For around 18 months, ending in November last year, I always had one eye on US politics. From almost from the moment Trump announced he was running again, determined to retake the White House, I believed a defeat of biblical proportions was inevitable for him. Surely, a man who had done what he did in his first term couldn’t possibly hope to win—especially after his criminal convictions and a court finding in the libel case, alongside a civil suit for sexual assault.
Over those 18 months, there were ups and downs, highs and lows. I felt like I was living it along with all the people I was following on YouTube and Facebook and Substack and elsewhere. I subscribed to dozens of those political sites. I pay subscription fees for at least three of them right now, including The Bulwark, which I’ve mentioned here many times.
But since election night, I’ve barely been able to watch any of them. I can’t stomach it. I can’t deal with them trying to rationalise why it happened. I can’t deal with the over-analysis of the defeat and its implications.
But here’s the thing: although I no longer follow those shows, those podcasts, and those blogs as intently as I did—if I follow them at all, which is rare—I have incredible respect for the people who work on them.
I can’t say enough good things about JVL, Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, Tommy Vietor, David Pakman, Brian Tyler Cohen, and all the rest of them. Having been on the end of such a catastrophe, I can’t work out how they get up every day and do what they do. I don’t understand how they find the motivation, the energy, or the passion to soldier on.
I needed to clear that up. I needed to say that today because I’m sitting here writing this and I don’t know what I want to say. I don’t know what my motivation is right now because I’m seriously struggling to find it. I’m struggling even to care about the things this blog exists to talk about.
Those US political commentators I used to follow have been reduced to covering the car crash. The deed is done. The election is over. The next four years belong to Trump, as disgusting as that is. Their role now—at least for the next two years, up until the midterms—is to chart the disaster and highlight every negative along the way. They’re no longer trying to build an optimistic message. All that’s left is to document the consequences.
And that’s where I’m struggling because I don’t want there to be consequences for what we’ve witnessed this month. I don’t want there to be negative impacts from what we’ve done and what we haven’t done. And this is where my intense dislike of this board of directors weighs heavily on me because I don’t want to hate people at Celtic. But I find myself in a place where I almost could when I think too much about this.
And that stems from knowing that these atrocious, self-inflicted setbacks are only possible without there being consequences because we exist in a one-team league, where our only rival is a basket case club with an even greater tendency towards self-harm. Our board has convinced itself that this is all down to their sterling leadership; if we had a genuine rival, they would have been found out well before now. They know that none of us truly want their mismanagement to have real consequences.
Which means that when triumphs come, we will celebrate them, just as we always have—and they will take the credit for them, just as they always do, even when they have at times seemingly worked in opposition to our aims. And in my heart of hearts, I do believe they take advantage of that. They count on that. Because it’s the only thing shielding them from serious scrutiny.
I don’t know what to say to you all today. I don’t know how I’ll spend the rest of this week. I look ahead at the season and I know that at some point I’ll again want to write about triumph and victory and good performances and all the rest of it … and right now I don’t want to because I know that every success we have only convinces these people of their own brilliance and really, that offends me.
I don’t want to cover a car crash. I don’t want to cover consequences. But nor do I want to pretend things around Celtic are fine when it’s clear that there’s a major problem inside our own walls—because there very clearly is.
Much of what I do here is about tackling revisionism. And there’s a lot of revisionism in the media, like the journalists who spent months digging Clement’s grave, only to now claim Ibrox fans were too hasty in their judgment about him. (The Ibrox fans will be proved right; those currently hailing Clement in the media will revert to pillorying him as a failure and as a loser and they’ll forget they ever said anything else.)
It’s like those who now praise Rodgers as a genius when some of those same journalists were saying he was a spent force, and that Celtic was the only club that would take him.
What I am loathe to spend the next several days and maybe even weeks on is tackling the inevitable revisionism of our own support. But there’s going to be plenty of it. There’s one particular piece I’ll tackle in my next article, because it’s one of the many excuses that is going to be proffered for what we just witnessed.
