GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEBER 22: A general view of the top table during the 2023 Celtic Annual General Meeting at Celtic Park, on November 22, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Just over a month ago, I wrote a little piece on this site where I said that I finally recognized the people running our club—they are lacking ambition, sure, but that’s not all of it. I said that what they reminded me of were gamers, but not just any old gamers; not those who play for pleasure and to unwind at the end of the day. I’m talking about those who play to test themselves constantly against the machine, against the AI.
They do this in various ways, like upping the difficulty or restricting their own player. Every time they succeed in meeting one challenge, they have to go harder the next time. They have to make the job tougher, or there’s no thrill.
Doing more with less—it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. It’s intentional.
And it’s not about anything other than ego. It’s about telling the rest of the world how good you really are.
There are guys online who stream their games. There’s one in particular called “Legend of Total War.” He plays the sort of games I enjoy—strategy games—and, of course, the Total War series is his favourite.
“Legend of Total War” sets himself virtually impossible challenges and then finds ways to complete them. He’s become the master of what’s called “cheesing” the game. He knows every single exploit in the engine. He knows what every single power up and level up does. With such a breadth of knowledge of all the mechanics, he can do things no other player can do. He can win battles with a single unit. He can conquer the Warhammer map in a single turn, using an army whose entire play style is based on momentum: conquer a settlement, you get another turn; conquer a settlement, you get another turn. As a result, he can do it all in a few hours.
When I said that this is what our directors were like, that this was the kind of people they were, everyone said I was nuts—or most people did. Those familiar with gaming probably recognised the parallel as well as I did. But what about now, a month on? How does it look today? Do people still think I was completely wrong?
What kind of people would send the manager into this weekend’s game, at this stage in the window, with a weaker team than the one that ended last season?
What kind of people would send this club into the final week with so much to do and a game against the Ibrox club looming at the end of it?
These people have heard for so long that they are geniuses that they believe it. There’s a section of our support that refuses to criticise them, refuses to recognise that the successes we’ve enjoyed were achieved in spite of them, not because of them.
A lot of our fans have been seduced by the idea that all the trophies, all the titles, are down to their brilliant leadership.
And so, these people genuinely believe it, because they’ve been allowed to believe it. The sycophants who surround them on match days have told them so. People in the media—people whose judgment they wouldn’t trust on any other issue, and who we wouldn’t trust either—have told them over and over again that they are the masters of Scottish football’s universe and that they are geniuses. So why wouldn’t they believe it?
Even the way this transfer window is being conducted convinces me that these people are driven by the same sort of fixation that some gamers have to prove their mettle, to prove that they can stand their ground. I’ve felt it myself during games.
There’s a game called “Hitman: World of Assassination,” which I’ve mentioned before, where you go around the world and commit hits for hire. There have been times when I’ve taken out the targets but felt a bizarre compulsion to complete all the other bonus objectives, even though that’s risky and stupid. But there’s a part of me that gets overconfident, that thinks, “Yeah, I can do this.” And frequently, that has ended in disaster.
It seems to me that we have deliberately—because I cannot imagine this is anything else—set out to make this as difficult as possible.
Leaving things until the last minute is recklessness beyond belief, and don’t listen to a single person who tells you that there’s some underlying strategy to this. There isn’t.
As I pointed out earlier today, there is no underlying sense to scrambling about when everyone knows that you’re in dire need of pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Clubs know we’re desperate. Clubs won’t sell players this late in the window. Clubs know we have money to burn, and so even if they do sell, they’ll jack up the prices on us. It makes no sense, unless there’s no real intention to spend that money or you are wilfully making things harder than they need to be.
Do you remember during the COVID campaign when it became blatantly obvious that Lennon had to go? I know there were all different moments when individual fans drew that conclusion; For me, it was after the heavy defeat against Sparta Prague at Celtic Park.
But by the time we were knocked out of the League Cup, I think everyone had reached the same conclusion—everyone except the Celtic board.
Do you remember the spin they put on it?
Do you remember when they leaked to the media that they were not going to be bullied, that they were not going to be told what to do?
They shouldn’t have had to be told what to do. It should have been crystal clear what they had to do.
Lennon had blown it. He’d lost the dressing room. The club was in freefall. The solution was simple, but they made it a test of strength—them against the fans.
They were the ones who told the media, “We will not be bullied.” And so, they kept Lennon in place for a couple more months, just so it wouldn’t look as if they’d given in to fan pressure. And that did our club untold damage in the meantime.
That’s the kind of mad stuff these people prioritize—looking tough, having the brass neck to face down the supporters and even the manager. Having “the guts” to brazen out a strategy which even a child could see is bound to end in utter failure.
