Celtic Park should never look that empty. Shame on our board.

Celtic’s pre-season matches are now under way, and Saturday brought the latest one at Celtic Park.

Under normal circumstances, this should be a time of anticipation. Supporters should be looking forward to a new campaign, talking about new players, dreaming about Europe and wondering who might become the next hero in green and white.

Instead, Celtic Park looked almost abandoned.

I know these are only pre-season games. I understand they will never carry the same electricity as a Champions League night, a title decider or a Glasgow derby. Every supporter understands that. But what I saw on Saturday felt like something else entirely.

I could barely take my eyes off the stands. There were rows upon rows of empty green seats, and Paradise looked strangely deserted. That is not something I ever expected to write.

As someone who lives hundreds of miles away, my CelticTV pass is effectively my season ticket. It is how I support the club every week, how I contribute and how I say that I am still here. But there comes a point when enough is enough, and I have already made my decision.

I am not giving another penny to Dermot Desmond, Michael Nicholson or the rest of this board until they prove they deserve it.

That does not mean I love Celtic any less. Quite the opposite. It is because I love Celtic so deeply that I refuse to keep rewarding people who have slowly drained the enthusiasm from a support that should be buzzing with excitement before the start of a new season.

This is not normal.

Some people will immediately say that it was only a pre-season friendly, and that is fair enough. But let me ask another question: when was the last time Celtic supporters were not excited about the beginning of a new campaign?

This is normally the happiest period of the football calendar. It is the time for new signings, fresh hope, ambitious predictions and dreams of European nights. It is when supporters imagine another league title and wonder which new player might become a favourite.

Instead, we are talking about failed transfers, players slipping through our fingers, excuses, agents, negotiations, delays, statements and promises. There is endless noise, but very little appears to change.

Supporters have become exhausted.

That is the word I keep returning to, because I believe the empty seats on Saturday represented something much bigger than one meaningless July fixture. They represented emotional fatigue.

People are tired of hearing that everything is complicated. They are tired of being told that Celtic tried. They are tired of watching other clubs act decisively while we spend weeks explaining why another deal collapsed.

Eventually, supporters stop shouting and arguing. Eventually, they simply stop turning up.

That is the stage that genuinely frightens me, because anger still comes from passion. Silence comes from something much worse: apathy.

Celtic supporters have never been apathetic, certainly not like this. Yet my ginger witch instincts have been warning me for weeks that something feels different this summer. The atmosphere feels colder, the excitement has faded and there is a heaviness surrounding the club that I have not experienced for a very long time.

The board may convince itself that everything remains under control.

The balance sheet looks healthy, the bank account is full and the shareholders are comfortable. But football clubs are not powered by bank accounts. They are powered by people, emotion, dreams and supporters who save their money all year for the chance to sit inside Paradise for ninety minutes.

If those supporters begin to disconnect, that should terrify every person inside the boardroom. Breaking trust is easy. Rebuilding it is infinitely harder.

The most alarming thing is that none of this has happened overnight.

It has been building through one disappointing transfer window after another, one missed opportunity after another and one explanation after another. Eventually, every pressure cooker reaches boiling point.

I genuinely believe Celtic has reached that stage now.

Supporters argue about where the blame lies. Some blame Michael Nicholson and some blame Dermot Desmond. But almost everyone agrees on one thing: this summer has been nowhere near good enough.

That consensus tells its own story.

Then came Saturday, and those empty seats at Celtic Park said more than a thousand angry social-media posts ever could. Empty seats cannot be spun, edited or explained away. They simply exist, and their presence asks deeply uncomfortable questions.

Have supporters had enough? Are people choosing to disengage? Was this the first visible sign that years of frustration are finally turning into action?

I do not know, and neither does anyone else. But I know what I saw. Paradise looked quiet, cold and strangely lifeless, and that image has stayed with me.

I keep thinking about Fergus McCann’s belief that the supporters are the lifeblood of Celtic Football Club. He understood something fundamental. Without the support, Celtic Park is merely another football stadium. It is the people who transform it into Paradise.

Take away that heartbeat, and something precious begins to disappear.

The board should pay very close attention, because supporters do not always act through organised campaigns. More often, they make individual decisions. One person decides not to renew. Another chooses not to travel. Someone refuses to buy the new shirt, purchase hospitality or continue a Celtic TV subscription.

None of those decisions creates a major headline on its own. Taken together, however, they become impossible to ignore.

That is why Saturday worries me. Perhaps it really was only one pre-season game. Perhaps the stands will be full again when competitive football begins. I sincerely hope they are, because I never want to see Paradise looking abandoned.

But I cannot shake the feeling that Saturday gave us a warning.

Not a disaster. A warning.

Warnings exist so that people can act before it is too late. The board still has time to change the narrative. The transfer window remains open, and supporters are not asking for miracles. They are asking for ambition, competence, leadership and evidence that the people running Celtic care as much about building a football team as they do about balancing the books.

I still believe Paradise can roar louder than ever this season, and I still believe Celtic can achieve great things. But belief has to be fed, hope has to be rewarded and supporters have to feel respected.

If empty seats begin appearing more regularly at Celtic Park, then the problem will be far bigger than one disappointing pre-season attendance. It will mean that the support is beginning to lose something that has always defined it.

Its faith.

And once that faith is gone, no balance sheet in the world will be able to buy it back.

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