The board

From Craig over on the CeltsAreHere Substack




By any modern standard, Celtic are a club trapped in a different age — a footballing monolith stubbornly refusing to move with the rhythm of the times. As the summer transfer window ticks ominously on, a silence hangs over Celtic Park that isn’t just frustrating — it’s infuriating. It’s not the quiet confidence of a club operating with precision in the background; it’s the opaque, defensive silence of a boardroom that seems wholly uninterested in the anxieties of its support.
There’s a Champions League play-off not three weeks away, and yet the biggest noise emanating from Glasgow’s east end has been the clatter of marketing gimmicks: new kits, club shop discounts, carefully choreographed social media fluff. The drums of Europe beat louder by the day, but from the club’s corridors of power, there is barely a whisper of transfer intent. Fans are starved of reassurance, left to fight among themselves online while wondering if the reinforcements are even coming.
This isn’t a blip. This is systemic.
Communication at Celtic has become a lost art, handled not with tact or strategy, but with a kind of withering indifference that tells supporters everything they need to know. “Buy your tickets, eat your pies, calm yerself down.” That, in essence, is the message. The relationship between club and fan has become one-sided. Celtic talk at their fans, not to them.
This is a club that has forgotten how to manage a narrative. Not only are supporters being kept at arm’s length — they’re being actively pushed away. The rumour mill is left to spin unchallenged, tension spirals unchecked, and discontent festers. And the most galling part? It doesn’t feel accidental. It feels structural. Intentional. A feature, not a flaw.
Michael Nicholson, flanked by a boardroom with more suits than sense, continues to treat modern football like an inconvenience. Where other clubs have recognised the value of transparency, fan engagement, and strategic messaging, Celtic seem stuck in a 1990s bunker — a place where the media is mistrusted, fan opinion is disregarded, and every press release is so carefully sterilised it could be used in surgery.
What they fail to understand is that silence breeds suspicion. It invites chaos. It allows every unsigned winger to become a symbol of incompetence, every quiet day a reason to panic. It leaves managers like Brendan Rodgers hanging in the wind while they wait for the tools to do the job they’ve promised to deliver.





And the supporters, * bless them, are expected to wait patiently. To trust a process that’s hidden behind a frosted glass wall. To buy the third kit before they’ve seen a first-choice striker. This is not just poor communications — it’s a dereliction of duty to the people who fund the whole operation.
Celtic fans aren’t daft. They don’t demand blow-by-blow accounts of every negotiation. But they do deserve clarity, vision, and some sense that their club is moving with purpose. That the people in charge understand what’s at stake when Champions League millions are on the line. That the club can see the storm coming and has a plan.
But when your comms strategy begins and ends with a photo of Callum McGregor smiling beside a Celtic version of Connect 4, it’s clear that something is broken. Deeply broken.
This isn’t just about transfers. It’s about trust. And the longer this archaic bunker mentality continues, the more that trust will erode.
In my last column, I questioned the board’s intent in the transfer market — the absence of a clear, coherent plan to build a squad worthy of the manager or the stage Celtic aspire to. And in that arena, strategy seemed nowhere to be found.
But when it comes to handling the support? Make no mistake — this is a strategy. Cold, calculated, and depressingly effective.
Celtic have long realised that distance is a comfort blanket. Keep the fans uninformed, keep expectations vague, and keep a tight lid on the message. It’s not incompetence — it’s control. An ecosystem where the board can operate behind frosted glass while the supporters are left squinting for answers.
They want to keep the room dimly lit. Because the less you see, the fewer questions you can ask. This isn’t modern football — it’s managed decline dressed in retro kits and ticket renewals.
So yes, this silence is deliberate. It’s a power play. And as long as the tills keep ringing and the seats stay full, there’s little incentive for change. The problem isn’t that Celtic don’t understand communication — it’s that they’ve chosen exactly the kind they want.
And that, in the end, might be the clearest strategy of all.

