GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 10: A General Stadium View during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Rangers at Celtic Park, on May 10, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
One of the worst Celtic fan sites out there is at it again. This time, its board apologists are accusing fellow Celtic fans of getting overly panicked before the first week of the close season is even done. I wonder what it is with these people that they don’t get.
If we allow this board the space to drag its feet, then it will. If we allow them to blunder into the next bad strategic decision, you can count on it. They may be on the brink of that blunder even as I write this. More on that in a couple of hours.
All the way through last summer, these very same people were telling us we were panicking. They told us we were worrying about nothing. As time marched on, their level of disconnect from what was actually happening got worse and worse.
By the time we drew Kairat in the Champions League qualifiers, we were being told by those people that this was a team we should be beating anyway, regardless of having a weakened squad.
Forget the fact that the players themselves were frustrated because they could see no real work was being done to strengthen the side. Forget the fact that the manager was getting increasingly pissed off.
Still, we were getting accused of wetting the bed for no reason.
You know what? We can’t afford to listen to those people this summer.
Those people should not even be in the conversation. They want to think everything is great at the club. They want to pretend the double means it all worked out after all, and that there was never anything to worry about in the first place.
I say leave them in their own little universe.
For the rest of us, let’s keep doing what we are doing right now, which is saying that the season has ended and the work for the next one should already have started.
This was the only outcome I genuinely feared.
Don’t get me wrong. I would have given anything to be here two or three months ago, with a double secured and our enemies in disarray, no matter how they want to dress it up. I would have given anything to put our club in this position, which is far better than it might otherwise have been.
But I know a little too much about human nature to think there wasn’t a downside.
I’ve written before about near misses and how many organisations do not learn from them. A near miss is a sign of structural failure.
I have also written about the Challenger disaster and how NASA’s processes became corrupted by something called the normalisation of deviance. Because you get away with something once, you start to think you can get away with it over and over again.
Eventually, that leads to disaster.
Our team did incredibly well. We deserve to be champions. But there were moments towards the end of the season, and moments throughout the campaign, where we were inches away from a disaster we might not have recovered from.
If we don’t get the winner at Kilmarnock, we don’t win the league.
If we don’t get the late winner at Motherwell, we don’t win the league.
Without the late goals at Celtic Park on the final day, we don’t win the league.
Without Callum McGregor’s late screamer against St Mirren, we don’t win the league.
Without Oxlade-Chamberlain’s last-minute goal against Livingston at Celtic Park, we don’t win the league.
Without Adamu’s late goal in the Scottish Cup, we are not double winners.
Any one of those moments goes the other way, and we are not in the position we are in now. We cannot ignore that fact.
The same people who allowed those mistakes are still in charge of our club, serving on the board, today. We knew what was at stake in the January transfer window, and they gave the manager no money to spend. Zero.
They brought in loanees so poor that none of them finished the season in the team.
Let me repeat this: those people are still in charge of Celtic’s boardroom right now.
So, if you are one of those people clinging to hope, or to the belief that something has changed, stop right now and start getting real. If we are not putting pressure on them now, we are going to drift through this summer.
And this is a World Cup summer.
Things are already going to be difficult. There are top players we could probably sign who may not even entertain serious talks until after the tournament is done. That in itself is a bad place to be.
If we are also waiting on a manager, we cannot afford to wait until the World Cup is over. That would be an even worse place to be. We could very easily sleepwalk through this summer and straight into another phase of this crisis.
Because let me say it again. This is still a crisis.
The crisis is ongoing. It has been ongoing since this time last year, and probably for longer than that. The men who brought Martin O’Neill back to this club twice to save us from crisis are the crisis.
If you think they have learned any lessons, I say you are wrong. The news tonight, which I’ll be writing about later, in relation to Shaun Maloney, proves it.
They are exactly the kind of people who will look at the outcome of this season and convince themselves it means they were right.
Even if this was part of some mad strategy, it was balanced on a knife edge. It could have gone either way. Had it gone the other way, we would not be having this pleasant conversation. This whole club would be in turmoil.
The analogy I have used over and over again is this.
If your significant other remortgaged the house, took the money to Vegas, gambled it all on red or black, won, then came home expecting gratitude, would you be grateful? Or would you have their stuff packed and in the garden in two seconds flat?
That is what we are talking about here.
That is the gamble they made. Not just with the summer, but with the immediate future of this club. People who do that do not get to stay.
They do not get the benefit of the doubt.
They do not get time to lie on a sun lounger this summer, or any summer ever again, until they are no longer at this club.
We had the luckiest escape in our recent history. The players and the manager deserve all the credit for getting us out of that hole.
But the people who dropped us in it still hold power at Celtic, and I do not trust them to wield it properly or safely. I do not trust them to act decisively unless we are pushing them every step of the way.
So to the sycophants and board apologists, I don’t want to hear it.
You are not part of the solution.
You are part of the problem.
The rest of us should treat you that way.
Do not listen to a word that comes out of their mouths. This is the time to be concerned. This is the time to make that concern clear. Only by doing that do we stand any chance at all of this summer being better than the last one.
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The time to put pressure on the board is now, in fact yesterday, every one of us should be doing whatever we can to ensure the suits are forced to act positively this time around. They are not to be trusted from day one of the close season until the end of the transfer window. Not another penny is the war cry that unites us all and it should be shouted from the rafters at every opportunity. There is no hiding place for these incompetent lazy bastards and the ongoing fight to improve our great club must be relentless from the word go. No quarter given, they have to be brought to their knees and lambasted from all sides.
