish that the supporters were back outside.
And yes, I expect to see the upper tiers shut for those meaningless fixtures come what may.