GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 08: Celtic fans during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park, on January 08, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
I do not want to appear to be giving this club the benefit of the doubt on transfers. I do not want to look as if I am offering the Celtic board an alibi when they are so obviously struggling to meet even the most basic requirements of the job. But something occurred to me yesterday, and I want to put it out there for discussion to see what others make of it.
Three or four players have reportedly sat on Celtic’s radar and have already signed for other clubs. In a couple of cases, the fees sat so low that Celtic could have paid them without blinking. Those deals never even reached the level that normally demands Dermot Desmond’s approval, which remains one of the most embarrassing features of how this club operates.
So why did the club fail to complete those deals? Why did the winger move collapse after it looked signed and sealed?
Here is one possible explanation. People inside Celtic know they are out of their depth. When they have to judge players, they no longer trust their own judgement. In short, the club is suffering a crisis of confidence.
They know they lack the skills, information, and experience to make decisive calls, and they freeze as a result.
I am not claiming this is definitively what is happening, but their behaviour increasingly mirrors people who fear getting decisions wrong and therefore cannot move. That reaction is not unusual. Faced with uncertainty, they analyse and reanalyse, reinterpret the data, and demand more information.
By the time they finally choose, the moment has gone.
Players move elsewhere, and Celtic fall behind.
We are apparently going to get a deal done. Finally.
But up until now, this window has been a mess.
One of the great criticisms levelled at Gordon Brown when he was positioning himself as Labour leader, and Prime Minister, was that he did not grasp the velocity of decision-making required at the top. A senior Downing Street adviser once explained the contrast with Tony Blair. Blair would read an executive summary and make a decision. Brown would read everything, then ask for more information. And then more again.
I wonder if that is where Celtic has been stranded.
Perhaps we were searching for certainty where none exists. I freely admit I do not know. I am guessing, because there is no reliable information to explain what has been happening. In that vacuum, all we can do is try to interpret behaviour.
The stakes could not be higher. This window will go a long way towards deciding whether Celtic win the title.
Signing a striker could be decisive. Under that kind of pressure, some people gain clarity. Others freeze completely, like a rabbit caught in headlights. It is possible, not certain but possible, that those making decisions have spent this window afraid of getting them wrong.
If they are waiting for certainty, they will wait forever.
Football does not offer it. We have all seen players who looked like guaranteed successes flop badly. Thomas Gravesen arrived with a pedigree and a reputation and failed spectacularly. On the other hand, we have seen supposed project signings explode beyond all expectations.
Neil Lennon has been clear that Jeremie Frimpong was signed as a development player, not an immediate first-team option.
Frimpong forced his way into the team and never relinquished his place until he was sold.
Nobody predicted Matt O’Riley would score at the rate he did from midfield.
Nicolas Kühn had flashes earlier in his career but nothing like his output at Celtic.
You simply cannot know for certain. You can only make informed judgements.
That is what data and analytics are supposed to support. They are meant to narrow uncertainty, not eliminate it.
Yet we keep seeing Celtic linked with players and then failing to close deals. You have to ask why.
It may be that the people making these calls are simply not very good at making them.
Or it may be that they are not capable of getting deals over the line.
It may also be that clubs and agents do not trust us anymore, because we have developed a reputation for being unprofessional and indecisive.
Some will suggest darker motives.
Perhaps people at the top are deliberately undermining the club.
It may be simpler than that.
The non-football people running Celtic may have finally recognised their own limitations and now fear the scale of the decisions in front of them. Accountants should not make these choices.
At the very least, they should trust the football people.
Martin O’Neill. Shaun Maloney. People who have lived this game and understand risk.
Even those football people may feel constrained by the stakes and by the culture imposed from above.
I do not know. What I do know is this: twenty-one days into the window, the club may finally sign the player it has needed since selling Idah in the summer. If nothing improves, if the club fails to add further signings, Celtic will end this season in a very bad place.
When that happens, the reasons will not matter.
Only the consequences will.
If Tomas Cvancara lives up to his scoring record we may be disappointed, really hope I’m wrong.
Personally i believe its deliberate sabotage
James F — My thoughts are a game on two levels.
Strategic — The Irish Raj is playing games to make life hard for us.
Tactically — The execs are hopeless and totally out of their depth.
