Yesterday, Celtic’s Perception Problem Caught Up With Them In A Big Way.

Celtic’s latest financial report has dropped at the worst possible time. As we continue to flounder in the transfer market, the clock keeps ticking. Today marks the end of the first week of August, and still, the Celtic squad is weaker than it was at the end of the last campaign.

Let me say that again for the hard of hearing, the hard of thinking, and those who just don’t want to get it: Today is the first week in August, and the Celtic squad is still weaker than it was at the end of the last campaign.

There are people determined to defend this at the risk of their own credibility.

As far as I’m concerned, their credibility has about three weeks to live.

It’s been obvious for over a month now that Celtic is dragging its feet, not doing enough, and that whoever is in charge of signing these players is either incompetent or lazy because they’re not getting the job done.

This financial filing has sparked outrage among some Celtic supporters.

But this isn’t what it seems; It’s not the club rubbing it in, taking the piss, or bragging about being one of the only clubs in world football that thinks the name of the game is hoarding cash. Once again, Celtic are victims of perception and their own short-sightedness.

Yesterday’s report was nothing extraordinary. It’s a typical six-monthly financial statement given to the Stock Exchange as a matter of routine. But in these circumstances, for the club to boast publicly about the size of its cash reserves looks insulting and offensive to many fans. These fans, by the way, are the ones who built that cash pile in the first place.

If we had brought in two or three quality players, if we had even one player more than we had last campaign, then nobody would be freaking out here. But with three weeks to go, we seem more interested in selling key players than bringing in new ones.

Although this was a routine piece of stock market box-checking, it has generated aggressive scrutiny, atrocious headlines, and livid debate.

How long can we allow this to go on? Well the answer to that is as simple as it is chilling; this conversation will end in exactly 24 days, when the transfer window closes. Everything we’ve been talking about for the last eight weeks will cease to matter.

By then, we will face one of two things: the rejoicing or the reckoning.

Right now, I know which one my money is on. There are no signs on the horizon that we’re about to embark on a spending spree.

What exactly is the thinking at Celtic right now? How does anyone in the executive boardroom think this is going to fly if we leave this transfer window weaker than we ended last season? How do they think they will face supporters who will be absolutely outraged?

Most fans I speak to are fed up waiting for something to happen. Many are still willing to give the club the benefit of the doubt, though I keep telling them there’s no reason to believe that. But the mere appearance that the club is boasting about its cash reserves has triggered anger among fans who were relatively calm until now.

There’s a part of me that finds this highly amusing, but really, there’s nothing to see here. Under normal circumstances, no one would be losing it over a stock exchange filing. But now, in the midst of this unfolding shambles, it looks and smells like shit. This is what happens when an organization creates a negative perception of itself.

Some people I speak to about this don’t understand why the perception problem is so dangerous for those running our club. This is a lesson in why it is so damaging. Fans who have been patient and willing to wait now feel like they’re being laughed at by the board.

These will be the most pissed-off and difficult-to-win-back people if the transfer window ends poorly. They won’t be in the mood to accept excuses about missing out on targets. The perception that the club boasted about its financial strength while failing to spend money on key areas of the team will be unforgettable.

6 August, 2024, will matter. It shouldn’t matter, because that financial report was routine, but it does. It says everything about where the club is failing.

Remember when I told you that after the great fire of Rome, Nero constructed the famous Golden House on land that had been owned by ordinary citizens? That’s what you call a governor with misplaced priorities. What we’re seeing right now is a misjudgement of the fans on that sort of scale, whether intentionally or not.

This is one of those moments with the potential for what the political geeks like me call “cut through”; it’s what happens when a story or issue which had only briefly beeped on the public’s consciousness suddenly becomes embedded in it.

A classic example came during Partygate, which the public was aware of but which hadn’t really whipped up a firestorm.

Then came a photo of an old woman sitting on an empty church pew as her husband’s coffin sat on its trestle just in front of her. That picture was significant for two things; the guy in the coffin was Prince Philip, and the old lady on the pew, observing social distancing, was the Queen.

That was the moment the countdown clock started on the career of Boris Johnson and when the prospects of the Tories keeping power were blown to smithereens.

That could be the fate of this board, and all it took was the routine publication of a piece of paper we’ve ignored almost every year, but which suddenly, now, finds itself a potent and dangerous symbol of the divide between the fan-base and the club.

This financial report, more than anything else, will define this board.

This is classic perception versus reality, and fair and unfair have nothing to do with it. All people will remember is what they believe right now, and for those running Celtic, that’s devastating, and it is entirely self-inflicted.