The Celtic board has put everyone at the club in an impossible situation.

I am sure Colby Donovan did not mean to act as a shield for the Celtic board of directors. I am sure he was not literally suggesting that supporters should simply shut up, trust the people running Celtic and have faith in those who have brought the club to its present state.

I am equally sure he did not intend to portray the supporters as ungrateful malcontents. That is not how I read his comments, and I do not believe he was having a go at the fans.

But this is now part of the problem.

The conduct of this board has placed everybody connected to Celtic in an increasingly difficult position. Its credibility is so badly damaged that anyone who offers even the mildest defence of the club will now be suspected of doing its bidding.

That may be unfair to the individual involved, but it is the inevitable consequence of what the board has done.

We are already seeing it with Martin O’Neill. He has made several comments that supporters have interpreted as an attempt to perform damage control for the people above him. Whether that was his intention or not is almost beside the point. That is how his words have been received, and that is how many people now choose to understand them.

The trust has gone. Once that happens, every statement becomes suspect. Every call for patience sounds like an excuse. Every attempt to reassure supporters feels like another effort to protect the people responsible.

That is not Colby Donovan’s fault. It is not Martin O’Neill’s fault either, at least not entirely. This is the environment the board has created.

Anyone inside Celtic Park who suggests that supporters merely need to be more patient is failing to read the room. I understand that these people may not intend to insult the fans. I understand that they do not want to create further difficulty for the club. They may simply be trying to answer a question, calm the situation or avoid adding more fuel to the fire.

I understand all of that. But this is an example of the havoc the board has inflicted upon everybody associated with Celtic.

It must affect morale inside the club. How could it not?

There cannot be a healthy atmosphere in an organisation where everybody has to weigh every word before speaking, knowing that any perceived defence of the board will bring anger from the support. Players, coaches and staff must understand that when they are asked to speak on behalf of the club, every sentence will be scrutinised.

Supporters and fan media will parse those comments carefully, trying to determine whether they are sincere, forced, half-hearted or part of a wider attempt at spin.

That is what happens when trust collapses.

I have read Donovan’s comments, and I do not believe he was attacking the supporters. But the suggestion that people should retain faith in the board is simply not going to fly.

Nobody believes it. Nobody accepts it. Nobody is going to recover that faith because a player, manager or club employee asks them to.

The confidence that once existed in Celtic’s board of directors is gone. It is not temporarily damaged. It has not merely been shaken by one bad transfer window or one badly handled situation. It has been eroded over years by the repeated gap between promises and actions, words and outcomes.

That trust is not coming back. There is no realistic prospect of it returning while the same people remain in charge and continue operating in the same way.

This is where the selfishness of the board becomes especially damaging. Its members are no longer merely sacrificing their own reputations. They are putting everybody else in the firing line to preserve themselves.

Players are expected to preach patience. Managers are expected to defend the indefensible. Club employees are placed in front of cameras and microphones and asked to reassure a support that no longer believes the people above them.

The board remains hidden while others absorb the anger.

That is cowardly.

If Michael Nicholson and the other senior figures believe the club is being run well, they should come out and say so themselves. They should explain the decisions. They should defend the strategy. They should answer the questions and accept the consequences.

They should not leave players, managers and other employees to provide cover for them.

Colby Donovan should be talking about football. He should be allowed to concentrate on establishing himself at Celtic, developing his game and enjoying the opportunity he has earned. He should not be dragged into a crisis created by people in the executive offices.

Martin O’Neill should be discussing his team, his tactics and the season ahead. He should not be placed in a position where every interview becomes an exercise in defending decisions he may not even agree with.

Yet this is where the board has brought us.

It has made even innocent comments sound political. It has made reassurance seem dishonest. It has turned every public statement into another battleground.

That is what institutional failure looks like.

The people running Celtic have not merely lost the confidence of the support. They have contaminated the credibility of everyone they ask to speak on their behalf. And now, rather than confronting the anger themselves, they appear willing to allow everybody else to carry the consequences.

That may be the most selfish thing they have done yet.

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