The board

I’m fairly confident people will slowly start to give up their ticket if Rodgers is still here next season.

The football is absolutely awful.

 

How long is his term to last with us ???

 

We have dined out on the Huns being a joke for over a decade. The Board look at their achievements in trophies and feel that vindicates their position. We have been complacent for years. Trophies that we should have been winning seen as some sort of massive triumph. All those trebles were great but did we really have much competition. The treble was really to be expected most years. We have not invested in the ground, training ground or the team. We have not modernised the football structure. We have done the bare minimum. Now when we actually have a challenge we are found wanting, flailing around hoping for something, anything to get us kick started.

There is a real arrogance about the Board and majority shareholder. Look at the trophies they howl. I actually think we underachieved. Certainly we should have got the ten in a row. A few other trebles were there for the taking. This has been coming for years. The Huns ran into Ange- luckily for us because without the big man they could have been looking at 3 in a row.

 

Something I'm starting to hear now from some fans regarding the January window shambles is "I'd rather we signed nobody than just brought in *." I didn't realise it was a toss up between the two options. One of the weakest arguments to defend the negligence shown by our board.

 

Empty grounds look bad on TV...although thousands of fans cunting the board live on TV looks bad too lol

 

We're unfortunately stuck with this Board for the forseeable, only way that will change is if there is signifcant fan pressure put on them similar to Saturday at full time,if that keeps up they may have to consider their positions due to the pressures but Lawwell has said before that himself and The Board block out any noise coming from the supporters so it may not work.

 

The board aren't going anywhere.

We're stuck with them until a new owner comes along that are actually interested in the club and making the club as best it can be.

The only thing we can hope for is that their ancient prostates keep them up all night.

* *.

 

I could pull ten guys from this forum and run this club better than these bunch of outdated, money grabbing *.

 

Spot on, we're nowhere near where we should have been , we should be out of sight on the trophy haul....except we're still behind.

It's so ridiculous it's almost funny, although it's not because the board are using the fans money to increase their own wealth.

 

It is a strange thing when the prospect of a company releasing a healthy financial report has the potential to make their board squirm with embarrassment.

For Celtic though, the revelation to their supporter base over how much they have tucked away in the bank has the same sort of rage-inducing potential as the recent British Gas results did for the general public.

The Celtic AGM back in November of last year seems a long time ago now. As many who were present on the day remarked, the boasting from the board back then over the £72m they had stashed in their bulging biscuit tin might well come back to haunt them. And so it has proved.

Even then, the executives seemed oblivious that crowing about their cash reserves might provoke questions from supporters over why they weren’t seeing more of that money on the pitch on a matchday.

Now, after yet another disastrous transfer window and the ceding of top spot in the Premiership to Rangers at the weekend, they find themselves in the awkward position of trying to find a way to put a positive spin on the fact the club is, er, absolutely minted.


Among the boos and the groans in Celtic Park’s Main Stand on Saturday could be overheard gossip about the potential scale of the Celtic bank balance when the imminent interim financial results drop.

Could it be £90m? Even £100m? Rest assured, those speculating about that accumulation of wealth were not doing so with a mind to pat the Celtic board on the back for their frugality. Rather, it was to highlight the insanity of squirreling so much money away when they were witnessing their side visibly wilt under pressure from Kilmarnock.

And also, the very real prospect that they would effectively hand tens of millions more in revenue across the city by squandering the automatic place in next season’s expanded Champions League.

With the greatest of respect to Anthony Ralston, Liam Scales, Stephen Welsh and Greg Taylor, had you said last summer that would be a Celtic starting backline at any point other than in a friendly - barring an injury crisis – you would have been laughed at.

Well, no one at Celtic is laughing now. Yes, Alistair Johnston and Cameron Carter-Vickers, the most important cog in their defence, were missing. But it is in this area of the team where the failings of Celtic’s signing policy, when it doesn’t pay off, are most starkly laid bare.

When Taylor, himself just back from a spell out, tired towards the end of the Kilmarnock game, it was Alexandro Bernabei who came on, and was ultimately caught out for the late Killie equaliser. A player who cost £3.5m or thereabouts, but who has made little to no impact in his time here so far, and it seems has no future at the club either.

Two other signings drafted in to replace the departed Carl Starfelt last summer in a similar price range, Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke, are also not trusted to start matches ahead of the likes of Welsh and Scales.

