GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 03: Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson, chief financial officer Chris McKay and interim chairman Brian Wilson during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Rangers at Celtic Park, on January 03, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Over the last few months, one of the most troubling developments has been the slow, steady bleed of Celtic’s credibility as a major football institution. Last night, rumours spread everywhere about Celtic lowballing bids and messing clubs around yet again.
I am not, as everyone knows, the number one fan of former SFA chief executive Roger Mitchell. That is no secret. However, because he held a senior position at the SFA, he has friends all over European football. When he said on social media last night that he had heard from various sources that Celtic are now phoning clubs simply to ask if they have any players they want to loan out, the claim landed with force.
Some weeks ago, I used the analogy from the movie Primary Colors. Shit begets shit. One almighty bad thing makes everything else seem possible.
I would love, with all my heart, to dismiss this story as a Roger Mitchell fantasy.
Yet I cannot get there. I cannot do it. As much as I try, I cannot eliminate from my mind the possibility that this might be true, because shit begets shit, and anything becomes possible when these people run the club this way.
This window has already given us evidence. Celtic approached Leeds about a loan deal. Everyone knew how preposterous that was, because Leeds were never loaning us a striker so that we could damage the Ibrox club, whose vice-chairman sits on the Leeds board.
The fact that Celtic did not think that through, did not anticipate the conflict, is horrendous. It truly is horrendous. When a club behaves like that, when it makes decisions that are so unbelievably devoid of basic foresight, professionalism has already left the building.
Things got worse. Closer to home, reports yesterday claimed that Celtic recalled Stephen Welsh from his loan at Motherwell to use him as a potential makeweight in a deal for their young winger.
Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney reportedly went to watch that player in the flesh as he scored for the club. Those two do not go on scouting trips for players they feel unsure about. That is the trip you take to nail something down, to reach absolute certainty. You do not waste that kind of time, this late in the window, in such a public way unless you plan to move.
Yet no move followed. Everyone now sits in limbo. Beyond that, serious doubts remain about whether such a deal even makes sense.
Celtic clearly do not rate Stephen Welsh highly. Dane Murray made the squad ahead of him at the weekend, and that tells its own story. Despite this, the club appears to have placed a relatively high valuation on Welsh.
It is difficult to imagine Motherwell agreeing with that assessment. If Celtic expect to land their winger at a discount with Welsh included, then they have badly overestimated what he represents to Motherwell.
Another obstacle sits right there. Can Motherwell afford him at all? Welsh signed a new contract not long ago.
He almost certainly earns significantly more than most of the Motherwell first-team squad. Even if they wanted the player, could they make that deal work financially? Did Celtic even bother to ask whether such a trade was viable?
Ultimately, none of this may matter. Whatever interest Celtic showed appears to have gone nowhere. The club shows no sign of pursuing it further. That reality only deepens the absurdity of recalling Welsh in the first place. The move did not strengthen the first team, so what exactly was the point?
What is happening at this club? Why does Celtic appear determined to torch what was once a strong reputation in every conceivable way? Clubs and agents will not trust us while the people responsible for this chaos continue to negotiate deals.
The more closely you examine it, the more it looks like self-sabotage.
This entire window, like the summer before it, has featured bad decisions and actions so bizarre they barely seem real. Time and again, reality confirms that they are. I cannot understand half of what Celtic have done during this window, just as I cannot understand why obvious actions never happened. That pattern mirrors the summer perfectly.
This matters. It matters beyond today and it matters for the future.
It matters when Celtic’s reputation deteriorates to the point where clubs ignore our calls and agents advise their clients to look elsewhere.
Consider what happened with the Ivorian winger. Opinions on that deal do not matter. Whether you believe Celtic should negotiate with an Israeli club does not matter. Judging the player purely on footballing merit does not matter.
Celtic failed to complete the deal. The club messed the player around. It messed his club around. It messed his agent around. The outcome leaves Celtic looking dreadful, and no serious club should accept that as normal.
This transfer window continues to deteriorate.
Something may still happen in the coming days that answers some of these questions. Even so, blunt honesty is required. We are 29 days into the window, and it remains impossible to tell how the club used that time productively.
Treating last-minute deals as sensible policy, while desperation radiates outward, defies belief. Any club with basic intelligence understands that this weakens its position every single time.
This window will leave Celtic bereft. It will leave Martin O’Neill bereft. It will leave supporters with a deep sense of hopelessness. With these people in charge, perhaps the club never stood much chance. The first serious turbulence was always going to drag us under, because leadership no longer exists at Celtic Park.
Supporters have every right to worry. With so few days remaining, nothing guarantees that the club will deliver meaningful reinforcement.
Worse still, the problems do not end here.
These same people will likely remain in charge this summer, when Celtic must appoint a manager and rebuild the squad.
That is a task I do not believe they possess the competence to begin, let alone complete.