 

This

 

Get the Banners out do whatever it takes they’re charlatans ruining our club

 

Or ask the club for a refund on season tickets on mass make sure it's public too, banners make as much difference as talking about it on a web site, if People want to get pro active do it give up your tickets give up your shirts and other purchases make a sacrifice it's a personal decision for us all and that is what will make a difference if you can't get a refund don't go

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I Agree but I love my team follow them home and away all over Europe it’s not as simple as just don’t go to many people

 

No ambition, procrastinating, lazy no forward thinking bunch of parasites.
Happy to take the easy money without any risk taking.

 

Seriously considering coming off the home ticket cup scheme. Would still buy European tickets. Just feel we give more and more for less and less financially. It’s really weird cos we pretty much win everything so can see why others could see us as spoiled and entitled but every fan knows we are still being undersold despite all the success.

 

Agreed with every word there.

It's like we are treated with utter contempt. Of course we all love the club but I fear those running it do not share the same vision that we do as a fanbase - infact it isn't even close.

What's even more frustrating is it seems we cannot do anything but sit back and watch our club run in a way we do not agree with.

Shocking window and the board should be ashamed.

 

Starting at 5 quid and then upping it to £6.50 would be a more accurate comparison mate.

 

Unfortunately Idah and particularly Engels have had a very detrimental effect on our hopes of Desmond loosening the purse strings and making signings of over £5 million a regular occurrence.

You can be sure that Desmond will look at midfielders/wingers that he has bought recently for under £3 million such as the likes of Matt O’Riley, Hatate, Khun, Nygren, Maeda and even Luke McCowan and think why the * am I forking out £11 million for a player that is no better, many would say worse than players that cost a small fraction of the price of Engels.

For the many Celtic fans who are desperate to see us spend big, Engels has not done our case any good at all. Same could be said for Idah.

 

I did that last year about this time. Nothing changed except I ended up watching the cup finals in the pub.

Fans won't give up season tickets. Merchandise is where we could hurt them. Refuse to buy the strips, the training gear, the mugs, the bucket hats, the books whatever else, refuse to spend money inside the stadium, windfall, catering etc

But it needs to be organised and it needs to be public

 

If I wanted to see my money build up and generate interest I’d put it in the bank, not into Celtic, but that’s what these dinosaurs are doing. Running it like their personal bank accounts.

 

It's not his money

And see if that is his outlook his solution should be to recruit better scouts so it doesn't happen again not just refuse to spend.

He doesn't want to spend £11m on a player. Fine spend it on scouting and recruitment.

Absolutely baffling the auld * is a billionaire when his approach to progressing a business is so backward

 

Said this before. We are a bank that has a football department.

A football department that is a inconvenience to those running us.

 

Theres a strong argument that we didnt get value for money out of those signings.

But at the end of the day (or balance sheet from the boards perspective) - we made a profit that season overall and on player trading. We have 80M in cash reserves. We werent left out of pocket. We paid more in Corporation Tax due to our profits recently than what we paid for Trusty. The whole club cant be held to ransom over a window.

Its really hard to justify the approach we have seen over the last 4 or 5 weeks where we arent prepared to put in a bid of over 3mil for anyone at all. Champions League entry alone is worth up to 60mil for the club - thats double what we spent on Engles, Idah and Trusty. But its being jeopardised by a mind boggling hesitancy to get serious business done.

 

Every window you're hoping to see us target quality early and get them bedded in and used to our system of play but every window we become frustrated at what looks like absolute incompetence. It was bad enough we watched kyogo leave without replacing him in the same window.. we're now onto the next window and Khun has gone along with 2 CB we signed not long ago and we're still waiting on at least 1 CB coming in the door.. we'll need to wait and see if shin is up to the task of replacing kyogo but the Khun money along with the frimpong money and other sales should be enough to get the wingers and CB we're so desperate for.