No offence to those lads, who are solid enough citizens to have around the squad, but are either of them really good enough to be starting for Celtic on a weekly basis? Given how frail they looked defensively on Saturday, it would appear not.

Further up the pitch, the policy of stockpiling project players over pushing the boat out for certain starters was on display at almost comic levels in the wide areas.

Daizen Maeda played on the right and did next to nothing, Luis Palma played on the left and was hooked at half time, Yang came on to little effect at the break and Nick Kuhn showed up so poorly when he entered the action you now have pundits questioning if he would get a game for Kilmarnock.

Guess which price bracket most of these guys fell into? Kuhn might go on and do well for Celtic in the long run once he finds his feet, but this team needed players in January who could come in and make an immediate impact in the title race. Quality players, as Brendan Rodgers and captain Callum McGregor both stressed. Finished articles.

Even the presence of the one signing who has come in and looked decent in Adam Idah necessitates a disruption of the one part of Celtic’s team that really seemed to be functioning well, their midfield. With Idah and Kyogo Furuhashi taking turns to drop into the area where Paulo Bernardo – now kicking his heels on the bench – was playing with such promise either side of the winter break, the impressive triumvirate of the Portuguese, Matt O’Riley and McGregor has been dismantled.

O’Riley and McGregor are Celtic’s best available players at present. But even they have looked a little off it in recent weeks. Whether that is down to the unfamiliar make-up of the midfield trio, or in O’Riley’s case, the rejected bid from Atletico Madrid in January, nobody really knows


All we do know for sure is that Celtic have now self-sabotaged an area of their side that did indeed look a cut above the opposition as they attempt to accommodate Idah’s arrival and breathe new life into Kyogo.

Rodgers must take his fair share of responsibility for all of this, but all of these woes can be traced back to the fact that the recruitment has lacked ambition, and in January, has failed to improve the team.

Privately, Celtic are somewhat bemused by the vitriol being aimed at chairman and former chief executive Peter Lawwell over that, given he now has no part to play in the signing of players. Well, apart from his son being the head of recruitment.


What agency that gives him in that area, only they know, but the perception of that dynasty has already led to the fans making up their minds on who is to blame.

And speaking of unhelpful perceptions, news of £90m or thereabouts sitting in the coffers while fans watch a sprinkling of relatively ordinary players throw away the Premiership title is a doozy.

Even if Celtic do manage to negotiate a path to defend their crown from here, that shouldn’t be looked upon as vindication of their methods. Either way, this season of rancour and ropey recruitment has shown that there should be some soul-searching in the summer over the structure and direction of the club.

 

Where’s this from? Hits the nail on the head.

 

See with this set of interim accounts you could actually picture the execs at the club mirroring that footage from the Killie game of our backline trying to play out against a meek press. Nicholson throws it to McKay, “you put it out”, McKay passes to Lawwell, then back to comms lead, then back to Nicholson and finally someone does the Joe Hart and just punts it down the road towards the deadline.

All this while they should be working out what they can do to ensure this summer is not the bin fire this one was and how we actually get a competent scouting operation in place to get decent targets etc getting a proper head of recruitment or better sporting director in.

Work out if Brendan is staying or going is another and having plans for either situation.

 

This is what * me off.

If we do miraculously turn this around, the board will say 'see, we were right'.

They'll completely miss the point. Because they're * idiots.

 

Looks like it's from the Herald.

 

Unfortunately your probably right. But we all need to make sure that Desmond, Lawwell and their lackeys are despised and treated as such every game every chance. This season has been the tipping point for me. Desmond, Lawwell etc need to go.

 

The boards transfer strategy to an absolute tee

 

4 years HH

 

Power struggle has resumed between Lawell snr and Rodgers again. Nicholson has done Lawells bidding and Jnr has carried out daddy's orders. That's my take.

The toxicity has gone through the roof again since Lawells return. When he was away, Ange was in charge, there was that real connection between fans and the club. Now that's in the gutter again.

* show.

 

Rodgers without doubt is not blameless in what has gone on this season but right now IMHO looking for him to be fired is not the best policy. IMHO it is Desmond, Lawwell and co that are the issue and they need to be shown by everyone how much they are despised and how much we want them out of Our Club. For me as long as Desmond and Lawwell are in place there can be no taking Celtic forward they simply have to go.