A lot of revisionism will come from the usual apologists who form The Cult of Lawwell, all those Friends Of The Man, who may even attempt to blame Rodgers for this window’s failure. At least one is already trying to spin this as a consequence of sacking Mark Lawwell, as if he was responsible for some of the greatest transfer successes in our history, instead of being the guy who made such a mess that his own daddy had to agree to “resign him”. I have no tolerance for their rubbish at all.
So let me be blunt: this window has been an embarrassment. It will stain the reputations of everyone involved for a long time—including the manager, who I don’t hold responsible, but who should have demanded cast-iron guarantees before allowing the sale of our star striker. Kyogo’s replacement should have been in the building before he was allowed to move to Rennes. When is Rodgers going to learn that these people are not to be trusted to get things done?
It probably doesn’t matter much to him now.
Rodgers has a year left on his contract, and although I expect him to see it out, I no longer believe there’s any way we’ll convince him to stay a minute longer than that and I have real fears about who his replacement will be because I have no confidence in the people running this club to show any ambition.
Hell, the sense of inevitability about Rodgers leaving in 18 months time is so obvious that they should be starting their succession planning far in advance of it. But they won’t. They’ll leave it until the day he walks out the door, they’ll pat themselves on the back for the successes he brought to the club and then, and only then, will they even think about who they replace with him.
That’s a much longer article than I have time for here. But over the course of the next few days that’s a subject I’m going to have to return to.
I said the other day that I didn’t want to do a long retrospective on what’s gone wrong here. I want to look forward to every game. I want to be optimistic about the future. I want to see the Bayern Munich tie as an opportunity for us to grow.
But right now, I feel as unenthusiastic as I have in a long time. As despondent about our direction and our ambition as I have in a long time. I don’t know how I’m going to get through the next few days without banging my head against the wall.
So I ask for your patience. I’m sure many of you feel the same way, and even those who aren’t outright furious still feel a strange, floating sense of bemusement—wondering what the hell people at our club are doing.
It’s easy to fall into hyperbole at a time like this.
I’m resisting it with everything I’ve got. Because even now, I wonder if perhaps this has a happy ending. But the people who run our club don’t deserve that ending. We do. They don’t. They aren’t the geniuses they think they are. They are rank incompetents who cannot plan beyond one step forward but for taking two steps back and to think that Rodgers might yet bail them out with another successful campaign … it’s stomach churning if you want me to be brutally honest.
I’m not going to call this window a disaster—that would be a huge overstatement. It’s an embarrassment, one that exposes our so-called leaders for the stunted little men they are. But while it isn’t a disaster in itself, I’m concerned because it invites disaster.
It invites disaster in the way it treats the manager. In the message it sends to the players who thought they were at a club with ambition. In the sheer contempt it shows for the fans. And in the way it leaves us hostages to fortune for the rest of this campaign, relying on a single fit central striker.
It lays the groundwork for a car crash—maybe even a full-blown catastrophe. And I don’t want to cover a car crash or a catastrophe. But, as they’ve done time and again—defying all logic and understanding—the so-called leaders of our club have created the perfect conditions for something to go very, very wrong.
Why did they do it? How did we allow ourselves to end up in this position? I wish I had an answer. All I can conclude is that these people are simply not up to the job. And if there’s been one constant in my time writing this blog, it’s that I’ve been saying exactly that for a long time, and just like Jon Favreau, Tim Miller, and the others who are reduced to covering the clown show unfold across the Atlantic, as Trump—barely into his second administration—lays the groundwork for actual disaster, actual catastrophe, I can’t help but remind the audience of the same thing.
None of this is a surprise. All of this was telegraphed in advance. It’s following a pattern we’ve seen before. None of it is unexpected. It was always predictable. Because we’ve been here too many times for anyone to pretend to be shocked at how this month turned out.
Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images
I like your comparison to the mango Mussolini and I like you feel this morning I have just been hoofed in the baws.
Hi James
The gerontocracy that run our board don’t seem to have any ambition for themselves, and for me that it the most depressing feature of this transfer window. They had the opportunity to speculate to accumulate, through buying a couple of high quality players and establish us an established European club with that constant revenue stream. This was a chance to make a step change and it has been missed.
