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Celtic Is Not Yours.

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You have the keys to the building. You have your seats in the stand. You sit in the restaurant before every game like the lords of all creation, waiting for your opposite numbers at other clubs and those who flutter around you to pay homage.

Yet nothing that surrounds you actually belongs to you.

You have the power to hire and fire, and that’s a power you have used, especially in the past week. You have control of the purse strings and you guard the surplus fiercely. You wear the official ties and your office doors have your nameplates on them. You have prominent parking places, and you come and go with pomp and assuredness even amidst chaos.

Yet Celtic remains bigger than your egos, even accounting for their swollen nature.

You have the smug confidence of those who are untouchable, as if history itself were something within your control. But history is full of examples of those who ruled unchallenged for years only to be brought crashing down. You have the arrogance which comes with complacency and an all-encompassing sense of entitlement, as if this were all yours by right.

Yet any such belief is nothing by an illusion.

You are, as Ange pointed out, transient figures in a long and unbroken history which stretches out behind you and continues to evolve in front of you. The future is already happening, and it will happen whether you are at Celtic Park or not.

Yet you labour under the misapprehension that you can do with Celtic what you will.

But Celtic belongs to those who built it, and that wasn’t done by you and those you share space with in the stands or the restaurants or the boardroom. We are not dependent on the whims of a sugar-daddy. Nor are we some minor club elevated above our station by a gush of temporary TV money.

Yet you treat us with contempt, as if you don’t understand this.

But Celtic belongs to the people who buy tickets every week, who fund the transfer pot and your own remuneration. When you look around you – and I urge that you do – you may be under the mistaken belief that because you currently have “control” of some shares or the “confidence” of those who do that Celtic depends on you.

Yet the people Celtic depends on are those you treat with such disdain.

So be aware, if you weren’t already, and that I feel we have to remind you is not a good sign. You are merely custodians. You are not special. The club should come before everything, but too often you seem to forget that and act on your own whim.

Yet Celtic is not yours.

Celtic belongs to us.

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  • Arthur Kelly says:

    Excellent article.

  • Seanavich says:

    Well said I hope the board read this as you are spot on!

  • JOHN says:

    Arrogant gits think they are above everyone. They continually abuse their positions. Their day will come.

  • George Gemmell says:

    Desmond Dermot and the rest of them Should remember one thing Glasgow Celtic will be about When they are long forgotten And pushing up daisies This club does not belong to them It belongs to the supporters And the generations which follow them

  • Anthony McQuade says:

    Complete Agreement. Our Aunts and Uncles . Mums and Dads Grandparents and Great Grandparents And now our children and grandchildren are what CELTIC ARE .NEVER FORGET THESE FACTS
    Some of you in the boardroom acknowledge these FACT . Too many sit back and do NOTHING !!!!!

  • Pat Divers says:

    Your best arttical yet james ,love your stuff ,I’m 72 hh

  • Peter cassidy says:

    When you have a shareholder pulling the punches and thinks he owns celtic and now we hear his sons getting involved will not end well dictatorship thats whats and is at celtic at present.never liked Desmond thought he was only interested in making more money trying to get us into the epl came unstuck him and liewell over many years have held celtic back by their mismanagement of our club and greed and big egos looks like we are back to square one won’t be surprised if that #unt liewell creeps back but then again he never left .

  • Brian says:

    Words are all good and well, but until we the fans do something about it they will do what they want. Mobilise people or nothing changes

  • theinsideman1 says:

    Mike Ashley. Would be a better custodian for Celtic than Dermot Desmond & thats no exaggeration. He would realise you wouldn’t need to break the bank to release Celtics ambition s. No not the gentry. Theirs so just a scam they have become accustom to that lavishly funds their millionaire lifestyle s. They are lychees& blood suckers who are only motivated by their own self gain.

  • Jorge says:

    You correctly identify the problem we have and the individuals – all of the board members – who are responsible; personally I get angry at the thought of Brian Wilson being on the board of our club, but that is a perhaps a small part of the problem. What I would like to know is how the current set-up can be changed, given their massive shareholding and voting power, and who is going to lead it?

  • Thewildgoose says:

    See until punters stop buying season tickets and merch nothing will change. Money is the only language these people understand. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any appetite for that so until then get used to it.

  • John Gorbals says:

    I’m sure they have read this article James, and have taken a good long look at themselves.

    The romantic idea of Celtic belonging to the fans died a long time ago. Fans are walking wallets. That’s all.

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