Stephen McGowan has a bleak message for Celtic malcontents- Dermot Desmond isn’t for budging.
It is 15 years since the Irish businessman found time in his schedule to attend an AGM, on Wednesday his son Ross turned up without saying a word, just like in 2019.
Chairman Ian Bankier was called out on a number of issues with no trophies on show and the club’s credibility in Europe nose-diving.
Two Champions League appearances in eight seasons tell the tale of a club in decline with the only real asset filling the stands and offering their 100% backing to Ange Postecoglou and his players. As Bankier introduced the board members to shareholders they were greeted with silence.
Saturday’s Daily Mail.
Bankier and Brian Wilson lost the show of hands vote in the room for re-election, fortunately they could call on the block vote through proxies from Desmond to retain their places on the gravy train. And there lies the problem for disaffected fans.
For one meeting a year, for one hour of that one meeting they can voice their displeasure but ultimately a man that barely turns up for a match is happy with the status quo as Celtic slide backwards- spectacularly so since the highs of 2016-18 when Brendan Rodgers raised the bar from the soul-destroying Ronny Deila days.
Listen the fans let them away with it every fckn year. They never learn. Money matters to these clown so dont give them it.But hey it’s always groundhog day? Need fan representation on that board.
Desmond is driven only by money he is not a football man,its just a business to him he thought he could get celtic into the epl with the bigots but that got #ucked up with their big problems well before 2012 with Murray trying to sell the basket case sky would not go along with bigots near bankrupt so that big pot Desmond thought he was going to cash in came to nothing.so we are stuck with him at present till someone comes in to buy him out but can’t see this happening anytime soon and fans will still back the club buying st etc.
Fans have the power to get rid of him by not buying st and all other things but that would cause so much serious harm to celtic its not going to happen it looks like we are back to the Kelly and white days .
He would be shifted if the fans got together and decided not to pay into the club: season tickets; merchandise; attending games etc. That would drive the share price down. If fans put there money into a pot the amount in the pot would quickly meet the cost of shares. Fan takeover. Not sure if we’re at that point yet but the fans need to get together in the first place to make the board acutely aware that the power is actually in our hands, reluctant as we are to wield it. The fan group(s) should work like a union, putting pressure on the club to appease us or at least be transparent about the decisions they make. We could force them to run the club the way we want it to be run, rather than the way it makes them most money.
1. Great football team
2. Charity
3. No old firm
4. Standing up to the Powers That Be etc
Desmond has made millions with his investments in celtic his £4 million in 1995 by 2001 when we joined the stock exchange made him £12 million on his investment he then bought bought more millions of shares i think he owns about 35% of the shares no wonder he won’t sell still making millions doing #uck all money making money thats how celtic is just a business to him a nice cash cow and his convertible shares don’t know how many he has now but earn him 6% dividend per year .