None of this is surprising – it’s as predictable as it is depressing. Any sensible organisation plans ahead and acts accordingly in good time – this one doesn’t. If the club were potless I might just understand why desperately grubbing around for loan deals might appeal – but we are not, which makes this sort of behaviour outrageous. The board’s utter and persistent incompetence, lack of vision, and hubris is staggering. I simply don’t know how we are going to get rid of them. We are saddled with an absentee landlord and all that entails when you consider that such individuals have a justifiably black reputation in both Scottish and Irish history.
I was ” warned ” about this , from a genuine and reliable source, about a month ago…Because of our behaviours, agents will only deal with us on their terms…and some Clubs just don’t want to deal with us at all….Your worst fears are realised James.
I wouldn’t place any great store in anything Roger Mitchell has to say, but outwith that, our whole transfer strategy (is there one?) stinks to high heaven, it is quite demoralising and leaves me totally dumbfounded that our useless board could fk things up so completely.
There must be something else going on that only a few people are privvy to when you consider the clubs self manufactured fall from grace. They’re lying to us to protect the share price and themselves or is it something far more insidious. The transfer dealings are worse than amateurish and watching MO fending off questions from the vultures and hyenas in the press is an absolute disgrace. Those who run the club will turn on him in the future. I spoke with my father and sister last night and suggested that I’m considering the possibility of non renewal if the current incumbents are not removed for next season. If only these bastards knew the sacrifices that fans make to support the team then maybe they would look at it differently. Not a chance. We’re in big, big trouble.
This article reinforces my belief that the board have absolutely no intentions of making any signings outwith loans. They are deliberately deceiving the fans into believing big signings are imminent.
Only mugs would continue to finance this behaviour by spending their hard-earned cash on Celtic. This board are interested in nothing other than their salaries and bonuses. Every time i see that picture of the three stooges at the top of this article it grinds my gears.
These people are destroying everything about our club while acting like utter amateurs. We are all being made to pay for their disgraceful appointment of Nancy. Yet their salaries go untouched. DD is responsible for all of this. Our club, our way of life, is nothing but a plaything to him.
The Welsh fiasco is par for the course with our club. The lad is a pretty good C/B but the club deem him not good enough for the Celtic 1st team and send him out on loan. He joins Motherwell, a club that is playing really good football, with a manager who knows what he’s doing, Welsh is then recalled, as we are short of C/B’s, he makes one appearance in the cup against Auchinleck which means he is cup tied if he goes back to The ‘Well. He doesn’t even make the bench at Tynecastle, the lad must be pig sick. Anybody telling me that Murray at the moment is better than Welsh, then I’m not having it. The Ivory coast winger farce, what the hell happened there? He has now signed for Sunderland.This club of ours is drifting towards the rocks, MON should get to hell out of there and back to that coffee shop on the Kings Road before this debacle takes its toll on him.
What decent manager would come to Celtic with these Amateurs in charge. Embarrassing, atrocious, puzzling and effing sickening.
MicMac,
I think we’ve already hit the rocks and are listing. Like you say, its a fucking disgrace the way this has all unfolded. There’s more pain to come.
This Board would give Aspirin a headache
NORMAN WISDOM WOULD DO A BETTER JOB RECRUITING THAN THESE SHOWER OF CHARLATANS, DD IS DEFINITELY THE CAUSE OF THIS CHAOS AS HE’S A DELUDED CONTROL FREAK COMMANDING HIS MINIONS ON THE BOARD, EVERY DECISION HAS TO HAVE HIS SAY SO , THAT’S WHEN HE CAN BE BOTHERED TO ANSWER HIS PHONE AS HE’S TOO BUSY ON A FEKIN GOLF COURSE TO BOTHER.
I’VE NEVER WITNESSED SUCH COMPLETE INCOMPETENCE OF THIS LEVEL AT A FOOTBALL CLUB , AMATEUR HOUR IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT .
HEADS SHOULD BE ON SPIKES FOR THIS ABOMINATION
Yeah we’ve definitely hit the rocks and these barstewards have remained asleep and refuse to wake up whilst they make us a laughing stock.
I don’t doubt that many of us will have to give up renewing our STs, if these clueless clowns remain in charge, which seems to be the case.
They’ve lied continuously and treated us all like mugs for far too long.
Although it’s expected every window, it’s still hard to really fathom why, with £80M in the bank, we cannot go out and buy the requisite talent that our manager(s) crave and our squad requires.
Like many have said on here, if only they realised the money, time and effort it takes to follow this club, then maybe they could step down from their ivory towers and display some humility!!!
Not a chance of that ever happening.
How sad this current situation is!
We dont operate a transfer window. We operate a transfer minute. As in last minute.
Whilst we rightfully utterly DESPISE them…
It patently clear that they utterly fuckin despise us in equal measure or worse !