This has been a benchmark season for Celtic. In all the worst ways.

I never thought I would be sitting here calling this a benchmark season for Celtic. Yet here we are.

Not because of brilliance or dominance.

Not because of silverware earned in the proper Celtic way.

This season feels like a marker laid down for all the things a football club should never become. That is what makes it sting.

This is not just frustration after a bad result or a poor run of form. As we all know, the club is in a pretty decent run of form. This feels deeper than that. Structural. Like a club that, at times this season, has not known itself anymore. Not a dramatic collapse, but a slow, grinding drift that chips away at standards, identity, and belief.

That is what hurts most. It is not even anger. It is that creeping feeling that something fundamental has been allowed to slip.

For me, it always comes back to the football. That has to be the core of everything Celtic is. When I look at this season, I do not just see mistakes. I see a complete absence of clarity. The recruitment has not simply been poor. It has been confused.

Poor recruitment can still come from a clear idea that did not work. What we have seen feels like there was never a clear idea to begin with. Players arriving who do not fit the system. Positions ignored that everyone could see needed strengthening.

It leaves one question repeating itself.

Who is this actually for? It does not look like it is for the manager. It feels like decisions are being made above him, around him, maybe even despite him. That creates a fractured football identity. You cannot build a team like that. You cannot ask a manager to impose a style and then hand him tools that do not match the job.

It shows on the pitch. There is no consistent identity. One week we try to dominate possession. The next we look unsure, hesitant, reactive.

Then you hear names like Wilfried Nancy and Paul Tisdale mentioned around the club. Instead of excitement, it just feels disconnected. It does not feel like a plan but like searching in the dark. It didn’t work out because those names were beneath Celtic in the first place. They should never have been near the club.

That February transfer window summed it up.

Waiting. Hoping. Expecting something that showed intent. Something that told us the club understood the situation. What came instead was hesitation. Nothing that addressed the problems we had all been watching build for months.

It felt like a missed opportunity. More than that, it felt like a reflection of something deeper. A club not acting decisively because it does not fully understand its own priorities. That is what worries me.

Because when Celtic does not know what it wants to be on the pitch, everything else becomes unstable. Identity fades. Standards slip. You stop questioning results and start questioning direction.

Even then, I could accept mistakes on the football side if there was unity behind the scenes. I do not see that sort of thing either.

The media briefings against the manager were something I just could not accept. That is not Celtic.

Or at least it should not be.

You do not undermine your own from within.

That is what it feels like. Something subtle, damaging, nasty. Small narratives, small doubts, allowed to spread. Once that starts, it seeps into everything. It sends a message. To the players. To the supporters and to the manager himself.

It says there is no full trust. It says there are divisions and that the foundations are not solid.

No wonder he did not stick around to work with it.

Then there is Martin O’Neill. What I saw was a man bringing stability. Not perfection, but enough to restore something we had been missing. Belief. There was a shift. You could feel it. Performances had more edge. Results followed. It felt like Celtic were building towards something again. Then it was gone.

Before the Hampden final he got us to. Before the games that define seasons. At a time when continuity mattered most. I still do not understand it.

It felt like pulling the plug just as something began to spark.

Football is about timing. About momentum. About trust. We had something, even if it was fragile. Instead of protecting it, we disrupted it ourselves. That is why it is so hard to take. It was not forced. It was a choice.

Too many things this season have felt like choices that go against the natural rhythm of football. Each one making things harder than they need to be. And through it all, one question keeps coming back.

Where is the leadership?

Because in moments like this, you need to see it. You need to hear it. You need to feel that someone is in control. Instead, there has been silence.

Not the calm silence of confidence. The kind that signifies absence.

The CEO has been invisible. That absence has been felt more as the season has gone on. When decisions caused confusion, when frustration grew, there was no one stepping forward to address it. That creates a void.

In football, voids do not stay empty. They fill with speculation, frustration, mistrust. The AGM brought that home. Supporters asked questions not out of malice, but because they care. They wanted answers. Transparency. What they got felt dismissive. Detached. That is foolish beyond belief. The board is learning that the hard way.

The handling of Peter Lawwell stepping away did not feel like reflection. It did not feel like a reset. He took a shot at the fans on the way out the door, and so something that might even have seen him draw some applause only fed the sense that this is a board that does understand the people who sit in the stands.

When I look at communication overall, I do not see unity. I see fragmentation. A club managing its image more than addressing its issues. That divide grows.

Between board and supporters. Between messaging and reality. It grows between what Celtic says it is and what it feels like.

Whatever happens on the pitch, Celtic has always had its support. That bond has always been there. This season, it has not felt respected. The Green Brigade ban felt like more than discipline. It felt like a message. A line drawn without dialogue. Then there are the restrictions on fan media. Again, the same question. Why?

Why treat passionate voices as a problem instead of part of the club? People do not criticise if they do not care. Yet that care has been met with resistance.

It creates an uncomfortable feeling. Like the club and the support are no longer fully aligned. That should never happen at Celtic.

Because Celtic has always been about unity. Something bigger than results. A shared identity. When that weakens, everything changes.

That is why I call this a benchmark season.

Not for success. For the warning. This season has exposed things that cannot be unseen. A lack of football direction. Recruitment that does not align with need. Internal divisions left unresolved. Leadership stepping back. A strained relationship with supporters.

These are not isolated issues. They are connected.

And that is what makes it significant.

This is not just about results. We may still win the double. It is about the risk of losing something more important. The sense of what Celtic is. That identity. That connection. The belief that the club stands for something beyond the ordinary.

This season has tested that. The real question is what happens next.

Because Celtic cannot allow this to become normal. There has to be reflection and accountability.

There has to be a return to what made this club what it is.

Right now, it feels like we have drifted, and the longer that drift continues, the harder it becomes to find the way back.

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