Dermot Desmond has quizzed a journalist looking to interview him about Celtic’s horrendous fall from grace.
Barry J Whyte of the Dublin based Sunday Business Post covered a variety of areas covering the last 12 months that have resulted in almost every area of Celtic being damaged.
Most obviously the three domestic trophies that the club has housed since May 2017 were handed back with barely a whimper with the club losing the SPFL title by 25 points and failing to reach the semi-finals of either domestic cup competition.
For the third year running the club failed to take advantage of a seeded route to the £30m windfall of the Champions League group stage.
There is plenty of questions to ask Celtic’s largest individual shareholder about the last 12 months but the Irish businessman was looking for a history lesson before he would comment on Celtic’s current situation.
Whyte explained in The Sunday Business Post:
“His first (question) was: ‘how many trophies have Celtic won in the last 20 years?’ I knew there were 16 league titles, but I had to concede that off the top of my head I couldn’t say how many other cups they might have won.
“He went on: ‘When did I first take a shareholding in Celtic?’ I answered 1994, which is of course wrong. It was 1995.
“‘When did I become the largest shareholder in Celtic?’ I answered 1998. It was 1999.
“I also fluffed the question of when Peter Lawwell first became chief executive and, by this stage, it was clear that Desmond had enough information to come to his own conclusions.
“‘You’ve failed the test,’ he said. ‘You have to know enough about Celtic to talk to me about Celtic. I’m not a great fan of journalists, as you well know.”
“He then reminded me that ‘if there’s anything that’s litigious, I will certainly get my lawyers onto it’.
“I tried to explain that I wasn’t trying to ascertain specific facts but, rather, to discover his perspective on Celtic. My plea fell on deaf ears.
“Desmond told me that if he had anything to say about Celtic he would put it in the Celtic View, the club’s official magazine, or the Athletic, although he added that ‘it’s unlikely the Athletic will get it from me again’.
“There’s so many people interested in finding out my views on so many things, so join the queue,” he said. ‘And you’re a long way down the queue.’”
As things stand Celtic are without a first team coach with pre-season training starting on June 17.
Four loan players from last season have returned to their parent club, Scott Brown will join Aberdeen with six players involved with Scotland at the European Championships deep into June at the earliest.
Kris Ajer has announced his wish to leave the club with Odsonne Edouard also expected to move on.
In September Desmond gave an interview to The Athletic in which he claimed that the current squad was superior to the one that Martin O’Neill took to the UEFA Cup Final in 2003.