FALKIRK, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 14: Celtic manager Martin O'Neill during a William Hill Premiership match between Falkirk and Celtic at The Falkirk Stadium, on January 14, 2026, in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
The news that the Ivorian winger Ta Bi has signed for Sunderland is not surprising in the slightest. I wish him well. He had nice things to say about Celtic when the deal between ourselves and his club appeared to be done, and he was clearly looking forward to playing for us. It is not his fault that we cannot organise our own business properly.
There has not been a more critical transfer window in a long time than this one, and it should shock nobody that we are now well into it and starting to flap. Celtic have done almost nothing to address the key areas of this team that need strengthened. We will be at Tynecastle next weekend and here is the reality, the only reality that matters. We are almost certainly going into that game with the same squad we have right now.
The problem is obvious. If we do not do business in the next couple of days, then come Monday we will have maybe one, possibly two training sessions before the team flies out to Bologna. When we return from Bologna, we might get one session before Tynecastle.
That means any new signing gets no time to work with teammates, no time to settle, no time to integrate. That is not squad building. That is negligence. It is infuriating. It is beyond frustrating. As I said in the earlier piece, it’s upside down.
If the senior executives at Celtic Park are not determined to torpedo our chances this season they are doing nothing to help us put ourselves in the strongest possible position. If they were deliberately trying to hamstring us, they could not do it more effectively. They have put Martin O’Neill in an appalling position.
This man has been brought back to salvage the season, and they are forcing him to do it with his hands tied behind his back. Yesterday they honoured him with a “transfer summit.” More sitting around the table talking. We should be well past that point by now.
Yet we keep hearing the same nonsense.
We have made enquiries. We have verbal agreements.
Nobody cares about any of that. Supporters want signed contracts. They want players unveiled. They want footballers standing on the pitch at Celtic Park showing off their squad numbers. Both of our rivals have strengthened. How well those signings work remains to be seen, but the sensible assumption is that they will improve. Hoping that they remain incompetent is no longer a strategy this club can count on.
I can almost convince myself that O’Neill could pull this off with the current squad. Almost. It would not stun me if he somehow found a way.
But the people above him seem pathologically committed to making that task as difficult as possible. And who knows what comes next. Leaks against players. Briefings against the manager. Nothing feels off the table anymore.
Martin sat in front of the media yesterday and denied the Callum Wilson story, which confirms exactly what many of us feared. It was a smokescreen. A deflection. Something floated to create the illusion of ambition while nothing actually happens.
He says he is hopeful of getting signings in early next week. If I were him, I would not stake anything on that. I have resigned myself to the likelihood that we will go to Tynecastle with the squad we have right now.
If that happens, and we head into that game having failed to address the glaring holes in this team, then I will support whatever collective action supporters choose to take. At that point, excuses no longer apply. If O’Neill walks into that fixture without a striker, this is not incompetence. It is not delay. It is a deliberate choice.
The club made that same choice in the summer when it decided not to back Brendan Rodgers. This would be history repeating itself.
The darkest possible conclusion will then be unavoidable; these people do not want to win this title. Whatever calculations they have made, whatever motivations sit behind it, the outcome would be the same.
They would appear to be placing obstacles in the way of success. You do not need to believe in malice to recognise harm. Cause and effect are enough. If every decision they make makes the task harder, and every delay reduces the chances of getting over the line, then intent ceases to be something we should factor into our thinking.
The question becomes a simple one. How much more damage are supporters prepared to tolerate before acting? A club whose executive leadership is endangering its own success is not being run in your interests or mine. And that forces the obvious follow-up question. Whose interests are being served?
Supporters found their voices last year.
They discovered that they have agency. If we go into Tynecastle with this version of the team, then it will be clear what has to happen next. It would once have been unthinkable. But a half empty Celtic Park might be the only thing that moves this board along.
Indeed.
Cui bono?
They are “world class” incompetent imbeciles .
Desmond Trump is the real problem and until he’s away things won’t change.
It would certainly be a bonus if we got a new signing in before Tynecastle, but it is more important for us to get someone, anyone, particularly a striker in, before the transfer window closes. Remember there is no guarantee that a new signing will hit the ground running anyway, in fact James were you not prepared to give Engels a season to bed in? I still fancy us to beat Hearts with the players we have at our disposal, as long as MON has them properly fired up, and I know he will, then we can do just that.
