Tonight, one of those stories broke that we should all be careful lending too much credence to.
Still, if it’s true it’s a pretty big deal.
It’s a story about how Fergal Harkin was on the brink of signing up for Celtic as Director of Football, only for a boardroom squabble to torch the deal.
Did it happen? The author of the story is Kieran Devlin, of The Athletic, who claims to have dressing room sources amongst other things.
We don’t know if that’s true, but there are people on Celtic cyberspace who swear this guy knows his stuff.
The story is certainly not hard to believe. McKay’s dismissal is one of the red letter moments in the recent history of this club and we know that there had to have been a severe breakdown between him and the board for them to take such action so quickly.
Whatever happened was momentous, it had to be.
This is why the silence out of the club is so incredible and scandalous; no organisation that loses its CEO so swiftly should be quite so blasé about it as we have tried to be.
It is a consequential move and we have treated it, thus far, as if we simply got rid of the guy who puts the cones out in training.
Tonight’s story suggests that this shabby affair has cost us more than a chief executive; this inability between the people at the top of our club to act professionally and responsibly may have cost us a director of football as well.
Even weeks after McKay left the club, that critical hole is yet to be filled.
Nicholson slid into McKay’s seat before it even stopped being warm, but if he’s effective in any way we’ve yet to see it.
Still this club continues its disgraceful policy of silence.
Remember the summer, when we were being accused of being spoiled and entitled and full of our own importance?
Well, sitting here tonight with our club still having no head of scouting and neither a DOF or a CEO you can see clearly what egotism and entitlement really look like.
The following link will take you to an interesting article about Brentford, which you may remember was a team Dom thought Celtic might learn from.
https://premierleaguenewsnow.com/football-through-data-science-brentford-ideologies-make-them-most-interesting-team-join-premier-league-since-leagues-inception/
It’s worth reading. Brentford have a DoF (Lee Dykes) who is apparently doing an excellent job. On the subject of finances the article states:
“…raising money is well and good until you know how to use it, where to use it, and if its usage has been efficient. Dykes keeps track of all these things and more. People outside of football feel that the job of a sporting director is a desk job and something retired players take up after the end of their career. Dykes is an example of the fact that nothing could be further from the truth, which is that a sporting director is responsible for how a team looks at the start of the season.” More details in the article.
Brentford also have a charismatic owner:
“Brentford’s way of thinking stems from its charismatic owner in Matthew Benham. As Dykes says: ‘It’s Matthew’s way of thinking. We were one of the first clubs to employ a throw-in coach, a set-piece coach, we were the first to employ a sleeping coach. We teach young players how to cook. We have all these things that we plough into individual development.’”
Throw-in coach, set piece coach! Just compare, as Dom did, with Celtic! No surprise he left as he knew Celtic ‘s absent owner just wouldn’t be interested in investing in the development of Celtic until it’s in the EPL.