Celtic in good hands? Sky Sports pundit demolishes Chairman Bankier’s myth
Davie Provan has taken the Celtic board to task with Ian Bankier as his main target.
In midweek the Celtic Chairman glossed over a year of miserable failure, signing off with a claim to shareholders that Celtic are in good hands!
Not many Season Ticket holders will agree with that sentiment after the trophies were removed one by one with the club rapidly becoming a laughing stock across the continent.
As chairman for a decade Bankier allowed Peter Lawwell’s Balance Sheet style of leadership to dominate the club with his successor quitting the club after 72 days in charge.
New ‘manager’ Ange Postecoglou was sent into the Champions League with just Liel Abada added to last season’s squad with the Australian still to bring in a coach or assistant of his own.
The Roll of Dishonour is never ending; Celtic haven’t won away from home in Scotland since February with three empty seats filling the bench in Seville when they faced Real Betis.
In Bankier’s world everything is running well but in The Sun Provan took the hoops chairman to task:
The Hoops chair also said: “Over the transfer window we successfully accomplished a major overhaul of our playing squad.”
Successfully? Was he watching the game at Livingston last weekend? Would he even know a proper Celtic team if he saw one?
An hour in at the Tony Macaroni Arena, with Celts creating nothing, Ange Postecoglou should have been able to turn to his bench. He didn’t even have a striker to call on. No disrespect to his subs, but there wasn’t a game-changer there.
Postecoglou has been forced to play youngsters who are not ready for regular first-team football. In the absence of Kyogo Furuhashi, he doesn’t have one striker of quality.
When Boli Bolingoli is back on the teamsheet, it smacks of desperation. Bankier’s assessment of the board’s performance took the biscuit.
Looking to the future, he said: “Celtic is in good hands. We look forward to the season with measured confidence in both our footballing prospects and our business model.”
Celtic is in good hands? With respect, Mr Chairman, that’s for supporters to decide. The club now finds itself a poor second to Rangers and making up the numbers in the Europa League.
That sort of decline cost Celtic the services of Brendan Rodgers, who recognised it was time to get out.
The energy that Desmond brought to the club after Fergus McCann left is missing. And his appearances at Celtic Park are now rare.
With no sign of Celts getting that golden ticket to the English Premier League, is his heart still in it? Either way, if this board was running Barcelona they’d be out at the next election.
In the meantime, Hoops punters are praying Postecoglou can perform the miracle that would land the title this season and a £40m Champions League bounty.
With Rangers already putting daylight between the pair, the Aussie is behind the eight ball. He has Bankier and his board to thank for that.
After generating another surplus from the summer transfer window and selling out Season Tickets following a charm offensive led by Postecglou and Dom McKay it seems like the celebrations around Celtic Park are confined to the dressing room.