This article was sent to the Blog from a long-time reader and friend of the site.
So many fans of other clubs are calling Celtic fans entitled. I can definitely see why it seems that way to them. But we wouldn’t be acting like this if we were £50 million in debt. We just want our club to be the best it can be with the funds we’ve helped generate.
To me, entitlement would be seeing our club tens of millions of pounds in debt, staring oblivion in the face, and instead of standing up to the hierarchy and forcing change, demanding more star signings, higher wages, and increasing the debt mountain—all to preserve the perception of supremacy.
What some perceive as entitlement from Celtic fans is what saved our club from certain death in the early ’90s. We recognised complete mismanagement and incompetence by our board, and we did something about it, paving the way for Fergus to take over and create a paradigm shift in Scottish football.
Today is obviously different. Many fans see a board, once again, that isn’t acting in the best interests of our club. Some will say that’s utterly ridiculous, pointing to our unprecedented domestic success and the tens of millions in the bank, calling us entitled or spoilt.
That would be true if Celtic were simply a business. But we’re not. The business exists to support the club, and the club exists to put the best players on the pitch. We don’t show up every week to support a balance sheet or a set of accounts.
Our board is paralysed by fear. The fear that what happened across the city in 2012 could happen to us—which is patently ridiculous unless we’re about to embark on a multi-decade tax evasion scheme.
But more insidiously, I believe they’re paralysed by the fear of becoming so successful, so dominant, that the club across the city becomes completely irrelevant, and the Glasgow derby games lose their appeal.
The shocking decision by that club to reduce the away fans at Ibrox from 7,500 to 850, and both clubs reducing it to zero away fans in recent years, has already struck a near-fatal blow to the appeal of the fixture for non-combatants—to those who have no interest in the score, no dog in the fight, the millions around the world who’d tune in just to get a taste of the atmosphere and the madness of the game.
I think the loss of away fans has also impacted the actual passion on the pitch. I can’t be bothered looking up the stats, but from memory, it definitely feels like the number of red cards has reduced “concomitantly” with the reduction in away support.
Pundits, journalists, ex-players, and most importantly, the proper fans of both clubs want the full allocation returned.
I believe our board fears the erosion of that fixture’s appeal, not from our own fans’ point of view, but from theirs.
If we become what we’re entirely capable of becoming—an all-conquering domestic behemoth that can regularly reach the last 16 or quarter-finals of the Champions League—then the board, in my opinion, believes there’s a price to be paid. A price they believe is too high, and that is the complete reduction of the club across the city to “just another club we play”—the Espanyolification of them.
Ibrox fans will not accept that status, but if history shows us anything it’s that they also won’t do anything about it. They’ll just—despite what McCoist said in 2012—either walk away or sit on their hands. A cursory look at Ibrox crowds in the pre-Souness era will show that, as will their complete failure to act in the years leading up to Rangers’ liquidation.
My money is on the fans throwing in the towel and walking away. We’re already seeing it in microcosm at Hampden, albeit with extenuating circumstances.
I genuinely think that our board has gamed this all out and doesn’t like the scenario. That’s why so many fans have bandied about their opinion that the board is content to be a solitary point ahead of that club when the final whistle blows every season.
The board is engaged in manufacturing competition when there should be none. Creating the illusion for sponsors, their fans, and even our fans that there’s some notion of doubt and risk over where the league flag flies each year. That approach has cost us dearly in recent years and nearly catastrophically exploded in our faces last season.
The board of directors at Celtic Park is sacrificing our European aspirations on the altar of domestic sustainability. The irony is that too many supporters are finally realising it, and it may just be us who end up voting with our cash and our feet.
We competed in a rigged game when Rangers cheated for over a decade, then we suffered the ignominy of seeing the NewCo walk away with assumed titles and no stripping of tainted honours as there was “no sporting advantage.” Our board let that happen
Now, that same board is plainly terrified of getting too far ahead of the domestic pack and seems to be actively putting the brakes on progression.
So call it entitlement if you want. I call it being a supporter and wanting the team I support to be the very best it can be—within its means. I never want to see us rack up debt to be successful… that would be entitled. Call this what it is; ambitious.
Lumos is a Celtic fan and sometimes blogger.ou can find hm on Twitter @starryplough67
Excellent article. Comprehensive.
Board have always only interested in staying slightly ahead (10 in a row season proved that) also no interest in defending fans ala present me with th silver bullet Lawell.
This board have no connection with either the club or its support and as long as DD gets his dividend it will never change.
If any interest the tainted titles would have been removed.