No matter the rules and regs handed down by DD any competent board would be able to work with the resources they had and deliver improvements.
Normal business — no money then thinking caps on.
Unfortunately we are not a normal / properly functioning business.
We seem to be scared fartless / so we are rigid with fear.
I think both elements are at play. There are people out of their depth, but Desmond will not be able to play the same games with Martin O’Neil as he played in the summer with Rodgers. This season’s problems stem from there, and both parties may have blame attached to them.
Desmond has responsibility for rectifying the mistakes of the summer period now, but there is a real need to look at the overall football operation and how it is professionally managed in the future.
DD has played games with MON before.
So if MON thinks he will be immune then he is very much mistaken.
The Irish Raj has an a agenda that he is working hard at the moment.
Bigger surprise was that Rodgers came back.
The biggest surprise was that DD took Rodgers back.
Exec rabbits in the headlamps vibe — lived underneath PL for too long.
For some reason I’m not allowed to reply to your last reply to me on another thread so I’ll do it here.
Feminism gets weaker if gender dysphoric folk are allowed to be themselves???
Wealthy fundamentalist American Christian orgs and far right Tory newspaper billionaires who are trying to destroy hard won LGBTQI rights are the ones who want to attack feminism to, so your point is nonsense.
Panto?
People in panto dressed as the opposite sex weren’t LGBTQI they were hetro sexual.
From the days when women weren’t allowed to act.
‘dilute the focus’ , that’s makes no sense.
‘ by allowing anyone to claim that they are female — self ID gender then trumps biological fact.’
In folk who have gender dysphoria they completely reject their bio sex and live as their gender so for them this represents their cure so of course their gender ‘trumps’ their bio.
You say it had been ‘managed’ ‘controlled’ which is another way of saying suppressed and not allowed. You are an old fashioned bigot against our LGBTQI sisters and brothers aren’t you ?
‘Now the alphabet soup begins to boil’ only an ignorant anti-LGBTQI bigot would say such a thing.
When the Christian far right and Tory billionaires are taking away the human rights of our LGBTQI brothers and sisters, these are your bedfellows madmitch.
Many times in the CQN comments section I’d see anti-LGBTQI bigotry go unchecked,I won’t let it happen on here.
Volp. You have to be careful with this. While the progression of LGBT rights is important, it cant be done at the expense of womans safety. I dont know if you have discussed this with any women but women I have talked to are all very uncomfortable and sometimes scared when biological men are using woman only facilities. There is also the issue highlighted recently of biological men in womans prisons in Scotland.
Not to mention the unfair advantage biological men have had in womans sports.
Women are still 2nd class citizens in many parts of the world. We have to let them take the lead on this here in Scotland!
No I don’t know any women at all so I never thought of that, thanks mojorisin.
Jesus wept ! Come on man.
Politically and morally I’m in full support of women’s rights as it is so basically obvious that it is incredible there still has to be a movement.I’ve read Dworkin, Stoltenberg in the early 80s and recall the late 2nd wave. My partner was buying the Scottish feminist magazine Harpies and Quines for its entire duration and I read them all.We had many long discussions on these issues.
About 1996 or so a chap where I worked fully transitioned to female to our total surprise.Right away all the women seemed to embrace her and treat her as one of their own .A tiny amount of men didn’t but over time even they got friendly with her to.
For the past 10 years the Tory owned media have been demonizing these people as dangerous and wealthy right wing US Christian orgs who are very anti- LGBT have been attacking their human rights in courts.
I’ve watched this for 25 years and see the exaggerations of the right wing Tory press who have been producing anti- LGBTQI articles by the hundreds every month to turn public opinion against them in a concerted campaign, because they know it works. They want to take us back to the 80s and wreck feminism to which they see as a threat.
This week I seen an article from the USA where some bigoted congressman or other who was pushing against these trans women in sport in the USA, was asked how many places and how many trans women there are. He stated there are 510,000 places available and 10 trans women.
Trans women win nothing in sport it’s blown all out of proportion by the right wing press.As far as I’m led to believe all trans woman prisoners are assessed for any risks to other female prisoners prior to incarceration and kept isolated from them if there is.
There may be something in your suggested theory, James. But i’m convinced it’s mainly down to one thing, deceit.
