Charlie Nicholas has painted a brutal picture of how Celtic have been run for more than a decade.
Dom McKay’s sudden exit has thrown a spotlight on how the club operates with claim about personal reasons behind his departure virtually dismissed as quickly as it was put out.
Overnight the outgoing CEO was subjected to fierce criticism from selected media outlets who were slow to slam his predecessor or the board of directors that recruited McKay while watching last season’s car crash unfold without taking any action.
Lurking in the background has been Peter Lawwell. He may have slipped out of the building at the end of June but his appointments are all in place after a 17 year reign that saw his own salary rocket from £ 248,941 to £3.5m.
Sadly during the Lawwell years Celtic’s turnover barely budged from £69m in 2004 to £83.4m in 2019.
All of the heads of Departments at the club were appointed by Lawwell including Michael Nicholson who took on the role of acting CEO on Friday.
Taking the club in a new direction didn’t work out well for McKay with Nicholas explaining that the Lawwell/Dermot Desmond double act runs deep through the club.
Picking up on his Daily Express column, the Daily Record reports Nicholas saying:
Some of the comments from pundits have been ridiculously over the top but that’s because a lot of those people don’t understand the fabric of Celtic. For years, the club has been run by an accountant and an owner who isn’t there very often.
They possess all the power and all the money. Even when Celtic floundered on the pitch last season, Rangers were still playing catch-up to their Old Firm rivals off it.
So I don’t see why McKay stepping down is a big issue in the grand scheme of things. What did people think he was going to do that was anything radically different to his predecessor Peter Lawwell?
Let’s tell it like it is. McKay was a glove puppet who had come in on Lawwell’s recommendation, and it was an appointment that majority shareholder Dermot Desmond was more than happy enough to go along with.
From what I have seen and heard, I don’t think McKay had much influence at all on key decisions at the club. If that wasn’t already apparent, then it should have been after Postecoglou’s telling weekend remarks of, ‘We have to be careful with the narrative of who brought me to the club’.
A dozen players were brought in by Celtic over the summer transfer window on McKay’s watch but does anyone really think he knew much about Kyogo Furuhashi or Cameron Carter-Vickers? Come on, this guy was previously involved with Scottish Rugby.
Since Friday’s statement there has been no on the record comment from Celtic, acting CEO Nicholson hasn’t said a word out with the statement.
