So tonight the story is out there that we’ve gone back to Norwich with an improved bid for Idah.
I’ll write more about that tomorrow.
But for now let’s at least welcome it for being a step in the right direction in relation to the PR war, which we’ve been badly losing for weeks.
Today was a case in point.
One of the key issues with this board of directors is their poor handling of public perception. We’ve discussed this several times, and the problem is simple: in the absence of clear information, rumours, misinformation, disinformation, half-truths, and outright lies fill the void.
Today, we saw one of the consequences of that, with stories circulating about transfer deals the club supposedly failed to close.
There’s no evidence that Celtic was ever seriously interested in Scott McKenna, yet his decision to sign with another club is being spun as a Celtic transfer snub or a failure to get the deal over the line. This is exactly the problem: when there’s no news, nonsense fills the gap.
McKenna might have been a good signing for Celtic, and he’s been available on a free for months.
I would happy with a move for McKenna.
But the club didn’t move for him.
I’m sure Celtic explored the idea with his agent’s, and heard their demands, but McKenna was asking for an extortionate wage, far beyond what Celtic was willing to sanction. Any negotiations would have stalled at the point where personal terms were discussed, with Celtic likely walking away once they saw the numbers.
So, I’m not convinced there was ever a deal on the table.
I’m not convinced Celtic’s interest went beyond the initial stages. But it doesn’t surprise me to see stories suggesting we’ve been snubbed or that this is one that got away. This is what happens when you don’t generate your own news.
Aside from the numerous Celtic fan sites hungry for content, the mainstream media machine also needs constant feeding.
They’ll write anything, true or not, likely or unlikely, to keep their machine running.
This is the environment in which we operate, and the only people who don’t seem to understand that are those at Celtic.
In U.S. politics, they call it “feeding the beast.”
You have to constantly control the news cycle.
You have to push your own narrative hard, because if you’re not in charge of the news cycle, the news will run you. It will give you more nightmares than you can handle. If you’re not generating your own stories, people will create stories around you, and much of it will be negative.
I’ve been saying for the last few days that in the absence of real information, something will fill the void.
So far, we’ve been lucky that it’s mostly been benign hot air.
But these are the kinds of stories that can do actual harm.
The “Celtic fail to sign Player X” story isn’t benign; it’s a malignant narrative, one designed to do damage.
Right now, I have little sympathy for the club because they’ve put themselves in this position.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore that most of these stories are nonsense, designed to put us on the receiving end of bad headlines. And although the club deserves some criticism, we shouldn’t stand for this kind of baseless negativity.
Defending the club from this kind of attack is important, but the club also needs to do a better job of defending itself.
It needs to define its own narrative, or it will be defined by others.
And McKenna isn’t the only story like this circulating in the media. There’s also talk about Facundo Buonanotte, the Argentine at Brighton, with some reports suggesting he could be involved as a makeweight in the O’Riley deal, and others saying Celtic was pursuing him independently.
But again, it was all just speculation.
But today, he too signed for another club, and this time it was Leicester, and that’s also being spun as Celtic “missing out on a target” although there’s no real proof that he ever was. There’s no solid evidence that Celtic was ever seriously interested in signing him—just more rumors and more speculation.
But that’s all people have to work with, and instead of focusing on the signings Celtic has made, the media is talking about the ones we supposedly failed to make. Transfers we never followed up on and deals that never got over the line.
And this is the club’s own fault.
They’ve not only failed to make their transfer strategy work, but they’ve also forgotten that the transfer window and everything surrounding it is 24/7 information warfare. If you’re not providing headlines, you’re going to be on the wrong end of them.
If you don’t feed the beast, then the beast will feed on you.
So tonight, we’ve got a story of our own out there, about how we’ve finally started to take the pursuit of Adam Idah seriously … we’ll never get an explanation for why we waited this long to do the obvious thing, but it’s a step in the right direction because right now we are back in charge of the news agenda.
And that’s how we should have done it right from the start.
Control the story … raise morale … then get the deal done and build more confidence.
We’ve got the story right. By God, Celtic, close this fast.
Personally, I couldn’t give a flying fk about PR wars. I only care about what Celtic actually do.
We need a centre half to partner CCV.
We need a left back to challenge / support GT.
We need two strikers.
We need to hold onto MOR and, if we don’t, use the money we get for him to replace with a player of a similar standard.
This isn’t rocket science. We all KNOW this.
I don’t care WHEN it happens as some on here do. I just care that it happens.
If Celtic drop the ball on this (and I do accept its a distinct possibility), then I will not be happy.
Other than that, what can anyone say that hasn’t already been said?
Roonsa,you were stating the other day you’re quite happy with the way and the time the board were taking to do any business, what’s changed?
Why don’t the supporters groups push for the season ticket renewal date to be pushed back to September, then they could make their minds up whether to renew after the transfer window closes.
Sound fair?
Not sure the scumbags on the board would like it though. At the moment they hold all the aces after they’ve taken your money under false pretences.
SACK THE BOARD, GET RID OF DESMOND.
KC that is a brilliant suggestion putting back the STs renewal to September,I love it ,big Pete liewell and desmond etc would probably have heart failure,bang goes their shares bonus, because that’s all that bothers them,is Lawell not on some kind of uefa committee or something,if he is he should be totally embarrassed by the way his team get scudded every year in Europe, I know if I was representing Celtic on some board in Europe I’d be black affronted at the way we cave in every time in Europe.