That’s where we are, and that’s why we’re here.
The more they repeated this mantra about everything being fine because we’d sort it all in the last stages of the window, the more determined they were to leave everything until then, to prove how tough they were, to prove that they could do it, to set themselves the biggest possible challenge in the face of our criticism.
And I don’t know whether they even intend to pull it off. I’m not even convinced that they want to. I’m not even convinced that they will try.
I think the greater challenge is making Rodgers work with a weaker team than last season, putting tens of millions more in the bank, and still coming out of it at the head of the title winners and quite possibly even the treble winners.
They know Ibrox is a shambles. They’ve seen that club’s dreadful, dilapidated state. And they know that they should be no match for us.
So why not? Why not give the manager less to work with? See if he can do it. See if he’s up to the challenge. Let the whole world watch as the bank balance swells to gargantuan and ever more obscene proportions while the team goes backward and still manages to win.
Why not? Why wouldn’t they chance it? Will they pay the price for it if it all goes pear-shaped? No, they won’t. If we ended up back in the early Lawwell days of trading title for title with a club across the city – remember, Rangers won the three titles in a row before they went out of business, whilst Lawwell smugly sat and cracked jokes – these people won’t give a damn.
But if the manager manages to do more with less, if the manager manages to secure us a title, a double, a treble, if he manages to somehow get something out of this squad that none of us knew was there and makes strides in Europe—if these players give everything they have and then a little more and hit all the heights and do magical things—Lawwell, Nicholson, McKay, and the rest of them know full well there are people among our support and in the press who will give them—not the boss or the players, but them—all the credit for that.
As long as people refuse to recognise the real source of Celtic’s recent successes, as long as people refuse to acknowledge that perhaps these aren’t geniuses after all, but have been fêted so long that they believe they are, we’re going to keep running into this brick wall.
Nothing about this window adds up.
As a strategy, it is reckless, it is lunatic, it is dangerous, it is self-destructive. And I can only conclude one of two things: It’s either all those things because the people running Celtic want us to fail, or these people think they’re so good that we can’t fail with them at the helm—a theory we almost tested to destruction last season.
Perhaps if we look back at Celtic history it will become evident that no matter how strained the relations become between The Rangers and Celtic on the surface the Celtic hierarchy will endeavour to keep them viable as opponents
Interesting pose Brendan. Looks like you are at a funeral. Perhaps the one where you leave Celtic.
James they’re not effing spending, surely you see it man !
Firstly, completely agree with everything said especially as the board may have taken in a possible £100 million profit this coming season.
Europe =£60,000.000 (keeps changing)
O’Riley= £30,000,000
Others= + £10,000,000
This is not including the rumoured but unlikely Hatate and Kyogo transfers
Secondly, I would like to point out something positive.
O’Riley, talented as he is went awol in the Cup final where Bernardo riding a foul battered the ball goalwards for Idah to finish the rebound. We still have those two if only BR would start them.
Shocking as it may seem, I would take Bernardo over O’Riley as he is the only midfielder who runs with the ball into the opposition box. Something MacGregor should do more often.
Are you for real. O’Riley is far better than Bernardo.
I still say that this is like 2 stags , Brendan and Liewell going head to head to see who is the alpha male . Brendan got Mark Liewell sacked and pistol Pete is holding a grudge and is determined to get Brendan back for getting Petes boy off the gravy train . Who’s going to win ?
Disappointed that Brendan is hoping for rather than demanding the signings he needs.
If the board don’t support Brendan in this window then they don’t seem to realise that this would be a bad business decision as well as a football one.
The combination of this year’s CL being the last one that Celtic need to perform in to possibly keep automatic qualification, and the fact it’s a bit easier to get through to the knockout phase, makes it a business no-brainer to reinforce the squad. I believe the top 24 teams out of 36 will go to the play-offs, so the board are either deciding that Celtic won’t be good enough to finish 24th regardless of whether reinforcements are brought in, or it’s not a priority for them. They’re taking a huge gamble with the club’s money if this is the case, which doesn’t appear to make good business sense.
I feel the dynamic has changed and BR is happy enough just to be here. The first time round he seemed to have a bit of clout but now he seems beaten down and happy enough to be earning the large salary despite what he says.
Maeda scoring those two goals got them out of a hole with BR saying they aren’t buying anymore strikers as they don’t need them.
Having said that I think there will be some signings this week.
Charlie your right about Rodgers if I was on a reported £3 million I would just sit with my puss shut as well.
Some idiots think our board are doing a great job.