Alas Brian you’ve hit the nail upon the head. No ambition for themselves. We turnover £120m..Have you ever heard of a CEO having a renumeration like ours for such a small turnover. Half our board are from the Whiskey sector. These are bureaucrats, with no real heritage of being entrepreneurs. We need entrepreneurs on the board.
Great observation MoriartyRoman
Why does nobody measure Celtic against our Potential,even within the SPFL. Our Academy is obviously a waste of time,why? Why are our youths not good enough when Barca can play two 16yr olds in Champions League. We continue with “Nearly Yang”, whom is fine for a kick about on the beach. We are so complacent,Europe is our benchmark. I’d conservatively say that of our Potential we are at 38% . Instead of £m’s on duds like Palma and Yang, go buy THE best youth coaches in the world. Go and invest in expanding the stadium. Construct facilities such as hotel, conference centre, business units, theatre, restaurants,pubs, etc. Our board is parochial. They wouldn’t attain a board role at any EPL club. Imagine this was 1994, would they have the vision and temerity to construct a 60,000 seat stadium when reports said to build a 40,000? I very much doubt it.
Ps. I would also sign Rodgers up to a 5yr deal.
What the point contacts today are worthless a bit like the face painters contact with Rangers.
Absolutely sickened by the Celtic board, we win titles and cups domestically despite the board’s incompetence.
The opposition domestically are an embarrassment this is the main reason for our dominance ,it was seriously embarrassing to loose the title to sevco in the covid season don’t give me the rubbish about circumstances every football club had to deal with them we just did so badly from our manager ( who I absolutely adore but never a manager ) to the boards incompetence.
Scottish football has been a one horse race for the last 13 years hence our dominance,not the board’s brilliance.
Just check our European record to prove a point, this season with the draw we got would have been failure not to qualify.
Rant over ; disgusted.
like everyone else I am bitterly disappointed with the transfer window outcome, I don’t see it as a disaster though, just a very underwhelming set of events that does nothing for morale and, going into the games against Bayern, it casts a shadow of gloom on the proceedings. We should all have been welcoming our next European tie, but now it is riddled with self doubt.
I don’t think any of this was done (or not done) behind our managers back, I’m sure Brendan is aware of everything that transpired during the transfer window and was pat of the process. In my opinion it was a collective failure for all involved.
I am quite philosophical about these setbacks, I try not to let them get me down, difficult as it is, but all we can do now is to get on with the job of supporting our club as best we can.
This is on the board, it has nothing to do with BR. He repeatedly said we needed to replace Kyogo with a striker and that they’d known for months he was leaving. Kyogo leaving wasn’t a surprise to the board. What else is BR supposed to do, go out and buy a striker himself??
On another note, i wonder how long it will be before Paul Tisdale resigns, and the boards media lackeys will spin it as the board making him fall on his sword. There’s no chance of any of them taking any responsibility for this embarrassment of a window.
We’re sitting on a mountain of money getting taxed to fek, we’d be as well burning it!!
This transfer window is the last straw for me, I will no longer be spending money on club merchandise, TV subscriptions, PPV etc. My money will sit in my own bank account rather than the clubs. If the PLC is unwilling to support the manager by investing the clubs money in the playing squad then why should I spend my money on club merchandise? I am thoroughly disgusted with the boards failure to back the manager, and should be decide to walk away in 18 months time he should do so out the front door with his head held high and with our thanks and applause.
I will seriously consider stop following this site, your political BS, your more interested in what the Huns are doing rather than the garbage being sprouted from the Celtic board.
What happened to the blogger from fields of green who asked serious question about the going on of the football authorities in Scotland, rather than what anecdotes you think can fill your pages.
Who at Celtic are responsible for this window?
Who is responsible for allowing Kyogo to walk away from an upgraded contract 18 months ago for a 10 million pound pittance.
How much did the effect of this have on our champions league prospects (consider Kyogo gave up trying a while ago and what he could have done if his management had been put in there place instead of allowing a manipulation of the player with BS I want to be considered for Japan FFS Maeda and Hatate are being considered)
Over the past 10 years we have consistently seen our best players being sold off for financial gain into our bank account allowing the board to fill their pockets with bonuses.
Does anyone on our board have invested interest in seeing us not progressing forward in Europe?
