Celtic dragged its feet and lost out on an elite boss we could have had.

According to reports, Celtic are supposed to be monitoring Kieran McKenna; that’s about all they are going to do. These clowns on the board can’t have failed to notice that he has just taken Ipswich Town back to the English Premier League, and he is going nowhere now except, perhaps, to a bigger EPL club.

Celtic had their chance, in the summer or in January. Now that he has pulled off the big-league return, we have probably got none. Typical Celtic.

Dragging our feet again.

I don’t understand why Celtic keep losing their chances and best opportunities to recruit genuinely exciting people. Why are Celtic so passive in these moments? Why does every single major decision window feel exactly the same? No urgency. No clear action or any sense that the squad, the structure or the club itself is being properly improved.

Instead, Celtic are offering new contracts to players who we all know will not be the future. Too often, we reward those who have simply been here a long time, instead of asking whether they can take us somewhere better.

As I said, Celtic had a chance to go for Kieran McKenna in winter, or perhaps even last summer. If Brendan was offered a new deal and did not want to sign it, a decision should have been made. Even when he departed Celtic, McKenna might have been tempted, although he was in the middle of a campaign.

Now it looks like that chance has passed for good. He has taken Ipswich back to the EPL, and from here, the options around him will be different.

Celtic keep losing the best targets, the best chances and the best moments. Then, when it is too late, people greet because the chance is gone. Why can the most successful club in Scotland, multiple champions, with millions in the bank, not change its ways?

Honestly, I am tired of watching Celtic drag their feet every time it comes to transfers, appointments and rebuilding the squad properly.

When do we draw the proper conclusion and stop losing fantastic opportunities like McKenna? I look at this situation and, honestly, I do not feel anger as much as exhaustion. Because we have seen this story before.

Celtic identify someone. Celtic monitor someone. Celtic admire someone. Celtic “keep tabs” on someone. Then the weeks drift by like autumn leaves on the wind, nothing concrete happens, and suddenly that person is gone.

Off to England. Off to bigger wages. Off to a bigger league. Off to a club that moved with conviction instead of hesitation.

Then the whispers begin. “Celtic were interested.”

Aye, interested.

Celtic are interested in half the football world.

But interest means absolutely nothing if there is no ruthlessness behind it.

Kieran McKenna was there. Available. Reachable, in my view.

A young, elite-level coach with leadership, intelligence, structure and a proper footballing identity. A manager entering the next major stage of his career. The type of appointment that could strengthen a club from the roots upward instead of papering over cracks with short-term fixes and old emotional comfort blankets.

Celtic had opportunities.

The signs were there for anyone with eyes and football instinct to see.

Now? Now he has gotten himself onto the biggest stage in football. Yes, it’s with a club who are not fancied to stay up but he’s in the spotlight in a big way. The world knows his name. He has the eyes of everyone on him and every success he has in that league, every time he takes a bigger scalp, all of football will take notice.

That changes everything. Because once a manager achieves promotion in England, especially as the central figure in a club’s rise, the entire market shifts beneath your feet. The money changes. The ambition changes. The clubs circling change.

Suddenly, it is not Celtic competing anymore. It is English clubs with television money pouring from the skies like endless rain. McKenna has long been linked with top jobs, including at Man Utd. Getting him means moving before one of them do … and the truth is, that is now largely an impossible task.

Celtic cannot financially wrestle those clubs once that door fully opens. That is why timing matters in football. Timing is everything.

Celtic continually seem to miss the right moment.

I keep hearing supporters being told to trust the process, trust the model, trust the strategy. But what strategy is it exactly? Because from where I stand, every window feels painfully identical. Slow movement. Endless silence. Low-risk decisions. Last-minute panic. Then afterwards, we are told the market was difficult.

Difficult for who? Others clubs make signings. Other clubs plan ahead.

Celtic is the dominant force in Scotland. Celtic are champions. Celtic have European football. Celtic have millions sitting in the bank while supporters spend fortunes following the club through rain, snow, down motorways, on flights and ferries and spend sleepless nights waiting for games to kick off in cities far away.

Yet every window carries the same timid energy, as if Celtic are some fragile provincial side terrified of making decisive moves. That is what frustrates me most.

Not missing one manager. Not even Kieran McKenna specifically. It is the pattern. The constant dragging of feet. The endless caution.

The refusal to strike when the iron is hot.

Football moves quickly now. If you hesitate, somebody else takes your place at the table. Modern recruitment is ruthless. Smart clubs identify targets early and act before value explodes.

Celtic, meanwhile, often behave as though the opportunity will politely wait forever.

It never does.

While all this drifts on, Celtic hand out new contracts to players who clearly are not taking the club to another level. Sentimentality creeps into decision-making. Loyalty gets confused with progression.

There are players who have served Celtic well. Absolutely. But football cannot survive on nostalgia. Clubs either evolve or they slowly decay beneath their own comfort.

I say this with no malice toward individual players either. Some simply are not at the level required to push Celtic forward in Europe or rebuild the squad properly. That is football. Harsh perhaps, but real.

What Celtic need is courage. Real courage.

Not cautious half-measures from these wee men. Not another window of “monitoring situations.” Not endless waiting for bargain prices while competitors move decisively.

Celtic need to behave like an elite club again.

They need recruitment with vision and urgency. They need people inside the football department who recognise that opportunities in football are like eclipses: rare, fleeting and impossible to reclaim once they pass overhead.

My Ginger Witch instincts tell me something else too. Supporters are becoming spiritually drained by this cycle. Not because Celtic are failing domestically, far from it, but because fans can sense the ceiling remaining untouched.

There is a feeling that Celtic could be so much more daring than they currently allow themselves to be. That is the tragedy of it.

Not weakness. Wasted potential.

Because Celtic should not merely dominate Scotland. Celtic should be building aggressively every single year. Improving every window. Refreshing the squad before decline begins instead of after damage is already visible.

Elite clubs are proactive. Celtic too often feel reactive.

Now Kieran McKenna has probably gone beyond reach. Maybe permanently. Another “what if” drifting into the cold Scottish air beside so many others.

Eventually, Celtic must learn. Eventually, lessons have to mean something. Because one day, the club will look around and realise the opportunities lost over the years could have built something extraordinary.

By then, no amount of regret will bring those moments back. Regret never does.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.