Celtic find themselves in a familiar summer transfer purgatory. The new season is now just ten days away, the squad remains in need of major surgery, and only one new player has arrived. Across the Scottish Premiership, the average club has signed seven players by this stage. Now, while Celtic are shopping in a different market from most of the league, the comparison still tells its own story about the lack of urgency and ineptitude in the transfer market.
On this Substack, I’ve written less than a handful of articles. All of them relate to the bigger picture around Celtic; how to plan a future around Brendan Rodgers’ second spell as manager, meaningful progress on the Champions League stage and how Celtic could build on it; and most recently, the ignominy of last season’s all-too-familiar qualification exit to Kairat Almaty.
There is an elephant in the room that belies the domestic success Celtic have enjoyed over the last decade. It’s that the Celtic board are Celtic’s biggest threat - that the cycles of short-sightedness, neglect and cronyism are always in-play.
The Celtic supporters, in my opinion, are deflated, disillusioned and increasingly disengaged. The board, and largest individual shareholder Dermot Desmond, appear to have completely checked out when it comes to actively driving the football club forward.
The inaction is not limited to the transfer window. Two directors have retired and have not been replaced. The Head of Recruitment was sacked in January, with no replacement mooted, let alone appointed. Shaun Maloney, who was appointed as Celtic’s Pathway Manager, has - accidentally - become the permanent assistant manager in Martin O’Neill’s backroom staff, no replacement has yet been appointed to oversee the pathway.
Any one of those vacancies could perhaps be explained away. Taken together, they create the impression of a football club that is drifting. Important roles are left empty, responsibilities are absorbed elsewhere and the organisation simply makes do. This is happening at the same time as Celtic face one of the most important squad rebuilds in recent memory.
The necessity for change did not suddenly appear in June. Last season’s transfer windows were nothing short of embarrassing, the squad’s deficiencies were obvious, and the club had months to prepare for this summer. Instead, supporters have once again spent the close season listening to variations of the same explanation: transfers are difficult.
Of course transfers are difficult. Negotiations can be complicated, selling clubs can be stubborn, agents can interfere and players often have several options. Nobody expects every deal to be straightforward. But why does it seem almost every other football club you can think of can conclude business more swiftly than Celtic? Every failure cannot be presented as something beyond Celtic’s control.
At some point, the excuses lay bare the strategy. I have come to accept the utterances of these excuses as code for ‘we are not capable.’
Rivals and commentators enjoy sneering at Celtic supporters as entitled and spoiled. But their agenda wilfully ignores what the Celtic fans know to be true through a lifetime of following the club. Celtic have been here before. There is a familiar cycle to the way the club operates. Standards begin to slip, supporters raise concerns, the concerns are dismissed as impatience, and the club continues until failure happens. Only then does Celtic, or Desmond, act decisively.
In 2016, after two underwhelming seasons under Ronny Deila, Celtic lost to Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final. That defeat forced the club to confront where it was. The response was Brendan Rodgers, an appointment that transformed the mood, standards and expectations around Celtic almost overnight.
Rodgers’ arrival was a seismic moment. Celtic went from drifting domestically to completing an unbeaten treble in his first season. His appointment demonstrated what the club could become when Dermot Desmond and those around him were properly motivated to act. Perhaps the most damning observation is the anecdote that Dermot Desmond’s ego was bruised by the Rangers celebrations at Hampden that day.
When Rodgers left in 2019, Celtic reverted to familiarity. Neil Lennon, a club legend who had taken over on an interim basis, was given the permanent job in the showers after the Scottish Cup final. Many supporters were unhappy, not because Lennon’s achievements were forgotten, but because the appointment felt like a botched backward step.
There are obvious similarities with the current situation. Martin O’Neill returned at a difficult moment last season, steadied the club and delivered a League and Cup double. But at 74 years old is now the permanent manager - 7 years after essentially retiring. Like Lennon, he is a legendary figure who commands enormous affection from supporters. But affection cannot replace strategy, and sentiment isn’t a substitute for a properly functioning football club.
The Lennon appointment eventually culminated in the disastrous COVID season, when Celtic’s pursuit of 10-in-a-row collapsed and Rangers won the title. Only when the club was staring at the consequences of that failure did another major reset begin.
After the unsuccessful pursuit of Eddie Howe, Celtic appointed Ange Postecoglou. He arrived with a strong personality, a distinct footballing identity and a clear understanding of the type of players he required. Just as importantly, he knew where to find them. Celtic moved quickly because they had no alternative. The squad was rebuilt, belief returned and Celtic felt like they were going somewhere.
Once again, disaster had produced action.
That is why supporters are so angry now. The frustration is not only about wasting another six weeks of a transfer window. It is about the growing belief that Celtic are once again sleepwalking towards a crisis and waiting for the consequences before they take the situation seriously.
A well-run club identifies its weaknesses early, appoints the right people to address them and acts before those weaknesses damage results. Celtic too often appear to work in reverse. They wait until problems are exposed publicly, until pressure becomes unbearable or until trophies are genuinely threatened. Then, and only then, does the club act.
The board will sell you that approach as prudent. As protecting the future of the club so it will be here in 100 years time. In reality, it is reactive. It ensures that Celtic continue to operate below their potential, even while enjoying the strongest position of financial strength in our history.
What, then, wakes Dermot Desmond up this time?
Why must Celtic always be pushed towards failure before behaving like a serious football club?
Supporters are not asking the club to spend recklessly. They are asking Celtic to function properly. Replace directors and football staff in key positions. Build a modern football operation and give the manager a squad capable of competing at the level the club continually claims to aspire to.
Most importantly, stop treating ambition as an emergency response. And start treating the supporters with the respect, courtesy and communication we deserve.
Celtic do not need another disaster to tell them what is already obvious. The squad needs rebuilt, the football operation is out-of-date, the pervading culture is unsustainable and the entire club needs jolted back into life.
The fear is that those in charge are sleepwalking towards the consequences once again. History would tell you they won’t wake up until it is already too late.