Scottish football is dross… its not up to celtic to have the rest of the pack compete with us. Thats up to them. The domstic game should ne a sideshow with our ambition to be competetive the best we can in europe. We cannot accept going into this years tournament with 100 million in the bank with taylor n scales in the starting 11. That would be unforgivable.
I know of no Celtic supporter who believes we are or should be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
Indeed our entire history demonstrates the contrary: we have had to fight for everything we have won, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Only those who believe they are The People are the truly entitled.
Superb! I agree totally.
Don’t agree, we are sounding like that lot on the other side of the city. Young lad from Barcelona being called 2nd tier when know one has even seen him play. We can’t spend £30 million on any player as wages would be way out of our capabilities. Give the kid a chance before passing judgement ffs
Oh for Christs sake.
He’s called “second tier” because the highest level he has EVER played at is … Spain’s second tier.
Nothing but a fact. Nothing but a fact.
I take it you would have called Matt O’Riley third tier before he joined Celtic since he only had played in League one beforehand? Two years later sold for £30 million. Doesn’t matter where he has played it matters about what attributes he has. The fact that Barca fans didn’t want him to leave says it all. Give him a chance instead of constantly judging.
Ha! Asked and answered already!
For openers, Matt was not the original target. He was the second choice. And Matt was not being brought in, initially, to strengthen the starting eleven; it just so happened that he was immediately, obviously, good enough to do that. Matt was signed with a long term plan in mind, to augment a decent squad and we didn’t have European football to play any longer at that point so he wasn’t signed to spearhead a Champions League campaign. I thought he was an excellent signing, he had the right pedigree, and he was coming in to a good team which was in a good position to win things and the manager’s transfer strategy was obviously producing the goods and warrented our full trust.
This transfer policy merits no such thing. Nothing.
We’ll said although jf probably won’t post as his blanked previous attempts!
You know what I love about your post? You’ve agreed with a post that’s clearly on the site, with a snipe about how I would never put it on the site, and you’ve said I’d blank it although my reply to it is literally right there underneath it.
I’d call that pretty stupid, but that’s just me.
Well Said James, Some Fans Are Thick
I don’t know what’s more depressing,the parasites running the club for the greedy selfish needs,Or the gullible fans that keep giving the selfish greedy parasites a stage to keep preforming each & every season.!
Very Good Point Sir
There’s not one iota of entitlement on display here! That claim could only be suggested if Celtic were breaking even or struggling financially, and the fans were demanding signings regardless. Even if the board keep all the money the manager, players and fans have earned them, they only need to spend the proceeds of MOR’s sale to support their Manager and loyal supporters.
Excellent! 100% Correct!!
I meant to add that the fans aren’t exactly protesting in any meaningful way!
Great article Lumos. Be aware though that the apologists will be on here slating your comments because Uncle Peter says so.
That guy screaming at Lawwell was an absolute village idiot, and an embarrassment. I mean he could have said something like “ Peter, we have a week left to the transfer window shuts, are we any further forward with getting bodies in the door”. Instead he comes away with “ get the money spent”, I mean were was the diplomacy in that, the guy was a clown, and lacked manners. Whether you agree or disagree with the lack of transfers.. that’s not a way to behave, it made our fans look like scum, and neds. There is a bit of an entitlement amongst some of our fans, especially clowns who talk to people like that. Celtic will get business done, in an ideal world it would have been done by now, but we will get some in, I’ve no doubt about that.
Absolutely disagree with all of that.
Lawwell only faces fans once a year, at the AGM, and he’s a patronising prick at those.
These people, all of them, are reaping what they sow and as long as people keep it to verbals they have every right and I welcome it.
if the board can remember murray would have put us out of business if he had his way remember the for every£5 I’ll put down £10 apparently he has said he would have saw celtic go bust and couldn’t care less about them someone should remind them HH
Fans supporting these signings are going to have a wake up call next season. A goalkeeper on a 1 year loan. A left back on loan. For 1 year. While our current left back has a year to run on his contract. How is this forward planning. We also need another centre back and midfielder. Probably another wide player and likely a back up for Kyogo and Idah.
There is no footballing forward planning with those board but plenty of cash short termism. Next season we are likely going to have to play qualifiers to get into the Champions League. Unless the experience that the manager and the club needs is brought in, then all our chickens will come home to roost and the CL group stages will start to vanish over the horizon while we are left winning domestically in a Scottish backwater.
What an excellent piece. That is Celtic PLC encapsulated in a nutshell. The big question is will the support boycott for one game to make the point, or will they do nothing and send the message to the board to “carry on regardless”. Time will tell, but I for one ain’t holding my breath. HH.