I, personally, do not believe they’re supporters of the club as the real supporters want the best for the club and it is clear they and their apologists don’t. It is all to do with balance sheets and bonuses. Does Nicholson actually exist because no-one ever sees or hears from him and he is only following what Lawwell is probably telling him. Regardless what happens in the next week I wish that the board would all just get to f**k.Their arrogance and apparent self centred Ness is astounding. We will most definitely be weaker than last season but they don’t care.
I am surprised everyone is surprised. This the classic behaviour of a group of extractive owners -exploiting the brand of Celtic for personal enrichment, for status and for power. They don’t own the Celtic brand – the fans, supporters are players do. The board are entrusted to grow and strengthen the brand -what Celtic stands for. The board have lost that trust, and ‘dined out’ on the teams success. Time for them to move on or to be pushed out
The support can let the money men know by not buying one ticket for the European games and boo them at every home game for the rest of the season. The manager and team have no backing in Europe from all the football geniuses in suits. They should be embarrassed by the way the European teams can pick us off in these tournaments year after year. They’re a disgrace.
There are many truths in what you say about board deficiencies or failures even. The 2nd part, or before Xmas, of Lennon’s 2nd tenure is spot on with McGinn and Toney being further examples where perhaps the tightness of the strings prevented quality signings but it’s also not all been dreadful. There have been positives too and something not better presented. The recent acquisition of managers over the last few years, has been shrewd. BR wants a downsize in squad numbers this time around and that’s being delivered. He wants a few more players of quality in and that’s the task that we’re all going to judge next Saturday. The many of us that aren’t shouting our mouths off yet are not board supporting men but more balanced fans that can handle any anger at the transfer timing better. Some have fallen into what Ange achieved and think that’s how it should be from now on, and always the model but he had an insight into a market at an affordable price.We’ve signed players earlier in windows that have barely kicked a ball in the first team, so clearly it’s not a one trick pony. Risk averse management appears to be the boards’ approach, like it or not, and to be honest it’s brought a high level of success though not on a European level. Level headed supporters want that too but certainly don’t want to blow the bank to try to do so. There are no guarantees as many clubs have failed in this approach, Leeds a club that’s never truly recovered as a result and Glasgow Rangers a club that went bankrupt was liquidated and died for example. Casting aspersions, talking down fans that want the same outcome as you but are more patient, more balanced and manage their anger better is just a rambling risk bust nonsense. Wait until Saturday and then you’ll have all the evidence required to make a balanced assessment one way or another.
It’s the same mantra year after year , the quicker this board fks off the better, this has absolutely nothing with patience of fans , we’ve had the piss ripped out of us for too long since lawwell slithered out of the shadows and again running riot with his mammoth messiah complex, he needs to go now the man is selling every player he can to reap more money, he’s obsessed, his son signings are getting chased , he fkn hired him , it’s jobs for the boys, all hail peter, get shot of the lot of them it’s not a dynasty it’s 1 man’s dictatorship.
I get surprised that folk get surprised at our transfer efforts. There is zero evidence to expect anything different & it just ends up in a loop of repeating complaints, pleas, & despondancy.
Schaupenhauer helps in these situations.
Even if they fail in this window. They’ll be confident enough tae believe, the support will still buy up the £200 CL package. So nae worries there.
Im still convinced that hidden somewhere within the 5WA is some kind of caveat that we cannot get too far in front of them, they must be within reach of us, even if that means managed decline of our squad. TV deals could even have the same, there simply must be a competitive Sevco or no deal.
Ive never known off the charts behaviour that Sevco have exhibited this last decade, but you can’t help but feel they know they have all the big boys by the balls and can do whatever the hell they want.
The board’s only footballing goal is to narrowly beat Ibrox. The standard of Scottish football will fall this season as Ibrox falters and we lower ourselves to their level.
The Champions league will not go well and the board will not increase the fanbase in the face of many European losses.
Celtic will continue to put money in the bank.
We’re winning Trophy after Trophy. Yet this board make me sick to my stomach. I should B happy and looking forward to the Champions League, and all I can see is heavy defeats. Totally agree with you James.
5th columnists to a man. Time to get rid.
I came to the same conclusion during the 10 in a row season the celtic board DD included want us to fail they much prefer win a title or 2 then they do the same thus keeping sky and other media interest high we are going nowhere fast under their stewardship.Please everyone don’t fall for the usual spin “but it’s not easy bringing in new signings” that’s bull every club in the world from albion rovers to real madrid sign players no problem no one but no one should buy a champions league match package hit them where it hurts in the pocket because regardless of the money generated from ticket sales or transfer fees they are not investing in the team.