We all know the board are stuttering, delaying and disrupting the transfer process, not on purpose in my opinion, but simply because they are incompetent and out of their depth, but it is too late to do anything about that, we are stuck with those dithering old fools and we unfortunately are at their mercy.
Will they ever wake up and see sense, I doubt it very much?
johnny you overlooked one detail and that is the officials who will want to take Celtic out of the race and also hearts to clear the way for the huns to coast to the league , if the huns don’t win it this season they will not recoup the money spent this season to go all out , and for them next season would be too late as the americans will be very slow to invest anymore cash , it would be circling the drain for sevco , maybe thats why the Celtic board are determined to throw it away
They have to accept the consequences of their actions, whatever these may be. No more excuses, they have to go or we have to stop going.
Every transfer seems to be worse than the last. What is going on? Im starting to think there is something fraudulent or criminal. Is the money there? Is it hidden? Have they spent it all in Trumps bitcoin and taken a hit?
Not only should the fans act if players of quality arent brought in but O’Neill should tell them tp GTF and leave them floundering.
For all the criticisms levelled across the city they at least have an ambition to put the best team on the park that they can. An accusation that will never be levelled at our board.
This board are taking more than a gamble. They are still treating the support, players and management with utter contempt. Unfortunately for us as a club the only action remaining for the fans is not to renew season tickets. I would not be surprised in the slightest if not only will we be heading to Tynecastle with this squad we will be heading to Castle Greyskull in March with the same squad. If that is indeed what happens the we cannot pay for season tickets in April/May. If you do you are leaving yourself wide open to be robbed in broad daylight again.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually sold someone and went with a weaker team. Maeda and Yang were messed about in the last window, maybe they were given assurances that they could go in the next one?
What’s sad about this inaction is we are not surprised,I have never ever seen a business ran so ridiculously shoddy,embarrassing,we are going to end up paying well over the odds for mediocrity,if these people had a shred of professionalism they would hand the reins to others more useful,Rangers target someone and they’re signed,no issues etc,I for one will not be renewing to line these clowns pockets if no signings are made.
Back in the ‘80’s when ‘Only An Excuse?’ was still on the radio (and was still funny) they did a gag about Rangers signing lots of players, meanwhile at Celtic, there would be no ‘panic-buying’…… just panic.
We seem to have inexplicably found ourselves back in the days of a secretive and virtually unaccountable board fiercely guarding the contents of their biscuit tin, refusing to back the judgment of the football professionals in the building, engaging in a divisive and bitter low-intensity war against any ‘malcontents’ who have the temerity to question or challenge them and wilfully setting a course for choppy waters full of gigantic icebergs when there is absolutely no need for it…..
Hey, Wilfred, what’s the French for ‘Deja Vu’?
“…no ‘panic-buying’…… just panic.” Brilliant.
Several days ago O’neill stated he had met with board members and everybody is “trying hard” to get signings in. A day later he was recalling Welsh from his loan spell at Motherwell.
Last night reports were rife that O’neill met those same board members at Lennoxtown “for talks”. The very next morning, today, reports are circulating that O’neill has brought Balakwisha back into the squad.
All of this stinks of O’neill being told he needs to make the most of players Celtic already have. These rat-faced c@nts have no intention of looking beyond loan signings to get us to the end of the season.
Now O’neill is being quoted in the media saying he would consider signings from other top flight Scottish clubs. Why is he telling us this instead of just signing them?
Come the end of this window, if serious signings have not been brought in, a serious campaign of boycotts and non-funding has to start immediately. We have been taken for fools for long enough. We have enabled the destruction of our club without doing anything about it. We have unwittingly aided and abetted these incompetents.
I for one have had enough.
Why half empty, does that mean only half of the support are unhappy?
They say if you want to fly then cut the ties that bind you. For me it is this crazy tactic of having a holding midfield through which everything has to progress. It holds up play and allows the opposition to get organised.
Drop MacGregor and let the players flourish thinking for themselves which is the best option. You can bring him on ten minutes to go which is the only time you will see him running anyway.
Don’t give a monkey’s about his “only fans ” as the club is more important.
