The Village Idiots per journalist Hugh Keevins tried, at the weekend, to spin Celtic’s coming AGM into something the manager would be embarrassed by. He tried to maintain that the manager felt that way about the protests in Dundee.
Perhaps he didn’t listen to the words Ange said in the aftermath of that game. Perhaps he just doesn’t give a damn.
Keevins is a clown who thinks his own fantasies represent reality.
In his mind he thinks this is how Ange should have acted, so that’s how he puts it in the article.
But the manager is more savvy than that.
He understands that when he got here there were issues between the fans and the board. He understands full well that those issues still exist. This man knows what’s going on around him.
Nothing that happens at the AGM tomorrow will, in any way, disrupt Ange or the team.
These are events outside of his vista and outside the zone of responsibility for the team. Celtic’s shareholders are not happy at how the club is being run. It is not happy with grey old men sitting in the director’s box all these years and contributing nothing.
Celtic’s shareholders want to see that the manager is not the only person at the club with a plan. The rest of them don’t seem to have a clue and just saying “we are the ones who hired this guy” aren’t enough.
Ange wasn’t their first pick.
The choice they made before him was a disaster. These people couldn’t even keep their CEO in place for three months.
The message from the fans to the players and the coaches is simple; we back the team even if we want to sack the board.
We don’t have to prove our loyalty to anybody.
Our loyalty is measured in our refusal to accept these second-raters running things.
Our commitment is measured in season ticket sales and merchandising even in a campaign like last season, where one of our ambitions was snatched away from us in part by this board’s utter incompetence.
No-one gets to tell us that we shouldn’t be making all this noise over these people.
These people take out of the club, they don’t put anything in.
They get their seats for free, and all we ask of them is that they have a coherent strategy for the future and they don’t.
No more of this. No more of being treated like fools.
The manager knows that he has every bit of support that the stands can give him. He doesn’t have to worry about what’s going on elsewhere at Celtic. The issues between the fans and the directors don’t influence him at all.
We’re not going to stop putting in money. We’re not going to stop turning up to games.
But it’s high time those directors started catching some heat … and from tomorrow, when they no longer have the mandate from the stands, they will catch it like never before.
And through it all, we will give the team and its outstanding manager every bit of backing we can.
…and those same Directors will no doubt be automatically reappointed tomorrow.
Will there be any significant changes / improvements off the field – whilst Desmond remains?
The Board have underperformed in the past two seasons but no-one really complained too much during 9-in-a-row, a remarkable achievement. It is most definitely the ‘end of shelf life’ for some. However, the structure of the club is the purview of the shareholders and care would have to be taken that the right replacements are available. Mislaying a CEO raises the question as to whether the shareholders and the Board are ‘on the same page’ as, seemingly, the majority of supporters/customers.
Well said, this needed saying and i’m absolutely in full agreement