100% agree.
You’d be happy way McKenna.gid help us.the guy is total gash an absolute bombscare wtf ??
Happier than I would be going into the season with Liam Scales.
If we are going to oust Liam Scales, who I am sure you will agree is a committed professional and a decent player, then it needs to be because of a player of a higher standard than Scott McKenna. If Brendan fancied him, we’d have gone for him I am sure.
I am holding out on the fact that the most sought after players move towards the end of the transfer window. Hence the reason MOR is still with us (as everyone seems convinced he is going). If he goes, I expect (and demand) Celtic get quality in the door. And not just to replace MOR.
Anything else will be a travesty.
Correct pal. Anything less will be.
Still, the news about Idah tonight has a spring back in my step.
Progress. All we’ve been asking for these many weeks.
James keep the spring in step till we know for sure , Eddie Howe remember after 8 weeks he’s ready to sign ,oh no he got cauld feet.chickens hatched etc, even if this turns out to be true for a club like Celtic this should never have taken this long.
Usually agree with almost everything you write James, but on Mckenna , think we saved paying an exuberant wage for a mediocre player , for someone who played in la la land overpriced league down south, think he’s a tub thumper, better out there for far better wage .
Yeah definitely not worth the money he was allegedly asking for.
I can only assume if we sign idah then mor is away. Deflection tactic at its best and we will still be worse off than we were at the end of last season. This deal,along with the barnardo should have been done at the start of the window, went on the pre season tour of the states to allow them to get up to speed with the rest of the lads. I can only imagine the money for idah will be coning from the money for Matt. We should have offered matt 40k a week for the rest of this season or until January and then let HIM pick his club. We should have appointed a director of football years ago, told him each year what his managers budget was. Then instructed the scouts and recruitment to get the targets the manager wanted. It’s not really rocket science. The board has most definitely run it’s race. I personally hate the way Desmond is described as owner in some outlets. He’s not the owner as he is only has around a third of all club shares. Getting shot of pl and actually advertising for a ceo would also be a great start at freshening the place up
Couldn’t agree more
Yes let’s get the Idah deal over the finishing line James and then hopefully, move onto other requisite signings ! It’s not difficult …
Gerry this is Peter Lawell and the Celtic board ,what do you mean it’s not difficult,if course it’s fucking difficult how many times have we fucked up on transfers.
It doesn’t seem difficult for the custodians of Sevco to get deals over the line Gerry – But for some inexplicable reason our old men in grey suits cannot seem to manage it whatsoever !
I think if the Idah deal gets done, then we may get a late loan deal, and that’ll be that, job done, great work, high fives and pats on the back. Then they’ll all go back to w**k over the bank balance. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry during a transfer window since……..January!!!
I think they will sign Idah but let MOR go, sell it as a great deal for Celtic, another 18 Mil in the Bank, bring back a decent player but sell our best player, they must sign Idah but also keep MOR, no reason to sell him, he has a long term contract,never asked for Transfer and Celtic don’t need the money, why sell him.
The board probably take the view that MOR is fit and top notch right now, if he breaks a leg or some other bad things happens to him then his value will plummet, pessimistic points of view, however, playing the long game,keep him for one more season, plays well in CL, helps Celtic get a few points and increases his profile, 40 Mil perhaps, risk worth taking in my opinion.
Hugh the problem is Idah and Matt are two different types of player,so how are we better off ,we need to do a lot better than sign Idah if I Riley goes.in fact we’ll be worse of than last season.
They can sell it all they want as a good deal for Celtic until the cows come home Hugh…
But I don’t think anybody on this very fine site will be buying it somehow !
All this board had tae do, is come out and tell the fans that they WILL be spendin to make signins. It really is that simple. Reassure the support. It never happens. Every time we get the silent, ‘invisible men’ treatment, not a word, unless they roll out ‘yes men’ like kennedy tae bullshit us all. The window runs out and it’s last minute ‘bargains’. Don’t think anybody can be blamed, for havin nae faith in this board whatsoever.
This is a problem of Celtics own making,if we are looking to buy a player let’s put in a realistic offer not some low ball insult that Lawell decides,if we want a player pay the going rate ,not over exaggerated EPL rates but we know what players are worth,if someone offered 10 million for Matt we would say get to fuck but that’s what Lawell does when he’s trying to buy players for Celtic he makes sure the bid is so low and then says the selling club are intrasegent,we could have got John Mcginn for another 500 thousand more than we bid ,but Hibs said fuck you liewell and off Mcginn went to Aston villa,if we had bought him from Hibs how much could we have made in selling him later ,but big poker face liewell fucked up , Steven Fletcher could have scored the goals that would have won us the league with Strachan but big liewell went nah I ain’t paying money for him ,let’s buy willo flood,,for peanuts,no offence Willo Flood you done your best mate ,but this Celtic board has already trashed our European prestige and it will only get worse,I just wish Brendan would challenge the board and if he gets no joy he should make it clear, otherwise people may think he is complicit in the way Celtic are keeping all this money and not spending to progress the team.
Idah is too little far too late
Watched Hamish carton on YouTube this morning as I do most days he hit the nail on the head the Celtic board take all the excitement and goodness out of us signing a new player we all end up bored shitless with the way they do their work ( I’m paraphrasing a bit) but it’s true all football fans love to see who’s joining the club but this board take all of that away from the Celtic fans young and old I get more involved when my grandson tells me who he has signed on FIFA it’s really feckin annoying