The board have no intentions of making any permanent signings in this window. Their aim is to bring in 2 or 3 loan signings. They are deliberately allowing the fans to believe that signings are imminent.
I don’t recall Celtic EVER being “linked” with so many players in ANY window. I believe the vast majority of these “links” are really press speculation, invented headlines. And some of them will have been drip-fed by someone at Celtic to give the appearance they are “trying”. Drip-fed with absolutely no intentions of seriously pursuing them.
We are being taken for mugs by low-level operators out of their depth. And the Dublin Donut is responsible for every single bit of it. He gets them appointed without any due diligence. He has to be held to account for his utter neglect. Not just this season but over a number of years.
21 days to bring in a loan signing? And one who’s recent scoring form is seriously questionable. WOW! Great ambition. Let’s hope his move to Celtic reignites his passion and scoring form. That’s IF the deal gets signed sealed & delivered.
21-DAYS? NOT ANOTHER PENNY
Ach, I think we’re all out of words when trying to describe the recent mismanagement by this board, The signings now look a bit desperate, and no mending of fences with the support has taken place.
They may get out of jail in the short term if MON, his backroom staff and the players available can create a miracle and win the League, but this shambles will not be forgotten.
The board are clueless, it’s as simple as that, they are the wrong men continually making the wrong decisions.
Any conspiracy nuts thinking it is self sabotage are off their rockers.
They’re absolutely clueless Johnny…
But tragically for us the bastards are still there stinking the place out !
I just think these parasites on the board are power hungry and don’t have a clue what they are doing. they only think about their bonus. They have hid behind the Fat controller lawwell and now he is gone they are clueless.
That rich idiot from Ireland hates the fans so this could be another reason the window has gone tits up. The only thing that is certain is the supporters will hound them out as they have no place to hide.
From what I have read of him, Tomas Cvancara, sounds like a bit of a trouble maker and has not been held in high regard by his former team mates and associates because of his attitude. I just hope that he is arriving with something to prove, to prove that he is better than what they all think of him, we shall soon find out.
Johnny – with my glass half full…many of MON’s signings in the first year back in 2000 were players who had fallen out of favour / form and who perhaps had something to prove / needed managed differently (Sutton’s goal record at Chelsea, Alan Thompson out of favour at AV, Hartson with his injury record). Here’s hoping MON can reignite Cvancara’s career – his goalscoring record in Czech Republic was good and earned him his big move, but clearly not worked out for whatever reason.
Tbf I think this is probably a reasonable assessment if you are looking at the summer window. Assume the board weren’t convinced by Idah & Engels who they forked out for. They now no longer fully trust BR ability to spot a player & so do additional research for themselves on any players he has proposed & we miss out on players or don’t move on them.
Partner that with BR probably doing the same to any PT players and you end up with little signings & the signings made as compromises.
I don’t however think that can be applied to this window. The football side you would imagine are fully aligned. With Maloney & Fozzy finding the players to bring to MON.
He gives the green light & then it’s for the board to get the deal done. The final hurdle seems to be the issue with almost every signing.
Now we have a striker who has scored a goal every 4 games over the last 2.5 years & has played 90 competitive minutes because the club he was on loan at are essentially going bust & due gladbach £200k+
Hopefully he works out. We know MON is going to like him by his stature so it just comes down to how up for the fight he is.
I think you make a good point about fear, James. On the financial side, the club is run like a Victorian trust fund, by Directors who appear terrified of spending. How else do you explain the Board sitting on tens of millions while we insult other clubs with lowball offers for their players, or the squad being stripped for parts, window after window, our best players being replaced by inferior versions – if at all . We act like a club that is still traumatised by the 1990s, which makes sense. We all know home many of our Directors have been in post literally since then. But “prudence” on that level is inherently risky. After punting Kyogo and Kuhn, we should have been able to invest and consolidate our good run in the CL the previous year. The cost of not doing so was huge: failure to qualify for the CL meant forfeiting £30 odd million – an amount that could have easily offset the cost of the two or three first team players BR was asking for. Did no-one foresee that outcome? Was nobody terrified by the consequences of our inaction in the transfer market? Prudence in the transfer market always risks costing the club in the long run. And if the Board is indeed paralysed by fear, it only seems to apply to them spending money. In every other aspect, this supposedly prudent, risk-averse Board has taken some of the most high-stakes destabilising risks in Celtic’s recent history. Allowing Rodgers to walk away mid season (after failing to back him in the transfer market) was a monumental gamble. Replacing him with an unproven MLS coach who immediately imposed a new formation despite not having the players at his disposal to make it work was an even bigger one. Appointing a YouTuber as Head of Football? Desmond jnr berating and chastising the fans at the AGM, risking an escalation of supporter protests and the “not another penny campaign”? The list goes on. Fear of spending or fear of running ideas up the chain to Desmond snr might be a factor in the paralysis we seem to experience again and again in the transfer market. But in every other aspect, the Board looks reckless, cavalier and completely lacking in accountability. That’s a pretty big paradox.
