GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 17: A General View from outside Celtic Park before a Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park on February 17, 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Yesterday, after I’d posted on the issue, I read some of the comments about the Go Ahead Eagles chairman having a pop at our club, and I was absolutely astonished by some of them.
People were actually trying to blame him for our conduct. That’s like blaming a world-class journalist for the state of the news.
Anyone who doesn’t think this was not only a story worth covering but a story that had to be covered… well, they’re trying to block out reality.
Their club was completely upfront about what that player was going to cost. They didn’t lie. They didn’t hike up the price after we made an offer.
From the very beginning, they were clear: this is what we value him at, and we’re not settling for a penny less. And what did we do? We submitted two bids so low they were borderline insulting.
When those bids were made, I said at the time that they felt deliberately ridiculous, that they weren’t serious or supposed to be treated as such. They were a pantomime act by our club as it tried to look busy. They weren’t genuine offers or which we had any reason to think would be accepted. In fact, we knew they wouldn’t be.
So, what was the purpose of making them? Why go to a club with bids you know will be instantly dismissed? Unless, of course, it’s all for appearances.
And so, we unsettled their player — to nobody’s benefit. From inside their club, it must’ve looked like we were taking the piss.
Imagine someone did that to us. How would we respond? I assure you; it wouldn’t be with warm wishes and tea and biscuits. We might even respond, through Rodgers, as they did and so I have no issue at all with the way that chairman hit back.
He treated us exactly the way we treated them: with contempt.
I also think people need to stop taking things so personally.
When you look at what he said, he’s not really launching an attack on Celtic the club. It was an attack on the people running Celtic right now. It was a slight on our board of directors — not on the fans, not on the shirt.
They weren’t laughing at you or me. They were laughing at them.
And frankly, I’m fine with that.
They should be laughed at. Their conduct and their strategy — if you can even call it that — deserves to be mocked. They’ve earned the derision.
And none of us should be shooting the messenger just because we don’t like the message. In fact, we should thank those who are amplifying it.
And nothing amplified it better than the chairman of another club calling us out for being unprofessional.
The guy did us a favour. I’m glad he did. Someone had to — especially when the manager has practically begged these people to get serious. And still, they won’t.
I think what’s really bothering some people is that it’s exposed a truth they’d rather not face — an ugly truth. No matter what they’ve been telling themselves about this transfer window, it’s not going to end the way they hope.
This isn’t just a club trying to negotiate hard. Either we’re not really trying at all, or we’re so bad at it that we’re now just offending people.
And neither of those options leads to a happy ending.
Being openly mocked by the chairman of another club — that’s a new low. Celtic should never find itself in a position where that’s even a possibility.
So instead of blaming the guy who made the issue impossible to ignore, people should be confronting the fact that we’re in this state to begin with. Every minute spent being offended by him is a minute not spent focusing on the real problem.
We did this to ourselves. Or rather, our directors did this to us.
They’re the ones who inflicted this embarrassment. No one else. And the only way we wipe the stain off is to be better. To act with intent. To act with professionalism. To act with respect for the other clubs we deal with.
Because if we keep treating them like mugs, they are entirely justified in laughing at us. And I’m only sorry it’s taken this long for someone to do it.
Because maybe — just maybe — if someone had done it this publicly, much sooner, we wouldn’t be where we are right now. Going into this game tomorrow unprepared. Going into Champions League matches scandalously unprepared.
Shame on every single person at Celtic whose conduct has brought us here.
Our problems aren’t in Holland. They’re not in the Go Ahead Eagles’ boardroom. They are right here in our own house. The sooner we’re made to confront it the better.
In my opinion this guy is nowhere near a £6m player, is he really worth twice the amount Rangers paid for their other winger?
Will be interesting to see the amount paid when he eventually leaves.
Clubs know Celtic are cash rich and are upping the value of their players.
The problem is that Celtic should be buying £6m players that are actually worth it.
HH
You do realise £6 million is what we paid for Hartson and Sutton over 20 years ago.
Our Board set an arbitrary ceiling of purchases of £3 million to find the gems for resale.
To get players of Hartson and Sutton’s standard today is it £12/15/18/20 million?
How much did we get for O’reilly? Or Kühn,?
‘Rangers’ paid no one £6 million for a winger…
Brora Rangers canny afford that amount for a winger !
And the response from Nicholson & the board is …
Best thing that could have happened. Lawwell and Nicholson have been found out. Every time they say they couldnt get a deal over the line the perception will be that they have lowballed any offer.
The difference now is that we have definitive proof that these two bastards are doing it on purpose to scupper any deal, most likely because they don’t want to spend the money or to undermine the manager. Take your pick.
A couple of arse holes. A two bit accountant and a two bit lawyer.
Get the pair of them binned.
‘Daddy’ – You got rid of ma ‘Sonny’ now here’s you’re ma fuckin revenge !
Chairmen and boards play all sorts of silly games at this time of year. So Go Ahead’s chairman is telling clubs to deal with Sevco, presumably as they paid what was asked for (the phrase ‘a fool and their money is easily parted’ comes to mind). Erik Ten Hag said that they wouldn’t sell Xhaka as they had lost too many players – Xhaka is now at Sunderland. And Go Ahead said they wouldn’t sell both wingers, but the one they have remaining has been excluded from their recent match day squad.
I don’t think our executive team and board is up to the job of taking us forward – their communications alone marks them out as underperformers. We need to get serious about a future beyond Scotland where European football becomes the bread and butter. Sky and others don’t want to see Liverpool play Fulham or PSG play Nantes. They need a European league/s to continue to feed their Ponzi scheme of TV subscriptions – a mass cancellation of Sky subscriptions would lead to multiple bankruptcies across any number of historic clubs.
The clowns in the boardroom think us fans are stupid some are but not all James… wee need an orange face in the boardroom like that compulsive lying trump ??????