Watch this space about KT pulling out of the Pre- contractual agreement between us.
Finally who is the ? responsible for this pensioner from Crystal Palace coming to Celtic Park?
Inquiring minds want an answer to this
Well, that was no surprise.
I guess we could call it the Chairman’s revenge. He’ll be laughing at making Rodgers look like a fool – again.
Frankly, if Brendan walked today, I would not blame him. However he’ll not want to give the cancer that is Lawwell that satisfaction.
I genuinely detest this hopeless Board.
My curiosity is raised as to why Brendan went to talk to Desmond, was definitely not to get approval for a decent player purchase?
Was he asking to get out of his contract due to not having certain contractual obligations upheld?
22 Years ago there were 3 strikers Sutton, Hartson and Larsson all top European class .
If Idah is injured in training or either game before there will be NO viable striker available to play Vs Bayern in the biggest game in decades. Rogers almost certainly needs to rest him this coming week with the ensuing risk ! Unbelievable deterioration despite wealth !
The only way Rogers stays at all now is if a certain person exits and soon and he is also very well funded in the summer and gets his players in early . If BR has the appropriate size of balls Desmond will already have had that message by now.
Despite this mess fans need to get behind Brendan and the team …..and direct their constant messaging to the board and their leader which now should reflect the most eloquent resignation demands which you will recognise with your love of history James. ie
Cromwell to parliament in 1653. Amery to Chamberlain in 1940 and recently Davis to Boris Johnson …’You have sat here too long for any good that you have done….In the name of God go’
Dreadful, hopeless, pathetic, insipid, clueless…some of the words that sum up our board’s approach to yet another failed window, and their non backing of our manager and team.
It is like watching endless repeats of a TV episode, where you know the ending but have slim hopes for a different outcome !
Like so many thousands of our fanbase, I really can’t grasp the thinking ( or dearth of,) from this board, in times of real strength.
Firstly, they are obviously content to have reached the knockout stage of CL and that’s as far as the “ambition” ( stifle the laughs) goes!
We are very far ahead in this league,( which I fully expect us to see through,) but no lead is ever insurmountable, when complacency and arrogance permeate any establishment!!!
I have no interest whatsoever, in the car crash club across town, but in one off games ( Scottish Cup etc) any club has a chance. We should never presume or assume…success is never guaranteed, but with our riches, we should always aspire to put ourselves on the front foot !!!
The playing side of our club should always be the priority and speculated upon !!!
Our club should have ended this window, basking in the aftermath of bringing 3-4 players of real quality, bedding them in, with the goal of finishing this season ultra successfully, and prepared for the difficult CL qualifiers in the close season.
That’s all we want to see! Build on our strength and keep progressing ! Best coaches , best academy and start to bring through our own Quality Street kids again
However, we now know that is definitely not the case, and it will be very enlightening ( or frightening) to hear BR’s take on all of this. If he is happy with this shambolic window then most of us will eat our scarves…which we can then regurgitate and add to the wool that this board already pulls over our eyes!!!!
Although it’s predictable, something just doesn’t add up !
Celtic FC, a giant of a club ( due to the fanbase !)
Ran by pygmies!!!! HH
I would agree that the transfer window has been a bit crap. Not a disaster but nothing to be happy about.
However I can’t believe you thought Trump would lose. There was nothing more obvious to me, even before he announced he would run, than that he was getting back in. Maybe your podcasts etc give you too narrow a view, deep as it might be.
Ye just knew it. These greed motivated dinosaurs, have absolutely nae intention of showin any ambition for Europe. Their ambition is tae keep ahead of ibrox with minimum financial effort. Gamblin with our season. We’re nothin but a huge lucrative buisness model for the benefit of desmond – lawwell and the rest of the fuckin parasites sittin up there. And btw, anybody who thinks this league is already done and dusted, needs their head looked at. Wait if we start gettin injuries, especially in any key positions. See where it goes then. For the money they have and the time they’ve had, its a disgrace. Tho they’ll just sit up there and ride out the flak as usual. Same pattern as always.
I’d like to add to my post, that my reaction is not due to any feelings of entitlement…far, far from it!