I must be a conspiricy nut. Conspiricy theory is just that, an idea that something is not right. When there are little snippets of what would appear to be evidence then we are looking at the possibility of the theory holding some water. When the evidence mounts then the possibility becomes a probibility.
I see no evidence that our board has any intention of taking Celtic forward at this time and is content to hold the club back, whatever the reason we will never know. I cannot accept that they are stupid, but know exactly what they are doing.
Was Ange Nancy number one and they got it wrong as the team went forward with the signing of unknown Japanese players. Rodgers wants to move forward so they got rid. The Nancy debacle was next with the possibility that some unknowns from MLS would join to keep things ticking over but not really going anywhere, it got so bad that to save face there was no other option but to sack him. Now we have an unsupported MON trying to save a ship holed worse than Titanic. What else can one think far fetched as it may be. If the idea is to keep the blue pound on an even keel then the green pound has to be withdrawn, it may be the only way to have them learn not to mess with the people who finance the game.
LOL Hugh
We all know that out board are making a rip roaring cant of everything they get involved in, they are incompetent, not stupid, but certainly not cut out for the job they are involved in and a job that they should be doing successfully. Now, I do not know for sure, but I would imagine that their bonuses are dependent on a successful Celtic, if we do well then so do they. Therefore, for the life of me, I just cannot accept that they would damage themselves along with the team, it does not compute. Nothing they do computes to be hones but self-harm, c’mon, that makes no sense at all. That would take stupidity to a level that I just cannot come to terms with.
If we only get loan deals in this window you could be right or alternatively that could be a result of fiscal restraint due to the boards (DDs) annual spend limit having been reached.But that is self imposed.
If we can’t sell we won’t buy.
So since doing what we always do by making a profit in each transfer window would be catastrophic, then we wont buy any players we will just get them loaned in to us.
Still sticking rigidly to their financial model even though to do so may increase the chances of us not being champions?
Jesus our own penny pinching would make you think it was us who were traumatized by previous liquidation and complete collapse and not Sevco.
I agree we lost out on the Croatian, probably didn’t even look at him and he seemed a perfect fit and cheap. Are loans to buy a problem though?
Look at Jota,CCV and Idah. I’m not sure.
I think there is an old adage (and I confess I don’t remember it clearly) that says “don’t give to conspiracy what is better explained by incompetence”. Its very hard not to chalk up what has been happening from the beginning to some form of conspiracy to sabotage the growth of the club but it occurred to me writing your article that this “conspiracy” can come from incompetence. I suspect at the beginning of the season Celtic had no intention of resigning Brendan Rodgers, knew so and simply forsook the year in regards to serious transfers until they could get someone else in. After all, only Kairat Almaty stood in their way from a 40 million pound windfall. Then everything fell apart. Let’s be honest, it was an idiotic plan from the start but after all “incompetent people make incompetent plans and subsequently do incompetent things.”
I believe your onto something here. Celtic was spoiled with Ange Postecoglu and his knowledge of the Oceana and Asian market. At that point it was untapped and the board mistook it for a long term transfer strategy. When he left, it fell apart and only a brief moment of Rodgers pulling the strings delivered a brilliant Champion’s League campaign. Now they are left with an interim manager, no transfer strategy and they have bungled it so bad that they may not succeed “IN SCOTLAND” where the title has simply been issued to them most years. Only the truly stupid wouldn’t be second guessing themselves at every turn.
As I commented previously, the board are paralysed by fear because they are incompetent.