When it comes to analysing Celtic no one does it better than Critical Bill. For the happy-clappers it might read like Critical Analysis but it is exactly the sort of summary and questioning that any well governed club or company should welcome. Celtic Underground laid out the facts perfectly and in a balanced fashion.
Sadly for Celtic fans there is much material for CB to go through on the back of an utterly horrendous 12 months. If it could have gone wrong it did. Rather than learn from it the club went into Double Down and Double Down again mode, best illustrated by the bizarre backing of Neil Lennon.
The manager sent out his first distress signal by blaming want-away players that he selected against Ferencvaros. The same set up played Motherwell a few days later as the malaise took root.
A Glasgow Derby without a shot on target was ignored, four successive home defeats were ignored, an 8-2 defeat to the reserves and back-up of Sparta Prague was ignored. A 2-0 home defeat in the Betfred Cup to Ross County was ignored. Within a month the Dingwall side binned their manager and survived on the final day of the season.
Chelsea binned a club legend in January and lifted the Champions League trophy four months later.
Multiple signs were ignored by the Celtic board. The more fans complained on Social Media the more the club hierarchy dug in.
We witnessed a manger quite clearly losing control. But we then watched in disbelief as those running the club failed to sack him, failed to see the anger amongst the support as a result and then humiliated the club further in their jaw droppingly poor attempts to find a replacement – so bad that Chris White might have sniggered, “I was never that bad”.
With regards to Neil Lennon, I’m not going over old ground. At the very latest he should have been fired at the start of November. When Desmond talks about people being disingenuous about this season, he is half right as nobody predicted things would get this bad.
Losing 10-in-a-row by a landslide was bad but it could be argued that worse was still to come. After two months of having their media messengers explain that the club was relaxed about the appointment of Eddie Howe they then published a statement confirming their incompetence.
While Ross County and Chelsea quickly turned to manager’s that knew the terrain and the challenges ahead Celtic went to Japan for a solution. A 55-year-old whose only European management experience was more than a decade earlier in the Greek Third Division. A manager with no ambition to get the UEFA Pro Coaching Licence to open the door to the heart-beat of club football.
However just as you think things can’t get any worse, the board sink lower than the Mariana Trench. The Eddie Howe debacle just leaves you numb. How on earth did we accept a verbal agreement from the guy and then spend more than two months assuming that he’s good as his word without anything in writing. The failure to get something down on a piece of paper and for the deal to then collapse is amateurish. Hold on a second, actually I think that’s unfair, I don’t think Queens Park (prior to 2019) would behave in such an unprofessional manner. And then Celtic release a statement about Howe which is even worse than Lawwell’s Dubai interview. Dermott Desmond conducted business in a way that would embarrass a contestant dismissed in the early rounds of the Apprentice
Oh, and there was Dubai as well. Companies can pay fortunes to consultants to review the way they operate and suggest corrections. Dom McKay is fortunate to have folk like Critical Bill looking over events at Celtic. Whether he picks up the issues or appeals to ‘real fans’ and the Celtic Family to trust the folk that presided over the disaster of 20/21 is up to the soon to be installed CEO.
Critical Bill has carried out exactly the sort of job that Celtic’s non-executive Directors should be doing but it seems that Brian Wilson and chums have more important issues to deal with.
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