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Celtic haven’t just brassed off a vast swathe of their own support. They’re now in danger of alienating supporters and season-ticket holders through talking down to those who believe they have a pretty decent grasp of their club’s finances and transfer capabilities.
This weekend was a weird time for Celtic to release a statement: 8.42pm on a Saturday night, when the cinemas and theatres were in mid-flow and the weekend revelries had hardly got started. Is this really the time — the moment — to drag supporters back to the woes of their club? Weird decision.
As for Celtic’s defence of their recent August transfer incompetence — financial prudence and caution and the rest of it, the club citing UEFA salary regulations — this won’t wash with fans.
Yes, everyone knows the subtle point Celtic are making — look at the recent mess of Rangers, this will never happen to us — but does this really mean August could not have produced two more players costing £6million each to bolster Brendan Rodgers’ squad?
Celtic’s statement is interesting in parts and sheer dull in others. But what it doesn’t do is excuse the club and its board from failing to do its August transfer business properly.
Then again, amid a pile of verbiage, maybe Celtic’s men in suits could not bring themselves to say: ‘We’re sorry. We failed.’
Even Brendan Rodgers must have cringed when he read through Celtic's late-night statement
Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond have led the club well, albeit frugally, over the years
Fans are irate about the lack of transfer activity and made their feelings clear about the board
It looked like the sky was the limit when Kuhn was putting Celtic ahead against Bayern Munich
The fan anger around this club is palpable. I would go so far as to say there is emotional aggression and even hatred in the air.
The ambience around Celtic right now is extremely unpleasant, and with little sign of it lifting.
And yet… there is a historic context here which cannot be overlooked. What remains true is that, in the vast majority of chairman Peter Lawwell’s time at the club, Celtic has been extraordinarily well run and, in recent years, has amassed cash reserves which remain the envy of even some English Premier League clubs.
Just seven months ago, after that memorable Champions League night in Munich during which Alan Shearer commented that ‘everything about Celtic is brilliant’, fans and media were looking at the club and declaring that Celtic were on the march, surely set to step up to a new level in quality and European cachet.
The Celtic board up to then appeared to be getting a lot of things right. Signings such as Nicolas Kuhn, Matt O’Riley and Giorgos Giakoumakis had typified a years-long trend of excellent transfer mining and selling.
A previously unknown Odsonne Edouard had delivered a £6m profit for the club, while Celtic’s plundering of the Asian market had secured some memorable players.
So it went on and on. What was not to like?
But this golden pathway has been abruptly abandoned. Beyond dispute, in the last six months, Celtic have taken two steps backwards. A sudden wariness and paralysis have invaded the club.
Rodgers watched his side toil at Ibrox in the first Old Firm derby, finishing with an xG of just 0.17
Celtic have been left to hope that free-transfer arrival Iheanacho can prove to be an unlikely hit
The boardroom, almost out of nowhere, has been infected with caution. And the month of August was the realisation of a football club drowning in its own dread of spending.
Beyond dispute, the ever-silent Dermot Desmond and his club directors have questions to answer that go beyond woolly Saturday night statements.
And then there is the breakdown in trust between the Celtic board and Brendan Rodgers… something Rodgers is at pains to deny but which the evidence appears to underpin.
I believe the Celtic board know that Rodgers will not be staying at the club, and so any new offer put to him will drag on, unannounced, and the marriage-split between board and head coach will become more and more apparent.
Moreover, Rodgers was handed almost £30m to spend last summer on new players, three of which, Adam Idah, Auston Trusty and Arne Engels, have failed to convince, and between them have spent much time among the list of substitutes.
If you were on the Celtic board, and you witnessed this seeming failure of newly-signed expensive players, would you keep handing Rodgers more money when he says ‘we need more quality’?
Rodgers is a top football manager — there is no doubt — but his own transfer judgments in his two stints at Celtic look unconvincing. And this, on top of the fact that he will likely be leaving in June, gives the Celtic board a get-out card.
Much has gone so right for Celtic in recent seasons but the last eight weeks have been woeful: an abject failure.
The playing squad, after a period of so-called reinforcement, looks bereft. Celtic are left pinning their hopes on Kelechi Iheanacho, a once expensive player who has become a flop.
It explains so much fan anger, which hasn’t been diluted by Celtic’s decision to explain to fans what’s going on at 9pm on the Saturday evening of an international weekend.