I’ve seen the dreadful Celtic teams, and had to endure the taunts and gloating from the “dominant-cheating,” pre Sevco years, in which we yearned for dominance like we presently see.
The feelings are, we have been through all that, and are in the strongest position ( definitely financially) that we have witnessed, in our history !
We are also aware of the varying extenuating conditions, in any transfer window, the need to avoid panic buys, knee jerk reactions, greed of agents and league we operate in!
However, speculate to accumulate, in every window, ( especially when selling your best striker) and you continue to progress and grow.
Cement a salient transfer policy with a quality youth academy and your club can keep on moving forward!
Is that too simplistic…answers on the back of a second class stamp ! HH
I think the board may feel that they did get Kyogo’s replacement before they sold him by recalling Johnny Kenny from his loan at Shamrock.
We badly need a concerted campaign to force a change in strategy from our board. It seems like Dom McKay may have been the only decent board member we have had over the last decade or two.
Gerry
I agree with the youth policy point. I was lucky enough to growing up seeing Connelly, Dalgleish McGrain, Macari, Burns, Aitken Nicholas, coming through at a young age playing the experienced players, all gettting regular games at 19, and whilst these were different teams the principle of quality youth blended with experience and specialist buys is the way forward and the model used by successful clubs outside the Big 5 leagues.
Spot on Brian !
It seems such a simple approach, but too complex for our present incumbents!!!
Feel exactly like you James and don’t see how it will ever change with the current board in place. I don’t think they will face much of a backlash unless Brendan objects strongly, as a lot of our fans are just happy if we are ahead of our city rivals which is their prerogative but some of us wish to see continual improvement and gain ground in Europe. Very sad for the club
Terrible transfer window, Bayern will have a field day with that defense. I can’t believe we didn’t get a striker in, be interesting to hear the reasoning behind that. Domestic dominance it is then, I can’t see us getting near Bayern anyway, so I’m thinking that was the reasoning behind it, madness , but I’d imagine it will be to do with that.
We could swap out 3 players from the 25 named in the UCL squad. Guessing that’s Jota, Schlupp and Kenny. It would have been nice to get KT in but Arsenal not willing to deal. BR knows Schlupp so presumably sees him as a good option. I personally don’t think we could do any business in this window that would move the dial on our chances against Bayern.
Personally I think Kyogo-Jota was good football business for us (I’d rather have a player who wants to be here and is 5 years younger).
Yes we are a striker light but as we play with one striker I never saw us spending another £8-10m on a striker – I’m convinced Idah was bought as Kyogo’s replacement – to sit on the bench.
Glass half full – there’s a pathway there now for Kenny and Cummings to go after and prove themselves. If we want young guys to break through we need to give them the opportunity – same is true for Dane Murray.
I would like to hear from our Director of Football on our current strategy with regards to buying and developing players.
Easy to focus solely on the loss of Kyogo in this transfer window analysis, particularly if you are one of the hero worshipers, and more importantly the lack of a suitable replacement. That would be to disregard two really good signings in Jota and KT and also a reasonable good though ageing EPL winning left back that adds flexible to his starting position eg left back, left wing or midfield.
It’s not a total disaster at all. It’s not a total success either. If there is consequencial injuries leading to all of our potential stand in forward minded players not being able influence positively then that would be a truly shocking set of events.
I sometimes think some of our so called supporters would like that scenario to play out such is their hatred with the board and where they have taken the club.
I appreciate all that’s been said about where we could be or should be particularly if we had another club to challenge us more but I’m glad we don’t and certainly not the one across the city under no circumstances and under no false identity.
APPALING FUCKIN TRANSFER WINDOW –
They watched Sevco do the square root of fuck all and followed suit…
We needed a left back – Fair enough The Loanee Jeffrey –
We needed a midfield enforcer – Where The fuck is he… They’ll say Loanee Jeffrey will do that too…
Might work if Taylor ain’t injured –
Where is our striker to replace Kyogo then…
Again they’ll say that Loanee Jeffrey can cover that –
Might work if no midfielder is injured then…
Never mind they’re outta it with a profit and that’s all that counts for them…
Hope the actual bastards choke (to death if necessary) on their stinking filthy lucre !!!