Agree with your sentiments Johnny, but the elephant in the room is how do you have a “not a penny more” campaign without harming the club. These people would bring the club to its knees rather than go, and then have the cheek to blame the fans.
In the short term we’re stuck with this Board, Desmond will dig in like most dictators, I just hope that lessons have been learned from last summer.
Excellent comment Johnny,first class.
I have been a Celtic owned by Dermot Desmond and operated by Peter Lawwell Cynic for over 20 years 🙂
I would expect Maeda, Hatate, Engels and Nygren to be sold for circa £60m. Of that Quantum the new Head Coach Robbie Keane ( Cheap, Former Player, Irish, “up and coming” which in Celtic terms means – “he’ll take the players he’s given” and “he’ll be a Yes Man for the board” – he’s this years Liam Brady or Lou Macari! 🙂 ) will receive 20-30% maximum, so around £20m.
DD and Mute Mike will look to Rinse and Repeat the supporters as they have successfully done for 20 odd years now…
Can’t see any change this summer. It will be the same as every other transfer window. If the players we expect to leave do leave, next season could be the bubble buster. Hope the board prove me very wrong though.
Brilliant article James, I particularly love your “the normalisation of deviance” reference, as it sums up the Celtic board (DD) so succinctly.
I’m clinging to the hope that a positive response will emerge from Martin calling them out in his own inimitable fashion.
If they’re listening to him they’ll sanction the signings that are needed.
Last year at this time, and onward during the close season, I was optimistic that the board would come good and produce the ammunition necessary to improve our squad. What an idiot they made me feel like at the end of the window as those witless old codgers brazenly pulled the rug out from under our feet, and consequently they are not getting any benefit of the doubt this time around. Once bitten twice shy and they should be hounded out of the Club before they cause any more damage.
Fair play to you for being honest about that Johnny ! I do remember they there were several who believed this board would come good ! It didn’t take long for reality to sink in !!!
This is why part of me thinks winning this title will end up being worse in the long term than not winning it. Coming second or third would’ve left Desmond and the nodding dogs with no place to hide and would’ve made the clamour to get rid of them irresistible. However, O’Neill managing to successfully do the job of a human shield means they won’t feel they need to run the club any differently.
The Collective should be organising mass demonstrations outside of Celtic Park demanding the removal of the guilty board members. I’m not fit to go to games, mainly because I cannot climb stairs without pain, but I would gladly join a demo. Picket lines should also be organised outside Celtic shops to peacefully petition the customers not to spend another penny. If we care about our Club we must all put pressure on them in the coming weeks, let them know there is no hiding place and that we want them out!
Johnny there is no chance of a concerted effort to unseat this Board, the campaign would have to go on for a few years, Desmond would just stay in his “castle” in Ireland and let his lackeys take the flak.
As far as I hear the ST’s sales are going well, there is no chance of a boycott. We can only hope this Board up their game.
Micmac, if nothing is done, if the board are just ignored and not put under any pressure, then hell mend us. For they will just continue to bowl along in their comfy cocoon regardless of our concerns, and they will just do exactly the same again. That cannot be allowed to happen.
I now refuse to put a single penny into Celtic while Desmond & Co run the show.
And that hurts. It wasn’t a decision made easily.
The board have to go. The very fact they leave important squad matters to the very last minute proves, beyond any doubt, that they do not understand football.
GET THEM OUT – NOT ANOTHER PENNY
Respect your stance Richard , but you’re pissin against the wind. I’m afraid football supporters[even Celtic supporters] aren’t like the National Union of Miners. As I said to Johnny, the Season Tickets are selling well.
Not another penny on pies bovril or t-shirts?….but wait a minute…millions of pounds on STs and match tickets?
Its total nonsense. Hardly anybody is even waiting until the last day to buy STs.
Its total uncoordinated nonsense.
The way the board looks at is they delivered the double, the five in a row. They gave you Brendan Rodgers and when he fucked up they gave you MON. They rescued your season and gave you great joy! Now STFU or F off That is the message from the board.
Season tickets will sell out completely and plenty of the new tops will sell also.
Thats the way the board sees it. They think we will still be moaning ungrateful bastards while they deliver the 10 in a row.
What the fuck are you going to do about it?
Another thing they are moving all the ultras into the same little corner so that they can ban the fucking lot of them as soon as they fuck up….its so fucking obvious its unbelievable.
Does our board need refreshed and held to account for the season that we endured – absolutely. But a lot of ifs, buts and maybes in your article James – Hearts had their own fair share of late winners and infeasible results (just one, Hibs one up and cruising before getting two men sent off). January was underwhelming as a window but perversely expensive for us given the lack of contribution from those brought in. What MON did show was that with the same squad of players as BR (albeit MON suffered more injuries), he won games that BR was drawing/losing.
I have serious concerns about our recruitment department and their ability to identify players who can make a difference – for every Osmand we seem to buy 3 or 4 others who pretty quickly are seen as not up to our level. I think the majority of us saw enough of Saracchi to say that we should be looking to buy him – but reports today are that this is “stalled”. For me he is worth a premium as he has shown that he can and will stand up in the heat of battle and make a difference.
I think they’ll just sail on as long as they can…
Who the fuck wouldn’t on their OUTRAGEOUS salaries !
Good Point Clach! Their extortionate salaries plus their cosy complacency, their arrogance that they are indeed the best people for the job and their contempt for the “Punters” means they ain’t going anywhere ever!
If they dont get moving, get serious they set up the team and club as laughing stock in any European comp.
Fantastic article,bravo !