Someday soon Celtic will have to replace CalMac and that replacement will be hard to find, especially if this penny pinching Board is still in place At the moment this team would be lost without the player that Ange and BR built their team around.
CalMac is a special player who can take a ball in tight positions and then find a team mate, at the moment he is the only player who can score from outside the box and has got us out of jail on numerous occasions.
I would prefer him to have always played as an attacking midfielder, rather than given the defensive role only because this board wouldn’t spend money on a decent player for that role.
Micmac thanks for putting forward a defence of MacGregor as no-one has up until now.
I disagree though and as far as Ange and BR being successful I think that had mainly to do with the poor opposition (now improved ) in the SPL and of course there were the disasters in Europe.
Watch a clip of an English Championship ( not even the EPL) match and see that their midfielders charge forward with the ball and the rest running off them. There is no getting rid off it as fast as they can like a “hot potato” as ours does.
You say “finding a man” which is usually back or sideways and the Scottish fans made sure he knew what they thought of that.
In a recent match Celtic had around 200 more passes than the opposition and the score was nil nil at that point.
I suppose I just have to agree to differ.
Can I just add, when MacGregor was out injured with the face injury, Celtic started to run riot and got beat by St Mirren on his first day back. Easily checked.
Agree that the sideways passing from Celtic under BR was at times mind numbing and got players into very bad habits. I honestly don’t think that was down to McGregor, but entirely down to the way BR put safe possession above anything else.
I also agree that direct running at opponents in this day of easily dished out yellow and red cards terrifies defenders.
There you are a bit of common ground can be found.
I’m convinced that if MON got some backing from this board and a few signings, we would see a different more direct Celtic team, where keeping possession wasn’t the be all and end all.
Totally agree that we only need a couple of the right players and it can all change.
Someone should inform the board!
James, I thought the fans had been taking action!
I guess what you mean is they have to go all in. I’ve said this from the beginning. It’s the only way to change things. This not a penny campaign is having minimal effect if any.
Even though the board have fucked things up every one of our squad gets paid way more than the Hearts players. A couple of our players gets paid more than the entire Hearts squad.
I think MoN will make that disparity count for that game and especially for the title. It would be a miracle if Hearts win it.
The board are beyond redemption but that said there is something else wrong at Celtic given that we do have more expensive players as you have pointed out.
.
I have just posted what I think it is but others will disagree, however can someone explain to me why there is no energy in the team, no free flowing football that is the Celtic Way.
The default in the EPL and Championship is you run into the box with the ball and no-one dares challenge you. It is end to end non-stop.
We prefer to get to the 20 yard line and pap it out to the wing to get rid of it.
“It’s end to end non-stop” That’s ok if you’re a neutral watching the championship and that’s because there’s a lot of evenly matched teams. Celtic have better players all over the pitch compared to most of our league so, inevitably, we have loads of possession and the challenge is to break teams down. They won’t come out like they would in the English championship. Our most entertaining games are generally when we score early and force the opposition to change tactics. Under Ange and BR, teams still wouldn’t change and would resort to damage limitation.
BB I may be wrong and it has been known but I would argue we need midfielders who will run into the crowded box and let them tackle if they dare. Also to shoot and expect ricochets.
What we do when we get near their goals is to pap it out to the wing for it to come back into a crowded area where we have a lesser chance of winning the ball that we already had. Madness to rely on wingers.
A high percentage of overpaid wimps who should enter the mr puniverse competition .
I wonder whos recommendation were they purchased ! ( cheap options)
Is the boy from Motherwell a replacement for Maeda ?
Could the CEO actually be thinking along those lines ? Probably a profit in it.
McGregor is shite and a shite bag. Get rid ASAP
Why
They have to pay for nancy, this is how its being done until summer but what a gamble.
Or is it, can it be a carve up to criminal elements? Is it that simple? Or tax? .
Is it not time we grow a home born team again hungry boys 1st team by 22 keep them to 25 then bring in the other 22yr . No more of this transfer shite. BUILD SOMETHING LIKE CRUYFF DID
No point in me commenting about Lucan as some person called Thunderbergs Noo Noo who wants to lick his or her or anything else in between’s tongue around lucan’s anal ring…
Anyway – Still I say the yellow bastards in grey suits are the scum of the fuckin earth…
And Noo I’m sorry – No I’m fuckin Noo !